Peabody Plaza

Hastings Architecture, which has been named one of the top three firms in the country by Architect Magazine, has once again received national honors for Nashville-area projects.

Peabody Plaza, Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Fine Arts Center and Virgin Hotels Nashville all received 2023 American Architecture Awards – the nation’s longest-running and most comprehensive architecture honors. The awards are presented by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design along with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and honor the nation’s best new buildings, landscape architecture and urban planning projects.

Peabody Plaza, a nine-story, 280,000-square-foot Class-A office building developed by Nashville-based Eakin Partners, received a 2023 American Architecture Award for strategic design in the ‘parks’ category. In addition to office and retail space, Peabody Plaza includes a 37,500-square-foot park and pedestrian promenade connecting SoBro and the Cumberland River Greenway, inciting the growth taking place at Rolling Mill Hill.

Christ Presbyterian Academy’s Fine Arts Center and Virgin Hotel Nashville both received honorable mentions.

Skanska takes home 2 Construction Awards

The Nashville area office of Skanska USA, one of the world’s leading construction and development firms, received two Excellence in Construction Eagle Awards, one of the industry’s top honors, at the 2023 Nashville-chapter Associated Builder and Contractors Awards.

The award recognizes contractors for world-class safe and innovative projects. Skanska won for its work building The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee headquarters and Clarksville’s F&M Bank Arena.

The 18,500-square-foot, two-story office building for the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee is a 99% mass timber building that connects Middle Tennessee’s leading charities to funding and nonprofit support. F&M Bank is a $104 million, 254,000-square-foot multipurpose event center in Clarksville that has become a new epicenter of entertainment and is sparking further surrounding development.

In addition, Skanska was awarded Diamond Level in Associated Builders and Contractors’ STEP Safety Management System for the third consecutive year.

Bradley moves to ONE 22 ONE space

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has completed its Nashville office relocation to ONE 22 ONE, situated at the corner of Broadway and 13th Avenue, and now occupies the top four floors of the 24-story high-rise building.

The firm announced that it signed a long-term lease in 2022 for the construction and development of 100,000 square feet of office space and completed its move to the new space in December.

ONE 22 ONE was developed by GBT Realty and boasts modern efficiencies, a prominent location and amenities including outdoor space for gatherings, multiple meeting spaces, a fitness center and retail space aimed at higher quality interaction and engagement among co-workers, clients and guests.

TN gas prices decrease 5 cents

Tennessee drivers saw another week of falling prices at the gas pump. Over last week, gas prices fell five cents, on average. The Tennessee Gas Price average is now $2.70 which is 14 cents less expensive than one month ago and 28 cents less than one year ago.

The national average for a gallon of gas dipped slightly by 4 cents since the previous week to $3.07. One reason could be lower demand, as fewer people are fueling up after the peak of holiday road travel. Gas demand nosedived from 9.17 to 7.95 million b/d last week, the Energy Information Administration reports.

Clock ticking for Haslam family to sell Pilot stake

Following the settlement of a lawsuit pitting Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam against fellow billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the clock is ticking for the Haslam family to decide whether to sell its remaining stake in the Pilot truck stop chain to Berkshire.

Attorneys told a Delaware judge last week that they were prepared for a two-day trial starting Monday in a high-stakes dispute over accounting practices at Pilot Travel Centers LLC. Late Saturday, however, the judge entered an order indicating that the trial had been canceled.

On Sunday, Haslam’s Pilot Corp. announced that the case, including Berkshire’s counterclaims against Pilot Corp., had been fully settled. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

With the dispute resolved, the Haslams must now decide whether to sell their remaining 20% stake in Pilot Travel Centers to Berkshire in line with a 2017 business deal. PTC, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a diversified fuel company that operates more than 650 travel centers, primarily under the names Pilot or Flying J, in 43 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces.

Berkshire purchased an initial 38.6% stake in PTC in 2017 for $2.76 billion. The two sides agreed at that time that Berkshire would take control of PTC by acquiring an additional 41.4% interest in January 2023. The price tag for that control purchase was roughly $8.2 billion.

