Greer’s acquires Food Champs in midtown

Greer’s recently acquired the 43,000-square-foot Food Champs store located at 3170 Dauphin St., giving the 99-year-old, locally owned grocery chain a total of 32 stores in the area with a 33rd under development in Quitman, Miss., under their Ace Express store label.

“This location was once a Delchamps. Our District Manager, Bill Fairchild, who is now over the store, also managed it for a time in that incarnation,” Jan Greer Endfinger, director of human resources and marketing, said.

“We reopened for customers on Friday, March 13 and were pleased to be able to hire all Food Champ Associates that wanted to join our Greer’s team,” Endfinger said. “George Fowler, who has successfully operated two of our other locations, is our store director. His co-manager is Joe Price and the assistant manager is Keith Griffis. Meat Market Manager Terry Crow assures us that he and his team will be available every day to take care of customers. All of these hires have numerous years of grocery chain experience.”  

Commercial real estate moves
The historic 10,000-square-foot St. Francis Methodist Church located in LoDa was recently purchased by Clifton and Ginna Inge of Mobile.

“The original church was built in 1842 but was damaged by an ammunition explosion that destroyed most of downtown. The congregation razed the church in 1890 and rebuilt it in 1895,” Clifton Inge said, noting future plans for the property include its conversion into a wedding and music venue.

Currently, the structure is in “Phase 1” of renovations, which involves stabilization of the foundation as well as repairing the church steeple, stained glass windows, bathrooms and elevators.

“The stabilization phase will cost roughly $300,000. Phase 2 will initiate the work for what we anticipate will be a wedding/music venue and general space for lease. This will also include a development phase for the 8,500-square-foot office space at 15 Joachim St., which could be an incubator kitchen similar to Union Market in Washington DC,” Inge said.

Chicken Salad Chick recently leased a 2,600-square-foot space at the 8,800-square-foot South Landing Shopping Center located directly across from the University of South Alabama on Old Shell Road. The eatery, slated to open in early fall with a drive-through, will be the third launched by franchise owner Misty McClure, who also owns locales on U.S. Highway 98 in Daphne and Hillcrest Road.    

Sam Winter recently moved his real estate office to 660 Springhill Ave. at the intersection of Springhill Avenue and Dauphin Street. Jeremy Milling of Milling Commercial Realty handled the lease of the 1,300-square-foot office space which was the former home of Thomas Roofing Building.

Arkema, a worldwide producer of industrial chemicals with a plant located at 13755 U.S. Highway 43 in Axis, announced plans to spend $60 million to build a new Alabama facility that produces Kepstan, a product used in 3D printing and carbon fiber applications.

The capital investment is projected to generate roughly 25 news jobs in the area with an average salary of $100,000. The estimated wrap-up date for upgrades is 2018.

John Delchamps with the Merrill P. Thomas Co. Inc. leased an 11,000-square-foot office and warehouse space at 1909 Brookdale Drive W. to Alabama Electric Motor Services.

The Mobile County Public School System broke ground last Tuesday on Fournier-Chastang K-8 School, a new facility in the Trinity Gardens community that will front I-65. The 93,770-square-foot facility will include 27 classrooms, science, vocational and computer labs, a gym and a 6,633-square-foot tornado shelter.

DK-Lok recently leased a 3,500-square-foot space at 161 Beltline Highway. DK-Lok is locating its corporate offices at this location. The company sells instrumentation fittings and valves. Robert Cook with Vallas Realty handled the transaction.

Goodwill Easter Seals recently announced the grand opening of its new facility at 300 Azalea Road. The organization renovated its 33,000-square-foot facility to house an expanded retail store, a covered drive-through donation center and community center.

WSC’s Moyer named “Safety Leader of the Year”
The Mobile section of the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Alabama named White-Spunner Construction’s (WSC) safety and compliance manager, Ross Moyer, “2014 Safety Leader of the Year” at its 13th annual Construction Safety Excellence Awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 11 at the Mobile Country Club.

“I am truly honored to receive this award,” Moyer said. “I can manage and implement all the new procedures I want, but it wouldn’t mean anything without a shared commitment to safety from each of our employees at WSC.”

The company was also presented with a Construction Safety Excellence Award in the Building Division for maintaining an excellent safety record throughout 2014. WSC finished the year with more than 127,000 hours worked without a lost-time incident or OSHA violation, bringing the company’s overall total to 2.25 million consecutive safe hours worked.

Wilkins Miller’s Jones earns CFF designation
Amanda Jones, CPA/CFF, a Senior Accountant with Wilkins Miller, has recently been awarded the Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) Credential by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Including Jones, Wilkins Miller now has five professionals who are CFFs.

In 2012, Jones graduated from the University of South Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in accounting. She was the President of the University of South Alabama chapter of Beta Alpha Psi and served as an accounting intern for Wilkins Miller in 2012. Jones’ concentration at the firm is in taxation of individuals, partnerships and corporations, financial analysis and litigation services.

The CFF Credential is granted exclusively to CPAs who are members in good standing of the AICPA, which binds them to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct.