Montgomery Business Journal – November December 2012

Contents

6 Calendar

26 38

8 22

8

Q&A with ASU president Joseph Silver

16

Regional medical school coming to Montgomery

19

Reporter’s Notebook

22

Investor Profile: Beasley, Allen, Crowe, Methvin, Portis, and Miles, PC

26

Chamber’s 60 Minute Coffees and Business After Hours are great places to meet, greet, and do business

29

Guest Commentary by Ken Peavy

31

Montgomery business leaders remain optimistic

32

EMERGE Montgomery comes of age

38

Member Profile: Neptune Technology Group Inc.

40

Atlanta Highway proposals will transform busy corridor

44

Copperwing Design pursues excellence

47

Frazers purchase Bypass Building

49

Business Buzz

56

Members on the Move

58

New Members

59

Ribbon Cuttings & Ground Breakings

60

Economic Intel

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

3

THE NUMBER ONE BUSINESS SOURCE FOR MONTGOMERY AND THE RIVER REGION PUBLISHER

Randall L. George Executive Editor

Tina McManama Managing Editor

David Zaslawsky COPY EDITOR

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Montgomery Business Journal c/o Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Post Office Box 79 41 Commerce Street Montgomery, Alabama 36101 Telephone: 334-834-5200 Fax: 334-265-4745 Email: mbj@montgomerychamber.com www.montgomerychamber.com/mbj The Montgomery Business Journal (USPS NO. 025553) is published monthly except for the combined issues of June/July/August and November/December, by the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, 41 Commerce Street, Montgomery AL 36104, (334) 834-5200, www.montgomerychamber.com. Subscription rate is $30 annually. Periodicals Postage Paid at Montgomery Alabama, 36119+9998, USPS NO. 025553. Volume 4, Issue 9.

POSTMASTER send address changes to Montgomery Business Journal, c/o Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 79, 41 Commerce Street, Montgomery AL 36101, or email mbj@montgomerychamber.com. The Montgomery Business Journal welcomes story ideas from its readers. Email to: editor@montgomerychamber.com. Subscriptions are a part of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce dues structure. Subscriptions can also be purchased for $30 per year at www.montgomerychamber.com/mbjsub.

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

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Calendar Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Events

DECEMBER

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FREEDOM ISN’T FREE! MILITARY APPRECIATION INITIATIVE Sunday, November 11 – Saturday, November 17

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS Sponsored by Alabama Ag Credit 5 PM @ The MOOseum in the Cattleman’s building 201 South Bainbridge Street, Montgomery Free event, exclusively for Chamber Members

BUSINESS PLANNING SEMINAR 4 PM @ Small Business Resource Center 600 South Court Street, Montgomery $10 at the door

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

17

BUSINESS PLANNING SEMINAR 4 PM @ Small Business Resource Center 600 South Court Street, Montgomery $10 at the door

CHAMBER ORIENTATION Sponsored by Montgomery CPA Associates, LLC 8 AM @ Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce 41 Commerce Street, Montgomery Registration: 240-9428

60 MINUTE COFFEE Sponsored by Henig Furs 8 AM @ Henig Furs 4135 Carmichael Road, Montgomery Free event, exclusively for Chamber Members

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS Sponsored by Charlotte’s Jewelry 5 PM @ Charlotte’s Jewelry 8161 Vaughn Road, Montgomery Free event, exclusively for Chamber Members

BUSINESS PLANNING SEMINAR 4 PM @ Small Business Resource Center 600 South Court Street, Montgomery $10 at the door

140th

MONTGOMERY AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

ANNUAL MEETING AND RECEPTION

Chairman of the Board of Directors C. Lee Ellis cordially invites you to

PRESENTING SPONSOR

THE MEET and GREET of THE YEAR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012 The meeting will begin promptly at 5:30 p.m.

GOLD SPONSORS

MONTGOMERY PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE 201 Tallapoosa Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36104 A Reception will follow in the Alabama Ball Room of the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center $75 - Individual Ticket (Member) $95 - Individual Ticket (Non-Member) REGISTER BY DECEMBER 4 www.montgomerychamber.com/annualmeeting

Alfa Companies Aronov Realty Management Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. The Colonial Company

Fouts Commercial Photography

Joseph H. Silver Sr. became the 13th president at Alabama State University in midSeptember. He was recently interviewed by Montgomery Business Journal Managing Editor David Zaslawsky.

Montgomery Business Journal: What are your responsibilities as president of ASU? Silver: As president of the university it is my responsibility for running the entire university, but also setting the vision and protecting the mission in concert with the faculty, staff, students, our alumni and all of our business communities.

MBJ: It sounds very straightforward, but there are a lot of moving parts.

Joseph H. Silver Sr. is the new president at Alabama State University.

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET Q & A with JOSEPH H. SILVER

Silver: There really are. When you look at a college or university – what you really have is a mini city and everything that goes on outside of these gates also occurs on the inside of these gates. We have a police force in the community. We have one here. They have a mayor in the city. We have a president here. We have folks in charge of economic development in the city. We have a person here in charge of university relations and economic development; finance and Student Affairs. While we are an educational enterprise, we are in the business of education. With that, our job is to manage and be good stewards of the resources of the university.

MBJ: When ASU was looking at you as a candidate to be its next president and you were looking at ASU, what did you see?

Silver: I’m glad you stated it like that because sometimes people think an interview is a oneway street, but it’s actually a two-way street.

In actuality, I was in the most comfortable position that I’ve been in, in terms of what we were trying to accomplish; the support systems that we had. To be honest, at the time ASU was not on the radar screen. I was comfortable doing what we needed to do at Clark Atlanta University. When I got the word that I was nominated for the position, I actually began to look at the institution.