The 2017 agreements also gave Pilot Corp. an annual 60-day opportunity, beginning Jan. 1 this year, to sell its remaining 20% interest in PTC to Berkshire. The sale price would be calculated using PTC’s earnings in the prior year.

With the first sale deadline approaching, however, the two sides accused each other of trying to manipulate the company’s financial records in order to affect the price Berkshire would have to pay for the Haslam family’s remaining 20% stake in the truck-stop chain.

Vanderbilt, GM team on safety seat education

The Stay Seat Smart Program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt recently received funding from General Motors to address child safety seat misuse through education, community outreach and media awareness.

Injuries and accidents have long been a leading cause of death for children in the United States. Motor vehicle collisions are one of the main contributors to those deaths.

In 2021, 82 Tennessee children died from an injury sustained during a car crash, putting the state’s fatality rate at 43.2% higher than the national average. More one-third of children who died from a crash in 2020 were not properly restrained. The Stay Seat Smart Program hopes to address the issue.

“The use of age- and size-appropriate car seats is imperative in keeping children safe,” says Emily Roberts, associate program manager, Stay Seat Smart, Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention at Monroe Carell.

The program uses a multipronged approach to reach the most vulnerable populations who would be targeted through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, Head Start programs, refugee groups and the public school system.

Through the Stay Seat Smart Program, the hospital hopes to reach more than 150 new and expectant mothers, caregivers, and families and 2,000 event participants through outreach events. These workshops/community events will be provided virtually as well as in person.

Asurion: 67% in US don’t feel tech savvy

A majority of U.S. consumers don’t feel proficient with tech, a new report by Asurion finds.

The tech care company’s inaugural Tech Lifestyle Report features insights from a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, covering everything from device ownership and purchase patterns to how certain devices make users feel.

The survey revealed that nearly two-thirds of consumers (66%) don’t consider themselves tech savvy, yet a majority of this group self-identified as their household’s primary tech decision maker. This gap not only emphasizes the need for consumer tech support, it begs the question: is smart tech’s evolution beginning to outpace consumers’ needs?

Asurion’s report revealed some surprising trends in tech ownership and future purchase plans:

• 93% of U.S. consumers own a smartphone, and they’re in no rush to upgrade. Just 5% said they are planning to replace or upgrade their smartphone in the next 12 months, indicating current models are adequately serving users’ needs.

• Around half of consumers own a smart speaker or voice assistant, with 7% planning to purchase one for the first time in the next year. Smart home security devices are not far behind, with around one-third of respondents owning one and another 14% planning to buy one for the first time this year.

• Smart TVs are the most-owned devices in the Entertainment category – 77% of respondents own one. VR/AR headsets are the least-owned (17%), but 8% are planning to buy one for the first time this year, meaning one in four consumers will own one.

Activity Stream, Project Admission partner

Activity Stream, a marketing platform for live entertainment, and Project Admission, a solution platform for buying, selling and distributing tickets for live events, have entered into a strategic partnership to further enhance their respective offerings for clients across the live event industry.

Activity Stream is a pioneer in data-driven solutions that increase profitability across every stage of the event life cycle, servicing over 600 clients globally across more than 25 ticketing platforms.

Project Admission, launched in 2018 and working with more than 50 professional sports teams across all the major North American sports leagues in addition to other key stakeholders in live entertainment, provides clients with unique monetizing features and opportunities around the life of the ticket, while also adding value and simplifying the commercialization of live events. Both companies have shared a period of sustained growth.

Electronic Express, RETISIO partner

RETISIO, a premier provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions, announced its new partnership with Electronic Express, a leader in top quality, name brand electronics, home appliances and mattresses.

Electronic Express is pressing forward with an aggressive strategy to grow its e-commerce business. To support and drive this continued growth, they have selected RETISIO as their technology platform partner. A big reason for that decision was their need for the agility and robustness of RETISIO’s solutions.

The move to RETISIO Commerce will deliver enhanced site performance and superior customer experiences for Electronic Express. The platform’s advanced technology leverages RETISIO’s powerful Reactive and Composable Commerce capabilities.