The Clarion Partners Real Estate Income Fund Inc. has closed on its first investment, an $18 million structured debt investment to Buckingham Companies for the recapitalization of Aertson Midtown.

Aertson is a newly constructed, best-in-class property in the heart of Nashville’s Midtown/West End neighborhood.

The property features 350 Class A apartment units, more than 31,000 square feet retail space and a 180-room luxury hotel – the first in Nashville under the Kimpton flag.

Buckingham Companies, based in Indianapolis owns or manages a portfolio of nearly $2 billion of real estate for its own account, third-party owners and institutional partners, and specializes in the development, acquisition, renovation and asset management of a wide range of properties.

“We’re pleased to invest in one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic cities in the U.S. The property’s location near Vanderbilt University, four major hospitals and multiple office towers makes it a very strategic site for this kind of mixed-use development,” says Onay Payne, Managing Director of Clarion Partners.

Metro Water proposes 1st rate increase since 2011

Metro Water Services has submitted final recommendations for proposed rate increases to the state.

The revisions are based on the comprehensive “Water and Sewer Financial Planning and Cost of Service Evaluation’’ which was first submitted to the mayor and the state in August.

The recommendations are based on review and comments as outlined in the study.

Nashville’s last water and sewer rate increase was in 2011. Before that increase, MWS had not raised water and sewer rates for 13 years. In the past 10 years, operating costs have increased 30% and capital needs for maintenance and upgrades have increased as well.

A rate adjustment was recommended in 2016, with a proposed implementation of Fiscal Year 2017 and when these rates were not implemented, MWS was forced to scale back on capital activities.

MWS will file new rate structure legislation that incorporates needed water and sewer rate increases for both residential and non-residential customers with the Metro Council on Nov. 5. The proposed rate structure is cost-of-service based, encourages wise water use and conservation, and provides for affordable drinking water for essential residential use.

Churchill Mortgage expands to Georgia

Brentwood-based Churchill Mortgage is expanding with a new operation including a new location in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Churchill’s Southeast expansion will offer the resources and tools necessary for homebuyers to find their home in a competitive housing market. Phillip Sizemore will lead Churchill’s expansion efforts as regional manager of the Southeast. Sizemore brings more than 20 years of financial experience to the position.

“With the opportunities in the Southeast’s housing market, it was a natural step for Churchill to expand operations to this region,” says Matt Clarke, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Churchill Mortgage. “Phillip’s passion for helping homebuyers combined with our real estate and industry partners will help this region see significant success as borrowers achieve their dreams of homeownership.”

Cybera, Toshiba ink deal as SD-WAN partners

Cybera, based in Franklin, has announced a new partnership with Toshiba, the global leader in retail store technology.

Cybera is a SD-WAN Edge applications and security services firm, and the partnership will extend the capabilities of the Toshiba TCx Elevate digital commerce platform to the cloud.

Toshiba’s customers include many of the world’s largest and most successful retail brands, all of which need to innovate rapidly and continually deploy new capabilities to satisfy rising customer expectations.

This agreement promotes Cybera as the preferred Toshiba SD-WAN partner for Asia Pacific. The partnership also addresses the future growth in the retail cloud market, where Toshiba will utilize the CyberaONE Solution, the Cybera cloud-based managed application network and security services platform, to deliver TCxElevate securely and virtually from the cloud.

The CyberaONE Solution delivers everything Toshiba will need to securely connect to the cloud, including embedded security, dynamic routing for business-critical applications, and integrated wireless failover capabilities.

Tivity adds SilverSneakers to wellness network

Franklin-based Tivity Health, a provider of health improvement solutions, will offer SilverSneakers members access to more than 16,000 fitness locations nationwide.

The offer also includes a variety of programming options in the gym and online as well as activities that promote social connections in 2020.

As the leading fitness program for older adults and a proven social engagement tool, SilverSneakers is provided to members of participating health plans at no additional cost. In a national survey of more than 3,000 members of a Medicare Advantage plan, SilverSneakers members experienced better health through increased physical activity, reduced social isolation and reduced loneliness.

SilverSneakers is available through participating health plans, and Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement members. Eight additional plans will begin offering SilverSneakers in 2020.