MBJ: What did you see?

Silver: There were several things that really coincided with my overall philosophy and the template I had set for myself – if I ever become a college president what would I be looking for, where would I want to go. I’ve had other opportunities to be a college president and I didn’t accept those.

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

MBJ: Why did you take this job?

Silver: The reason I accepted this was that Alabama State University has the total package. I’m talking about an array of programs from baccalaureate program to PhD with room for expansion and growth. It has a physical plant that has matured over the last 10 years in a very planned manner.

As I told the mayor and the chairman of the County Commission – you’ve got good universities all across the world and you have good universities right here in Montgomery and Alabama. But the thing that was really the tip of this was the relationship between town and gown. This university is very much entrenched in economic development of this city and this region. It has an awesome relationship with the state Legislature; the County Commission; the city government; and the movers and shakers around this community. That was another feather in the cap. Then, when I looked at the student body – individuals who really wanted to come to Alabama State University to be a part of the great legacy here – it was a done deal for me.

MBJ: What are your first impressions of Montgomery?

Silver: I’ve been back and forth during this process leaving right after meetings so I didn’t even have time to spend the night here. I didn’t get a good look at Montgomery. This week (his first on the job) has been such a whirlwind, I haven’t had a chance to get out, but this morning clarified everything for me. The Chamber of Commerce sat me down with the mayor and the County Commissioners and the folks who are on the Chamber board of directors, and they gave me one of the best orientations to a city that I have ever seen. Not only was the video about Imagine Montgomery very well done – very professionally done, but it touched on every single thing that is going on in this community. And the people who made it happen were sitting around the table from the superintendent to our banking industry to our churches and newspapers. Any question that I had was responded to at that table.

While I haven’t had a chance to go out, I feel extremely comfortable and proud to be a part

of this community. When I see what I have seen around the campus here and now this morning, getting a really good understanding of where this city has come from, but more importantly where it’s going, I just think it’s divinely ordered that we are here.

MBJ: You’ve described yourself as “what you see is what you get.” What will the community get?

Silver: One, they are getting a very energetic person. They’re getting a person with great integrity. They are getting a person who is very inclusive; very personable, but who has a keen attention to the bottom line and the future direction of this institution.

MBJ: I’ve also heard that you have a very hands-on approach. There was an issue this morning and you were walking around the campus. I’ve also heard that you eat with students.

Silver: The bottom line is: I’m trying to get my arms around the institution. I’ve been here a week so what I have to do is learn every Continued on page 10

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

9

Continued from page 9

facet of the institution. It’s really what I call the tight rein and then the loose rein. What I mean by that is I come in and I need to understand every unit – what the capabilities are. I need to know the employees and what their capabilities are. As I get a better understanding of the institution and the people then my job is at the more loose rein.

When anything good happens here, you will hear me saying very publicly that my staff did this. If anything goes wrong here, then you are going to hear me say – that’s my responsibility.

MBJ: You’re talking about making decisions after you have the information – after you’ve done your audit.

Silver: Exactly. When I’m doing the audit I’m gathering intelligence. I need to know what goes on in university relations. I need to know what goes on in the physical plant.

I need to know what goes on in terms of computers because I need to understand what are our risks. Then I need to engage in risk aversion. I do believe in hiring qualified people and (retaining) qualified people and giving them the space and resources to do their work. And I get out of the way. I don’t want people to think that hands-on means micromanagement because that is not the case. The buck is going to stop with me.

When things go right, they are going to try to give me the credit, but I’m not going to accept the credit because I believe it is a team effort. When anything good happens here, you will hear me saying very publicly that my staff did this. If anything goes wrong here, then you are going to hear me say – that’s my responsibility.

MBJ: How long will your audit – intelligence gathering – take? Weeks or longer?

Silver: It will take a couple of months. I came in Monday (Sept. 17), but actually two months ago I started the process with the listening sessions and interacting with the various groups.

Continued on page 12

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

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We are going to have to become a more regional; more national; more international organization. The way you do that is by the craft and the craft is primarily maintained by the faculty and the students.

Continued from page 10

MBJ: Please talk about your communication with outgoing president William Harris.

Silver: We (Harris and Silver) probably did something that has never occurred in higher education and that is the transition that we had was fully open, transparent and cooperative. A lot of times when CEOs of institutions exchange seats – one, they are like two ships passing in the night. There is no communication. There is no connection. But in this case, I can fully tell you that Dr. Harris and I had at least five face-to-face meetings and telephone conversations about the state of the institution. It gave me a framework for what I need to do going forward. I am excited that we also did the same thing with the staff.

I was able to communicate with staff via telephone. I gave them a series of questions that gave me answers and information to begin establishing my work plan. I wanted to know several things: One, what is it that makes you distinctive to the unit? I wanted to know what was your niche. I wanted to know what outside people think of your unit. When I say outside to the campus … if you’re in fiscal affairs what do folks in academic affairs think about you, but also outside the boundary of the campus. What does the community think about you? The critical piece in terms of understanding how I operate, I wanted to know how do they see themselves aligning with the strategic plan of this university and the mission of this university. A lot of times you go into the day-to-day operations and you don’t begin to think about that. What I am going to try to do here is to begin to align all of our work directly with the mission and the strategic plan that has been crafted by this institution.

MBJ: You’re saying never lose sight of the big picture.

Silver: Exactly.

MBJ: I attended one of those listening sessions you talked about. There were sessions for the business community; faculty and staff; and alumni. You talked about taking the university to the next level. What is the next level?

