Orion Gives Two Homes to Development Corp.

Orion Federal Credit Union has donated two vacant properties to the North Memphis Community Development Corp. The houses will be used to supply safe, affordable housing to low-income families.

Formerly called Memphis Area Teachers' Credit Union, Orion officially began operating under its new name in June. The change resulted from a vote by members to pursue a federal charter, and also because of leadership changes within the organization.

Weintraub to Lead Fisher & Phillips

Attorney Jeff Weintraub will be leading the new Memphis office of national labor and employment firm Fisher & Phillips LLP.

Fisher & Phillips is based in Atlanta but just expanded into Memphis and Boston. Initially, Fisher & Phillips will operate locally as "The Weintraub Firm P.C., a partner in Fisher & Phillips LLP." Joining the new office as a partner is Craig Cowart of Kiesewetter Wise Kaplan Prather.

Weintraub, most recently managing partner of Weintraub Stock, has been featured in The Best Lawyers in America, Mid-South Super Lawyers, and other directories of top attorneys. He practices in employment discrimination and harassment, wage/hour claims, immigration, and union-related cases.

Joseph W. Ambash will be leading the new Boston office of Fisher & Phillips. Founded in 1943, Fisher & Phillips now has 27 locations nationwide. It represents employers.

You may not have to pay back that mortgage, after all.

by Richard Banks, special to MBQ: Inside Memphis Business

This is poetic justice at its finest … and, perhaps, most calamitous. Banks and mortgage companies, like they’ve done to so many homeowners of late, may have finally screwed themselves through efforts to make more money from shady and honest mortgages, alike. And, again, they may just take the rest of us down with them.

Homeowners Win In Court
In the January 2012 issue of Harper’s, Christopher Ketcham details the efforts of individual homeowners and the National Homeowner’s Cooperative to sue banks, arguing, in short, the latter can’t prove they actually own the mortgage notes. While they have lost in several states, homeowners have, to the astonishment of many in the financial system, won in Massachusetts, Kansas, and Utah. Suits are pending in other states.

When victorious, residents of foreclosed homes have stopped the banks from taking their homes. Yet, even more surprising, a few people — who are up to date on their payments — have won cases in which they contend the banks that claim to own the title in question have no clear, legal record to it. As a result, these homeowners have been allowed to simply stop paying their mortgages. Really!?

MERS-Y
At the heart of these cases, is a service used by the banks known as the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). Created in 1995, it’s a privately held entity of major mortgage firms that basically manages and supposedly tracks the sale of mortgage loans between lenders. In the process, it also thwarts — perhaps innocently, certainly arrogantly, and possibly stupidly — the western world’s system of recording deeds in local recording offices.
The problem is not so much that MERS broke with tradition, but departed with what had been a sound, if not sometimes slow, means of tracking who owns a mortgage, or more to the point who is actually owed money. With so many companies buying, trading, swapping, flipping, and rolling mortgages in so many maze-like deals and packages during the recent housing bubble, proving who owns what has become all the more difficult anyway. Add an electronic system that apparently has gaps in the chain of swaps and, well, you get the picture.

Seed Hatchery Looking for Potential Startups

The Seed Hatchery at EmergeMemphis is extending its participation deadline to Jan. 7, encouraging technology entrepreneurs to engage in a 90-day startup bootcamp that begins on Jan. 28.

"We're here to create the jobs of tomorrow and build the technology around innovation," says Eric Mathews, Seed Hatchery's co-founder and partner.

An inaugural event last spring helped create 20 new firms and attracted 35 mentors. This time, 50 mentors will be available to give advice on how to hone ideas and make them into viable businesses. "They help you not take the lows too low and the highs too high," Mathews says. All 20 business founders from the last bootcamp are part of the latest stable of mentors.

Once all applications are in, Seed Hatchery will choose six candidates based on their growth potential and resilience. The bootcamp, which is held on evenings and weekends, is divided into three distinct phases. The first is a discovery phase in which market research takes place. The second is the delivery phase, in which entrepreneurs build their apps, websites, or other technologies with the help of programmers and developers. Next is the "dollars" phase, where participants can sell their ideas to investors.

If they're successful, bootcamp enrollees can gain access to $15,000 in startup funding with the promise to give up 10 percent of their founding equity or common stock. Three-percent goes toward bootcamp expenses, 3 percent goes toward financial help, and 4 percent is for access to mentoring. The ultimate goal is for these fledgling companies to incorporate in Tennessee.

"So, no, you don't have to pay to play, but, yes, we are investing in you," says Elizabeth Lemmonds, chief brand officer of LaunchYourCity Inc., the umbrella organization for Seed Hatchery, LaunchMemphis, and the soon-to-be Wolf River Angels, a group of startup investors launching in 2012.

