Proposed Publix grocery store in ChattanoogaWork begins on North Shore Publix
Demolition and site work for the planned North Shore Publix is under way, four months after it was originally scheduled to start.
Bulldozers and backhoes are tearing up trees, demolishing buildings and leveling ground at the site in the 300 and 400 blocks of North Market Street. The project is expected to be finished in 10 or 11 months and could be open by fourth quarter 2014. The store will span 4,800 square feet and include a 230-car parking lot.
GM to sell bonds for $4.5 billion
General Motors Corp. will sell $4.5 billion in bonds to reduce debts owed to union-run trusts that pay health care bills for the company's U.S. and Canadian retirees.
The company said Tuesday that it will spend $3.2 billion from the bond sale to buy 120 million shares of GM preferred stock from a U.S. trust that provides health care to retired members of the United Auto Workers union. The lower-interest bonds will replace a 9 percent annual dividend on the stock. GM is buying the U.S. trust's shares for $27 each, a $2 premium. After the sale closes, the U.S. trust still will hold 140 million preferred shares, which GM can buy back for $25 each at the end of next year. GM also will use $1.2 billion from the new bonds to pay off 7 percent notes, retiring the debt now held by a trust controlled by the Canadian Auto Workers union, now called Unifor.