Silver: One of the things in the hierarchy of higher education and the accrediting world … one of the things in our strategic plan – and this is a good strategic plan the university has crafted – is going from level five to level six.

That would add another level of distinction for this institution. All that really means in lay

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

terms is you’re going to be a more complex institution in the array of programs that you offer, primarily at the doctoral level. What we are seeing is more doctoral programs. If you look at our population right now – look at the demographics of who comes to ASU – it’s primarily Alabamians. And it’s primarily Alabamians within a 100-mile radius.

We are going to have to become a more regional; more national; more international organization. The way you do that is by the craft and the craft is primarily maintained by the faculty and the students. We also have to begin to go to the next level of independence.

MBJ: Please explain about the next level of independence.

Silver: We are too reliant on the state. We are a state-assisted institution and we appreciate every single dollar that the state gives us, but the reality of the situation that we’ve had over the last five years – we are tuition dependent and we are state assisted. It simply means we are going to have to create more partnerships with business and industry. We have to cultivate a greater relationship even with our own alumni. We are going to have to increase our research agenda.

MBJ: I was going to ask you about increasing research grants.

Silver: When you talk about taking an institution to another level it means you have a core of folks here who are doing some outstanding research. What we have to begin to do is imbue in every faculty that it is their responsibility to create new knowledge.

Therefore, we are not just going to depend on that core. We are going to expect everyone to go out and seek additional funds through grants, contracts and other relations to help this institution.

MBJ: In the listening session that I attended, you said there was a lot of room for growth in research dollars.

Silver: We have some outstanding scientists here. You probably read in the paper that since I’ve been here that we received a $5 million grant in the sciences and another almost $4 million for strengthening HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).

What I want to see happen here is that our dependency on growth of grants is just not in the sciences. You’ve got to have the business folks writing grants to address what I call applied learning and applied needs. Therefore, we have to have a greater partnership with the business community,

where we can do cases for them. We can actually do real-time research for them. I clearly think that the research done by the Center for Public Policy here clarified a lot of the issues for the voting public that gave them the opportunity to say yes, we’re going to do this (overwhelmingly approve a constitutional amendment to borrow money from the Alabama Trust Fund). That means our people – our work – are valued in the community. It was a front page article.

MBJ: What’s the implication?

Silver: What that tells me is we are in the business of providing public service for folks and that creates a next level for us.

When people think about complex issues; complex problems – they come to Alabama State University.

MBJ: During one of those listening sessions you talked about students graduating with the background that local businesses are looking for – working with the business community.

Please elaborate about students graduating with degrees where they will find jobs locally.

Silver: I want ASU to be the go-to university and what I mean by that (is) when business and industry are looking for employees with the hard skills and the soft skills – the knowledge and professional acumen – then they will seek students from Alabama State University.

MBJ: Will you change some existing programs or add some new ones?

Silver: It’s a little bit of both. One of the things we have to do is engage in a continuous improvement process. We are going to have to continue what I already know exists here is our program review process. We are going to have to add another dimension to that review process to talk about relevancy to and connection to the work force. One of the things that I preach all the time is no matter what major you choose when you come to an institution – think about the entrepreneurial aspect of what you can do. You can be a social work major – have you thought about opening your own practice? You can be an English major, but have you thought about opening up your own business in terms of test taking skills; writing skills. I want our students

to not only think in terms of a theoretical framework, but how do you practically apply that which you have indeed learned.

MBJ: In a listening session, you talked about helping to keep young people from leaving Montgomery. What can you do as a university president to keep young people here?

Silver: If all we do is train students here for export to other places, then the return on investment has not been fully, fully realized.

It means two things: We are going to have to have a trained work force that is job-ready in terms of both the white-collar and blue-collar workers, but we also are going to have to make sure that the City of Montgomery can absorb the talent – the best and the brightest that we have to produce. What that means is there has to be a constant interaction and conversation between business and industry and public sector to know what they are looking for so we can make sure that we are providing that in the back end when our students graduate.

Continued on page 14

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

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Continued from page 13

MBJ: Are there some different programs that you are considering?

Silver: With our nanotechnology ‌ that’s where the new need is going to be. We’re talking about the business school in terms of practical applications. We’re talking about our social sciences in terms of the forensic program we have; microbiology at the PhD level. All of these are programs that students should be able to leave here and absolutely make a contribution in the work force. What we have to do and especially me as a new person, is to get an inventory of what exists now; look at what the needs are outside the community; and then see how we bridge that gap. My assessment right now is that Alabama State University has done a pretty decent job in terms of the array of programs that they have here.

MBJ: After actually sitting in your chair in the president’s office for a few days, what are you now learning about ASU that you didn’t know besides finding your office?

Silver: I think it’s more of a confirming that which I thought; that which I hoped I would

see when I came here and the answer is yes. I wanted to see a very robust campus. I wanted to see a campus that was connected with the community. I know that’s what they told me. I know it exists now because I’m here and I’m seeing it. I wanted to see a student body that is coming, ready to learn and I’m seeing that. I wanted to see a faculty and staff that would embrace a change, but maintain the great legacy of this institution. I think that yesterday’s (faculty/staff) assembly confirmed they are ready to be complete partners as we take this next step.

MBJ: You said that you will bring full accountability to the table. You actually said, “Full, full, full accountability� for emphasis.

Why is that so critical?

Silver: That is actually one leg of my threelegged stool. My three-legged stool is efficiency, effectiveness and accountability.

Given the stewardship we have over the state’s resources and that which students and families bring, we have to be very efficient.

