Southern Light LLC, a locally owned, regional provider of broadband solutions, has signed a lease to occupy seven floors in the RSA Trustmark Building. The move into the 47,000-square-foot space will consolidate operations for the company into downtown Mobile. Construction will be completed in the 4th quarter of 2015.

Southern Light, named by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. for the past eight consecutive years, has already moved portions of their business into the RSA Tower until their permanent space is finished.
Allan Cameron of NAI-Mobile represented Southern Light in the lease negotiations. John Peebles with NAI-Mobile handled the transaction.

Reli Title Company has joined the co-working space at Gallery 450 located downtown alongside LA Fotographee, Crush Imaging Studios and Port City Realty according to Julie Martin, president/broker of Port City Realty. The 3,400-square-foot, open-air office space was created for local start-up businesses and creative freelancers. It is also reflective of a nationwide trend towards shared metropolitan urban workspace environments.

John Delchamps, associate broker with the Merrill P. Thomas Co. Inc., represented an investor purchasing a 12,000-square-foot bank-owned office and warehouse space at 1909 Brookdale Drive W. for $175,000. Robert Cook of Vallas Realty worked for the seller. Naman’s Catering currently leases the property.

The 103,273-square-foot Tillman’s Square shopping center located at 5441 U.S. Highway 90 W. in Tillman’s Corner sold for $3.3 million dollars to a Louisiana-based investor. David Dexter of NAI-Mobile handled the transaction. NAI-Mobile will also be retained as the leasing agent for the new owner.

The 12-story Commerce Building located at 118 N. Royal St. in downtown Mobile recently sold for $1.1 million. The 94,500-square-foot office building will be primarily occupied by the corporate offices of Cooper/T.Smith Stevedoring. The Mobile-based company is one of the oldest and largest maritime related firms in the country with operations on all three U.S. coasts and foreign operations in Central and South America.

The sellers were a group of New York and Mobile investors represented by Mike McAleer of The McAleer Tunstall Co., LLC. The buyers were a collection of Mobile investors represented by Richard Inge and Steven McMahon of Inge and Associates.

Plans are in place to build a new Zaxby’s restaurant on a 1.10-acre plot of property in west Mobile. The land is located at 6575 Airport Blvd., fronting a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. Ralph Neal of Watson Reality represented the buyer, who paid $814,750 for the transaction. Jay O’Brien of J.L. O’Brien & Associates worked for the seller.

Supercuts franchise celebrates 15th anniversary

One of Mobile’s oldest locally owned Supercuts franchises, located in the Cottage Crest Shopping Center at 6345 Cottage Hill Road, recently celebrated its 15 year anniversary.

According to a press release, franchisees Gerd Ewert and Lisa Taylor have been hiring and training local staff and stylists since opening in 1999. Ongoing training allows Supercuts stylists to stay current on the most recent hairstyle trends so they can help customers with choices. Services include haircuts, as well as styling, hair coloring and facial waxing options.

To date, there are over 2,400 Supercuts stores dotted across the country. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1975, by Geoffrey M. Rappaport and Frank E. Emmett.

Currently headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it is a subsidiary of Regis, which also owns Regis Salons, Mia & Maxx, MasterCuts, Cost Cutters, SmartStyle, and First Choice Haircutters in the United States and Canada.

Bitcoin endorsed by Microsoft

Flying in the face of an Alabama Securities Commission announcement back in November flagging bitcoin on its list of top investor risks for 2015 due to its potential for illegal security collusion and market volatility, global conglomerate Microsoft announced plans to add bitcoin as a payment option for a variety of digital content purchases across its online platforms.

In essence, U.S.-based customers can use bitcoin to add money to their online accounts to buy goods from Microsoft’s Windows, Windows phone and Xbox platforms.

“The use of bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond early enthusiasts. We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services allows us to be at the front edge of that trend,” Microsoft corporate Vice President Eric Lockard said.

“This as a very positive development for the bitcoin market. Microsoft is a very influential company, and its acceptance will spur wider adoption of bitcoin across the greater tech sector,” Michael Ray, owner of local bitcoin merchant payment processor DixieBit said.

“Furthermore, I can only expect that Microsoft will contribute to the build-out of bitcoin’s infrastructure. The presence of such a large and influential player in this space will spur further development of this infrastructure by other companies in the tech sector of the economy. Obviously I’m very excited about the announcement.”

Baldwin Bone & Joint hosting “Many More Miles” campaign

For the 12th consecutive year, Baldwin Bone & Joint, P.C. will again host the “Many More Miles” campaign community project. They are partnering with the Mobile and Baldwin county YMCA branches, Port City Pacers, the University of South Alabama Student Recreation Center and McCoy Outdoor Company. The effort is done in collaboration with the homeless outreach Wings of Life program and Discovery Family Ministries’ Through the Dove Foundation, headquartered in Mobile.

Response to the campaign has grown since its inception from 200 pairs of shoes donated in 2003 to roughly 1,400 pairs given in 2014. With the kickoff beginning early January of every year, donations for 2015 are now being accepted, with final shoe drop-offs received at the 2015 Azalea Trail Run March 28.

Mobile and Baldwin County elementary students will also once again have the opportunity to collect shoes and earn money for their schools’ physical education programs. Baldwin Bone & Joint will award cash prizes to individual programs for the top three schools donating the most shoes.

Gently used athletic shoes can be dropped at the following locations: Baldwin Bone and Joint -1505 Daphne Ave., Daphne; YMCA facilities in Mobile and Daphne; Dr. Glenn Glass, Daphne; McCoy Outdoor Company – 3498 Springhill Ave., Mobile and The University of South Alabama Student Recreation Center.