“At Tivity Health, we’re leveraging our decades of experience with seniors to help improve their quality of life by addressing non-medical drivers of health,” says Steve Janicak, President, Healthcare Business Unit. “We continually work with health plan partners, participating locations and members themselves to create unique programming and expand our impact to provide best-in-class resources to improve seniors’ health and social well-being.”

For 2020, Tivity Health is providing a mix of benefits for SilverSneakers members: new class offerings and flexibility, online instruction for fitness and well-being, mobile access to classes and expanded social engagement tools.

Study good news for Cumberland drug

Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Nashville-based specialty pharmaceutical company, says a new article shows numerically superior cure rates of telavancin compared to vancomycin within a subset of patients who were enrolled in phase 3 ATTAIN trials and had hospital-acquired pneumonia caused by bacteria with low susceptibility to vancomycin.

The story appears in in Infectious Diseases and Therapy.

Cumberland manufactures and distributes telavancin under the brand name Vibativ.

Vibativ is a patented, FDA approved anti-infective for the treatment of certain serious bacterial infections including hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia. It is also approved for complicated skin and skin structure infections.

It addresses a range of gram-positive bacterial pathogens, including those that are considered difficult-to-treat and multidrug-resistant.

The study was led by Michael S. Niederman, M.D. at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

MPK rebrands as Neon Media Group

MPK Interactive, a Nashville-based video production company, is rebranding as Neon Media Group.

The rebranded company offers full-service production that specializes in dynamic storytelling as well as engaging and entertaining short-form video content.

MPK Interactive was founded by Mike King in 2017, after many years and successes in the video production industry.

Over the last two years, video has become a must-have component of digital marketing campaigns; in both enterprise-sized accounts as well as in the SMB marketplace. At the same time, the local Nashville economy has expanded rapidly and presented tremendous growth opportunities for MPK Interactive and the customer segments it serves.

In mid-2018, MPK Interactive took on a strategic investment by longtime health care marketing executive Russ Gannon. David Webb, an investor and operations-focused executive, also became a minority owner and serves as a fractional executive focused on finance and growth enablement. Since late 2018, Neon Media Group has added 12 new team members focused on delivering highly produced, compelling video content to its customers.

“Our roots as MPK Interactive run deep in Nashville’s health care scene, but in recent years our clients have become more diverse and geographically spread across the United States,” says King, who previously founded several healthcare-focused digital media companies.

House Beautiful shows off Whole Home

House Beautiful has announced its 2019 Whole Home Concept House is open in Belle Meade.

The 6,201-square-foot home was built with Castle Homes and Wellness Within Your Walls, which promotes health and sustainability in home design, and incorporates certified asthma and allergy friendly appliances from LG Electronics.

Fifteen designers from around the country were tasked with creating spaces in which every design element has a purpose, and every room evokes a feeling. The full reveal will be featured in the November issue of House Beautiful.

The House Beautiful Whole Home Concept House will be open to the public through Nov. 3, and proceeds will benefit the Nashville Symphony.

Jimmy Kelly’s, Maggiano’s make list

OpenTable, the provider of online restaurant reservations and part of Booking Holdings, Inc., names two Nashville restaurants on its first-ever 50 Best Restaurants for a Date in American list.

Featuring restaurants in 21 states and Washington, D.C., Illinois, Nevada and Texas are tied for the most honored state with six restaurants featured on the list each.

Nashville’s Jimmy Kelly’s Restaurant and Maggiano’s made the list.

The listing is generated solely from diner reviews collected between Sept. 1, 2018, and Aug. 31, 2019.

Goodwill opens outlet store in Cockrill Bend

Goodwill has opened a new outlet store selling clothing, textiles, accessories, shoes and most home goods for $1.09 per pound.

The 13,900-square-foot store is at 7237 Cockrill Bend Blvd, about 15 minutes west of downtown.

The facility sells books at 59 cents per pound. Furniture and other large items are individually priced.

The sales floor holds about 55 bins filled with merchandise at any one time. The bins are rotated out with ones holding fresh merchandise at least three times per day.

Hours at the new store are 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.