First of all, being effective in what we do. We have to make sure that we do it right and once it is that we understand what

we are doing, we have to begin to look at economy of scales. How can we be a little bit more efficient; contain costs; but maximize outcomes and expectations? Then, the accountability piece that I’m very, very keen on is that if we are given the stewardship of this institution then at the end of the day, we need to be accountable for everything that we say we’re going to do by way of outcomes.

That starts at the very top and goes down to the lower rungs of this administrative chain. I’m simply saying you’re a custodian, therefore you know what your job description is. You should come to work every day to make sure you’re going to find a way to do this job and do it well and at the same time, looking for ways to improve what you do. If you’re the president, you have to come every day understanding what your job is and making sure every day that you come and do every aspect of that well, but at the same time looking at ways to improve. We have to be accountable to our stakeholders. A lot of times in higher education, folks don’t like to use this term, but we have to be accountable to our customers.

MBJ: Who are those customers?

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Silver: Our customers are multi-faceted.

You have customers who are our students.

We have customers who are alumni; our community folks. We need to make sure that which we say we are doing – at the end of the day – we do that and we do that in a way that no one can do it better. No matter how good we are, we have to continue to feel like we can be a little better. We can’t rest on our laurels. I can’t come here and rest on the fact that over the last 10 years there has been a massive infusion of capital improvements here on this campus. My job now is to figure out how do we pay for it and how do we put the programs, students and people in the bounds of this campus to make it a true return on that investment.

MBJ: What would you like to see from the business community?

Silver: I want more of the same. I want them to continue to see us as a viable partner. I want them to always feel they can come to this campus to have that extended hand on any economic development project that is going on. And I want them to know that we are going to be good corporate citizens. I

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MBJ: What do you see as your biggest challenge? Is that doing everything we just talked about?

Silver: I think is not overwhelming the faculty, staff and students as we try to achieve this aggressive agenda that we just talked about.

In higher education or in business, a lot of times folks talk about what the No. 1 priority is. In my orientation, sometimes you have several priorities that are equally important.

My job will be to evaluate our personnel and to motivate them to see that each of these items is a priority and we dive in – get them all done simultaneously. •

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November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

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Attending the announcement of a regional medical school in Montgomery were (from left) Horace Horn, chairman-elect of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton N. Dean Sr.; Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange; Dr. Ray Watts, senior vice president and dean of the UAB School of Medicine; Dr. Wick Many, dean of the new regional medical school in Montgomery; and Russ Tyner, president and CEO of Baptist Health.

Another Shot in the Arm for the Economy Regional medical school coming to Montgomery

by David Zaslawsky photography by Robert Fouts

You may not think of doctors as an engine of economic development, but a one-doctor office has an economic impact of at least $1 million a year.

That one-doctor office typically has four employees and the physician spends money on supplies and services, pays taxes and buys a house.

Merritt, Hawkins Associates, a national recruitment firm for physicians, estimates that a family physician’s practice means $2 million to a hospital by using that facility’s lab and imaging services and by admitting patients to the hospital.

“Each doctor is big business for the medical community,” Julia Ventress, a Baptist Health systems vice president, earlier told the Montgomery Business Journal.

“When a doctor opens an office – that’s their headquarters.”

That is why the announcement of a medical school coming to Montgomery was such significant news.

“Having a medical school in Montgomery is the equivalent of landing a major new industry,” Lee Ellis, chairman of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said in a statement.

“This is an economic development home run,” said Horace Horn, chairman-elect of

the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

practice here. And open offices here and help grow the economy.

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said, “This is a dream come true for us” and that bringing third- and fourth-year medical students to Montgomery “answered a prayer.”

Tyner said that those medical school students who end up in a residency program here will experience how their “spouses have a job; children have a school; they have a favorite restaurant. It’s getting embedded in the community and that makes it much easier to recruit, retain, and attract people in the medical community.”

The medical students – part of the University of Alabama-Birmingham Health System – will study at the Montgomery Cardiovascular Institute on the campus of Baptist Medical Center South. The regional medical campus will be on the first floor of the building, which will likely become the School of Medicine facility, according to Russell Tyner, president and CEO of Baptist Health.

The program will begin in May 2014 with 10 third-year students and beginning in 2016, will have 20 third-year and 20 fourth-year students. The students may end up in the two residency programs in Montgomery for internal and family medicine. The regional medical program is geared to develop primary care physicians to fill a gap in Central Alabama.

It all means that those students will develop ties – connections – to the community and are more likely to stay in the region and

Just as important is an influx of new doctors, who will dramatically help with the region’s aging physicians. The average age of physicians in the River Region is 53.

“There is significant retirement out there and while we’re doing a good job of recruiting and getting them here, you can’t do it fast enough,” Tyner said. “Communities that are not manufacturing physicians in the future won’t have physicians.”

It is not a given that those students will practice in the River Region, but “the likelihood of that is so much greater by having 40 individuals in your community who will get to learn and appreciate and get ensconced in that community,” Strange said.

Continued on page 18

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

17

“Communities that are not manufacturing physicians in the future won’t have physicians.”

- Russell Tyner, president and CEO of Baptist Health

18

Continued from page 17

Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton N. Dean Sr. said, “When these doctors come here, we are going to make a heck of an effort to try to keep them here and we have a strategy to keep them here.”

When an industry is considering a location, Tyner said that the first things officials look at are education and health care and if health care is not considered adequate for their employees, they will look elsewhere.

“Health care is one of those economic underpinnings of our community,” Tyner said. “It is also a quality-of-life and an economic development issue.”