Anyone interested in applying for the Seed Hatchery bootcamp should visit www.seedhatchery.com.

Larry Cox Named Chairman of Greater Memphis Chamber

By Lindsay Jones

Larry Cox, president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, has been named chair of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

The post has been vacant since Joseph DeVivo of Smith & Nephew stepped down as president of the company’s orthopedics division last summer and moved to the Northeast.

Cox will assume the chamber chairmanship on January 1st. He will serve a two-year term.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to continue the momentum that this chamber has built over the past few years,” Cox said in a news release.

He has presided over the airport authority for 26 years.

In other chamber news, the board has elected the following officers: Calvin Anderson, vice chairman; Terence Lewis, treasurer; and Arnold Perl, secretary and general consul.

[Photo by Larry Kuzniewski]

"Le Bonheur State of Mind"

By Greg Akers

Well, here's our favorite thing we've come across in a while. Le Bonheur Children's Hospital has put together a music video, to the tune of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' song "Empire State of Mind." With fresh lyrics about the hospital, rapped and sung and performed on camera by hospital employees, "Le Bonheur State of Mind" is a slice of pure charm and positive vibe.

MBQ interviewed Andrew M. Sullivan, Media Design Specialist at Le Bonheur and co-director of the video.

Before you do anything else, you should watch "Le Bonheur State of Mind."



MBQ: What role did you have in making the video?
Andrew M. Sullivan: I shot it and edited the video. Paula Dycus, administrative director of professional practice and research, and I split the director role. Paula's background is in nursing and administration, but she's got great instincts for video. I was amazed at how often she and I would walk away from a shoot with the same ideas of which were the best shots. That sounds like an insignificant thing, but it's rarer than you'd expect.

Visible School's Grand Opening Marks New Era Downtown

Ceremonial ribbon-cutting in the music college's auditorium.

by Lindsay Jones

When Ken Steorts got up to deliver his address during this morning's ribbon-cutting for the Visible Music College downtown, his thoughts turned to the school's evolution.

The founder and president talked about how it all began in 2000 in an old catfish restaurant in Lakeland, and then its next stop at a historic church in the Cooper-Young area. And then, finally, to the school's new digs in the wedge-shaped building at 200 Madison Ave. once owned by the Greater Memphis Chamber, and before that, C&I Bank.

"It's not finished, but we're excited to be here as a college," he said.

The basement, complete with an old vault, is still under construction. But floors 1-4 are replete with the modern touches of archimania and builder Grinder, Taber & Grinder.

"The Visible School is a wonderful, wonderful reminder of how important Memphis is to music, whatever the genre," said Bobby White, chief of staff for Mayor A C Wharton.

Added U.S. Representative Steve Cohen: "Having a school downtown, to me, is just marvelous."

Cohen recalled his days at Main and Monroe, buzzing around his grandfather's newsstand, and the changes to the area since then. He set the Visible College's arrival in context with other recent additions to downtown, such as the University of Memphis' Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and Memphis College of Art's graduate program.

Electrolux Ground-Breaking Marks Factory's First Phase in Memphis

by Lindsay Jones

Anyone who’s anyone attended today’s ground-breaking ceremony for the multimillion-dollar Electrolux plant that’s slated to begin production in the Frank C. Pigeon Industrial Park south of downtown Memphis, although the opening date is still undetermined.

“This is the largest private-public partnership that I’ve ever seen,” said City Council chairman Myron Lowery, citing the millions in local, state, and other economic incentives it took to lure the appliance maker to Memphis and Shelby County.

Once production begins at the $190 million factory, an estimated 1,200 jobs will be added to the local economy. About 1,240 are expected to be added within five years of production.

On Occupation

by Greg Akers

Last weekend I was on assignment in New York City for a story I’m doing for MBQ’s sister publication, Memphis magazine.

I had my Saturday free to explore the city. Before my trip, I asked friends and Twitter pals what I should do with my free time. The prevailing opinion was to just walk and see — and eat pizza.

Al Bell Links Music, Economic Development

by Lindsay Jones

In the rousing tones of a Baptist minister, Al Bell, chairman of the Memphis Music Foundation board and former head of Stax and Motown records, urged members of the Financial Executives International to become more involved in supporting Memphis music. He spoke at a dinner the group held Tuesday night at The Crescent Club. 

“Think of Memphis music for economic wealth, economic empowerment, and economic development,” Bell said, further pointing out, “It is right in your face.”

To drive his message home, Bell recounted his days as a Stax leader, when the label was in its prime and pumping out more hits and phenom artists than you could shake a stick at: Mavis Staples, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye; the list is a long one. “The hits coming from Stax were unprecedented.”