Dr. Ray Watts, senior vice president and dean of the UAB School of Medicine, said the organization developed a strategic plan to increase the number of primary care physicians as well as strategic plans for research, education and clinical. One of the main priorities, he said, was to establish a regional medical school in Montgomery. The UAB Health System already has regional medical schools in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa.

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

“The partnership between us, Baptist Health and the reception that we received from the leadership in Montgomery has been nothing short of extraordinary,” Watts said at a news conference, announcing the medical school in Montgomery. “We found nothing but a very positive attitude.”

Dr. Wick Many, who was the former director of the Montgomery Internal Medicine Residency Program, was named the dean of the regional medical school in Montgomery.

Many said the school “will produce quality students who will become not only clinically competent physicians, but also compassionate human beings as well.”

He said the school will emphasize “that it is indeed a privilege to be a physician and as such you have an obligation to give back to your patients and your community. Each and every member of the medical community that will be involved in the education of these young students will instill in them that concept both by their deeds, their actions and their words.” •

The best and brightest About 70 percent of all the National Merit Semifinalists not only attend Montgomery Public Schools, but all 13 are enrolled at Loveless Academic Magnet Program (LAMP).

All of the region’s public school National Merit Semifinalists were from LAMP. The trend is significant. Last year, there were 10 National Merit Semifinalists attending Montgomery Public Schools. During a threeyear period before 2011, there was a total of eight.

Attracting development After removing the former Sears building on West Fairview Avenue, the city has now removed several burned out or dilapidated structures near that site to make the area more attractive for development.

And guess what? Strange said there is a developer interested in that area.

Reporter’s Notebook

by David Zaslawsky

Saving money The Montgomery Public Schools district hopes to go from 14 Central Office buildings to one by the end of the year or early next year.

The district is looking at several locations, and needs between 50,000 and 60,000 square feet, according to Superintendent Barbara Thompson. The consolidation, which was recommended by the DeJong study, will save the district $1.4 million initially and then $500,000 to $600,000 a year, Thompson said.

The savings are generated from fewer employees. Instead of one receptionist and

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one or two janitorial personnel at each of the 14 buildings, there will be less staff.

The savings are also generated by moving from aging buildings with high-energy costs to an energy-efficient building. The district pays $800,000 a month for utilities.

Thompson likes the idea of being able to walk down the hall to talk to someone and right now the employees involved with curriculum “are all over the place.”

She said, “It’s ridiculous to have your assessment person in another building.”

Thompson said the district is looking at several buildings, including a downtown site.

334-613-5000

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November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

19

Getting your hands dirty

The next most likely Career Academy for Montgomery Public Schools is agribusiness. There are 10 acres available at the site of the new East Montgomery high school – Park Crossing High School, which is scheduled to open in fall 2013.

There are seven Career Academies: > Information Technology Career Academy > Teaching Career Academy > Business/Finance Career Academy

Food for thought Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange has talked about the need for a downtown grocery store and how that will attract more residents to downtown. Of course, a grocery store owner wants to already have those warm bodies downtown. Strange said that a downtown grocery store “is more than a gleam in our eye now. It’s not there yet. That’s our next big thing.”

> Law/Public Safety Career Academy > Health Science Career Academy > Hospitality and Tourism Career Academy > Advanced Manufacturing Career Academy

Job openings Dean said the county has spent about $20,000 advertising for corrections officers. He said there are 40 openings.

Oh by the way, the county approved a budget without layoffs or furloughs.

20

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Kudos for the Chamber Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton N. Dean, Sr. praised the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce (MACC). “I would like to thank the Chamber for what they do,” Dean said at a gathering of political leaders. “I can’t imagine us operating in this city and county without Randy (MACC President Randy George) and his staff. We don’t have the expertise on the city and on the county staff to do that. That’s the reason we continue to invest in the activities (of the Chamber).”

Wild blue yonder Work is continuing on Overlook Park and there will be a replica of the Wright Flyer there as a signature attraction. Improvements â&#x20AC;&#x153;will help us tie Maxwell Boulevard to downtown,â&#x20AC;? Strange said.

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30

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

21

Investor Profile

Jere Beasley is the founder of the Montgomery law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

State turns to Beasley Allen to take on industry powerhouses

by David Zaslawsky photography by Robert Fouts

Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. Number of attorneys

85

Support staff

The State of Alabama and in particular two Republican governors have turned to the law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. to handle litigation against the big boys.

Those big boys have been pharmaceutical companies, ExxonMobil and most recently BP. Why mention that the governors are Republican? Because Jere Beasley, the founder and a shareholder in the Beasley Allen law firm, is a well-known Democrat and was the state’s lieutenant governor from 1971-1979.

“We take it as a good thing and I as a compliment,” Beasley said.

“It’s a tribute to our folks – the lawyers and support staff. I would hope that they selected us because of the fact that we have a track record of working hard the right way and being relatively successful,” Beasley said.

He is being quite modest. The ExxonMobil and the cases involving pharmaceutical companies were settled for a combined $450 million.

Who knows what the settlement will be in the BP case. Beasley would be shocked if the case went to trial, which is scheduled for January. The first phase of the liability case against Transocean and Halliburton is also scheduled for trial in January.

About 225 Milestones

Beasley Allen currently holds U.S. records for largest verdicts/ settlements in four categories: Largest verdict against an oil company in U.S. History $11.9 billion Largest pharmaceutical drug settlement in U.S. History $4.85 billion Largest individual private environmental settlement in U.S. History $700 million Largest predatory lending verdict in U.S. History $581 million

Verdicts and settlements

Exceed $21 billion

“In my opinion, BP cannot afford to try this lawsuit – any of the lawsuits,” he said. “We did not think they were going to try the private claims – the individual claims – and we were right.”

representing your client as adequate as you should. You better win most of them, but if you hang around long enough you’re going to lose occasionally.”

The previous BP case was settled about 10 p.m. Friday while a trial was scheduled to begin the following Monday. The BP Gulf oil spill was in April 2010.

Beasley said one of the “smartest things we did” – and he was quick to say he did not deserve any credit – was to organize the firm into four distinct sections: toxic tort, civil fraud and commercial litigation, mass torts, and personal injury/product liability. He said the result of those distinct sections was that “you develop expertise that you cannot develop if you’re trying to do everything.”

More than 20 percent of the firm’s personnel are working full time on the BP litigation – that’s 19 attorneys and 28 support staff as well as others as needed to meet deadlines or workloads. All told, the firm has spent more than 100,000 hours on this case, but Beasley said the staff has “learned to deal with it. I don’t think it bothers our folks and doesn’t bother me a bit. I sleep well at night.”

The firm has grown over the past few years and one of the reasons is to handle the massive BP litigation. Beasley said about 25 to 30 were hired for the BP litigation. He said that health-related cases against BP could mean years of litigation. “I guarantee you that you will have people with respiratory-type problems or have cancer – all sorts of problems that are directly related to working in that (BP) clean-up operation. You have already had several who have died.”

Although the BP case is the largest handled by the firm, it did help that Beasley Allen was involved in the Vioxx litigation, which resulted in a $4.5 billion settlement. Beasley said that five attorneys and 25 to 30 support staff were dedicated to that case. He also said that the Monsanto litigation, which was before Vioxx and resulted in a $700 million settlement, helped prepare the firm for BP.

Beasley called shareholder Greg Allen “the best product liability lawyer in the country. He can take an engine and tear it down and put it back together” while most lawyers have a difficult time starting their vehicles, Beasley said.

When asked what he hoped people thought of his law firm, Beasley replied, “We work hard and do it the right way and get good results.

And we put our clients first. If you don’t do that you missed the boat somewhere along the way. You have to put your clients’ interests first.”

What will the Beasley Allen law firm look like in five or 10 years? “I hope I’m still here. My plan is to be here,” Beasley said. • local businesses may qualify for oil spill compensation - page 25

“The people that deal with us know that we are not afraid to go to court and we’re not afraid to lose,” Beasley said. “If you go in with a fear of losing you are probably settling too cheaply or not

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

23

2012 Capital City

Christmas Parade Kick off the Season with the Capital City’s very merry Christmas Parade filled

C a p i t a l C i t y C h r i s t m a s Pa r a d e

with oh-so-jolly floats and festivities. Celebrate this special season and gather with loved ones for a night that is sure to make all your Christmas dreams come true!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Parade Route from Capitol Steps to Court Square Fountain

schedule of events

5:15 pm Governor’s Tree Lighting 6:00 pm Capital City Christmas Parade 7:30 pm Mayor’s Tree Lighting ng

2012 float contest

sponsored by

Create your own Christmas masterpiece ece and be a part of the festivities. Entry categories include Business Floats, Floats

by Adults, and Floats by Children/Youth.

Registration deadline is November 28, 2012.

Float staging held at Cramton Bowl.

Pa r a d e e n t ry f o r m s at w w w. m o n t g o m e r y a l . g o v F o r m o r e i n f o r m at i o n c o n tact

Carol Gunter, 334-625-2000 or cgunter@montgomeryal.gov

Local businesses may qualify for oil spill compensation

by David Zaslawsky

A concise formula that spells out who is entitled to compensation from the April 2010 BP oil spill should take the guesswork out of the claims process.

The basic formula for potential claimants is fairly straightforward: If a company or individual experienced a 15 percent decline in revenues in 2010 and had a 10 percent increase in revenues in 2011 – they are entitled to compensation. There is also a formula to determine the amount of compensation.

There have been more than 50,000 claims submitted and that number could double or triple or go higher than that, according to Rhon Jones, an attorney and shareholder in the law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. The process to submit a claim will continue through April 2014, according to Jones.

Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Someone who owned coastal property and lost rent due to the spill will receive compensation. There is also a formula to determine compensation for the loss of use and enjoyment of that property in 2010, Jones said. If that claimant also owned a business that suffered a loss because of the oil spill – that individual would have multiple claims. He did say that BP is disputing a decline in property values along the Coast and that is not covered in the settlement.

A small business – annual revenue of $75,000 – that is adjacent or near a larger business that has a qualified claim, “can also qualify by proxy,” Jones said.

He said if a business fails to meet any of the tests to qualify, but had a large contract or loss specifically related to the BP spill, it can receive compensation.

the litigation. The committee was appointed about two years ago.

“I have seen multiple businesses in the River Region who have run the initial causation testing – who have passed that test and who are going to be able to submit a claim for compensation,” Jones said.

“We are trying to educate as many people as possible and what they choose to do is obviously up to them, but I would hate to have a business in Montgomery that could recover in an unlimited fund and is just not aware of it.”

BP has estimated that it will cost around $7.8 billion to settle these claims. The claims center has calculated some companies’ losses and BP has the right to appeal the compensation as does the claimant, Jones said. A judge will rule either for the claimant or BP, which is similar to arbitration in baseball, Jones said.

He believes the new claims process will impact a lot of local businesses. Other than some exclusions to real estate developers, insurance companies and banks, Jones said that “literally any other business which meets those objective standards can qualify.” He called it a myth that the business has to be tourism-related or seafood-industry related or situated near the oil spill.

He said that companies that may meet those objective standards could be gas stations, medical practices, non-profits, hardware store, retail, hotels, road builders, and construction companies. Jones gave an example of somebody who planned a trip to play the entire Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and canceled the visit because of the Gulf oil spill, which occurred in April 2010.

Fouts Commercial Photography

Rhon Jones is a shareholder in the law firm of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

“The spill had a chilling effect on the entire economy of the state,” Jones said. “As we know, many people travel and most travel by vehicle to the Coast. When our Alabama beaches were essentially shut down for the year 2010 – that had a negative impact on the state.

“It’s easy to forget about how negative the perception was in 2010. People here didn’t want to drive to the beach so certainly people from out-of-state who use our travel corridors had absolutely no interest in it (going to Alabama’s beaches).”

He said there is research that shows once a regular customer does not make that annual visit they may never come back. •

“As people understand the settlement better and they understand the determinations that are being made and the money that is being provided, I think more people will participate,” said Jones, who serves on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, which is a group of court-appointed law firms to lead

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

25

Chamber News

Brewing

business Chamber 60 Minute Coffees and Business After Hours provide access for making deals

by David Zaslawsky photography by Robert Fouts

As a Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce ambassador, Nan Lloyd attends nearly all of the organization’s 60 Minute Coffees and Business After Hours events.

She welcomes new members to the Chamber at those events and also helps attendees feel more comfortable.

Lloyd, manager of Associated Business Services, is simultaneously doing some networking of her own.

“If you are going to be in business in this town, you need to know what is going on with businesses in this town and what better place to find out than a gathering of businesses in this town,” said Lloyd, whose company specializes in business counseling, accounting, trust and estate tax services.

“To me it’s a no-brainer. It’s an obvious, inexpensive way to find out what’s going on and to meet the people that you meet there because we all know that people do business with people that they trust and like. People will find a reason to do business with you if they like you.”

She has conducted business at Chamber networking events, Nan Lloyd is manager of including a recent coffee at Associated Business Services.

Eastdale Mall, where Lloyd was told by an attendee that their accountant was quitting. Lloyd said she was asked if she would handle accounting and tax returns next year. “I said, ‘Why, certainly.’ ” It was someone whom she had talked with many times before at those Chamber coffees and after hours, which are held monthly throughout Montgomery. That is another benefit of attending those events – different people attend coffees and after hours although there is some overlap. Also, networking events downtown, midtown and East Montgomery attract different participants.

For Lloyd, there was another business deal at a Chamber networking event. Lloyd recalled that the individual said, “You’re here so it will save me the trouble of calling you. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. Let’s make the commitment and get going.’”

Lloyd has been a Chamber ambassador for four or five years while Robbie Medley, general manager of American Osment, which sells various cleaning products, paper goods and equipment has been coming to 60 Minute Coffees and Business After Hours events for about six months.

“Since it’s a social event, I like to go around and meet the new people,” he said. “I make a goal to see at least five new people – sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I give them my card and get their card.”

He said he doesn’t try to sell at the events, but will call or send an email a day or two after meeting someone at the networking event.

Medley has met a customer through one of the networking events – a small business. “All of it’s important; if it’s small or big it doesn’t matter,” he said.

Continued on page 28 November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

27

Robbie Medley is general manager of American Osment.

Continued from page 27

FOUND A WAY TO USE LESS DOUGH. ANOTHER DAY. ANOTHER VICTORY. Don’t let her sweet personality fool you. Morgan is a true retail warrior, fighting to make each day a little more successful than the last. So when she learned that Charter Business could give her Internet speeds up to six times faster than standard DSL,* unlimited long distance† on her same phone number, and TV with digital music ‡ for atmosphere, sheswitched. Morgan now has a partner that understands her challenges. The money she’s able to reinvest in her business is just icing on the cake.

Another aspect of attending the 60 Minute Coffees and Business After Hours is you will meet someone who knows someone else you can do business with or that person may end up working for another company and they will remember you. “You want to make sure that you’re able to capitalize on anything you can,” he said. “If I was just going to an outing, I would probably go once and not go back all of these other times.”

“You want to make sure that you’re able to capitalize on anything you can.”

All types of businesspeople attend the Chamber networking events and participants may meet a top executive. “You don’t have the gatekeeper there,” Lloyd said.

She said that because her business focuses on small businesses, meeting new Chamber Members at the networking events “is like an automatic contact list – automatic prospect list. You see them and tell them you saw their new member speech and automatically you have one step in the door. It gives you an opening.”

Call Pamela Higgins

Of course that opening works both ways. Lloyd said that at the first 60 Minute Coffee she attended, she said a new Chamber Member made a short presentation about their cleaning service. Lloyd was not happy with the cleaning service she was using and asked for a price.

Pamela.Higgins@chartercom.com

“We used him until he quit the cleaning service and went to work for Hyundai,” Lloyd said.

Contact your dedicated Charter Business representative today.

334-318-8522 ©2012 Charter Communications. Savings claim based on Small Business Claims Study by Data & Management Counsel, Inc. *Speed comparison as of 3/14/12. Internet speeds may vary. †Unlimited Long Distance available only to Charter local customers and applies only to direct-dial calls within the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada. ‡Customer is responsible for and must secure any music rights and/or pay applicable fees required by ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Restrictions apply. Call for details.

28

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Besides, as Medley said about the 60 Minute Coffees: “You get coffee. You eat breakfast and you get to meet and talk to people you like and then you move on.” •

Guest Commentary

Investment strategy:

Keep it Simple

by Ken Peavy

With all the volatility and changes we have seen over the last two years, 2013 could be a very interesting year. There is talk of increased taxes, a doubledip recession, continued low interest rates and plenty of uncertainty. What should an investor do to prepare themselves for this coming year?

Maybe the best strategy for an investor in 2013 is to keep it simple and take some lessons from the ultra-rich. There are many new investment products available to individuals that replicate what was traditionally only available to more sophisticated investors such as hedge-funds or commodities. Expanding the variety of your investment strategies may be a crucial step in protecting your assets in this coming year.

However, one great mistake that most investors make is assuming that more investment strategies in your portfolio should equate to taking more risk. Most traditional investors take too much risk in their portfolios, hoping to compensate for the lack of money being funded to the investment. The ultrarich tend to take less risk because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve already created a financial wealth. There is no need for them to take unnecessary risk to try and obtain unrealistic rates of returns. They are almost in a mode of wealth

preservation rather than trying to double their investment.

Most investors need to understand the value of diversification and managing risk. Expanding their exposure to other types of investment strategies is a step in the right direction.

The very first thing I would recommend to any investor is to take a moment and figure out where all their assets are held. Often when I meet with a new client they do not have a consolidated, concise accounting of their assets. It is difficult to manage assets appropriately without accounting for details of the existing portfolio including account type, location, holdings and current if any strategy.

Before you can set a goal for yourself, you must take inventory of what you have.

Typically there are four areas of every investorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portfolio that they should prepare to have funded. First, your lifestyle or your day-to-day living expenses. What do you need to make on your investments to maintain your same standard of living? Secondly, upcoming family needs. Is there a wedding to pay for in

the near future or college expenses? Thirdly, assets for short-term needs, or as I like to refer to it, an opportunity account. Assets from this strategy may be used for a second home or a new car. Lastly, legacy planning; what do you want your assets to do after you have departed? Is the priority to ensure your family will be taken care of or maybe you want to be philanthropic with your assets?

Whatever it may be, a simple inventory and goal setting will help determine the appropriate strategy.

Continued on page 30

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

29

Continued from page 29

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Once you have taken an honest, realistic inventory of where your assets are and what you intend for them, the next step is to diversify those assets into the correct investment vehicle.

Diversification can be an important risk management strategy for both maintaining and increasing wealth. Just because an investor owns a half dozen mutual funds does not mean they are diversified. Since the financial crisis, we have seen many funds and asset classes change from their traditional, historic norm. You need to make sure that not all of your assets correlate with each other. This will help ensure that when some assets are struggling, others may be thriving.

However, there is one caution to building diversification: be aware of the fees you are paying. The three “killers” to an investor’s return are taxes, fees and inflation. Investors cannot control inflation, they have some control over taxes, but every investor can be aware and help control excessive fees to their portfolios.

With the constant changing of our domestic and global economies, investors may start to feel overwhelmed and uncertain of what to do. The best advice that I can give is to keep it simple. Take inventory of what you have, look to diversify your investment strategies, and don’t chase returns. These are no secrets, but effective strategies that “smart money” investors have used for many years.

The information and opinions presented are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. You should contact your investment representative, attorney, accountant or tax adviser with regard to your individual situation.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Ken Peavy is a financial adviser with Aliant Financial Services for Aliant Bank, a division of USAmeriBank.

Montgomery Business Leaders Remain Upbeat

by David Zaslawsky

Business executives in the Montgomery area have been the most optimistic of all the state’s metro centers for the last six quarters.

In the latest Alabama Business Confidence Index (ABCI), Montgomery had an overall index of 51.3, which was 0.3 points greater than Mobile while Birmingham was third at 49.7 and Huntsville was last at 44.3 points.

Montgomery’s index actually declined 1.8 points from the previous quarter.

The Montgomery respondents were predicting fourth-quarter growth in four of the index’s individual components with an index greater than 50: industry sales (54.6); industry profits (53.3); industry hiring (53.3); and capital expenditures (52.6). Montgomery was first or tied for first in three of the components and was second in industry sales.

Small businesses – firms with less than 20 employees – are much more optimistic than the mid-sized (20 to 99 employees) and large companies (at least 100 employees). The confidence index for small businesses was 50.4 points compared with 46.1 for mid-sized companies and 48.0 for large companies.

The fourth quarter ABCI, which is a survey conducted by the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, fell nearly 2.0 points from the third quarter to 48.3. That number, which is less than 50, means contraction. The lone component, which was more than 50 – indicating expansion – was industry sales, but its index fell the most from the previous quarter.

Yet, a decline in the fourth-quarter outlook is not unusual. It has happened in eight of the 11 years of the ABCI. The following is a breakdown of the six components:

National economy The index declined to 42.6 points, losing 1.4 points from the previous quarter. That 1.4-point decline followed a 10.5-point decline in the second quarter. About 40 percent of the survey participants expect the fourth quarter to be worse than the third quarter and another 42 percent expect no change. Less than 20 percent expect to see an improvement.

profits to remain the same as the previous quarter, but almost 30 percent are forecasting profits to decline. About one-quarter of the respondents expect profits to increase. The professional, scientific, technical services, finance, insurance and real estate are the most optimistic sectors while health care, retail trade and manufacturing are the most pessimistic sectors.

Alabama economy The index is barely negative at 49.7 points after falling 1.7 points from the third quarter. Almost half of the respondents expect no changes from the third quarter and almost identical number expect a better (26 percent) or worse (25.6 percent) quarter.

Industry hiring The component declined the least – 1.0 point – and is at 48.7 points.

A majority of survey participants (56 percent) predict that fourth-quarter hiring will remain the same as the previous quarter. Those forecasting increases (21 percent) and decreases (23 percent) are evenly divided.

The most upbeat sectors are professional, scientific, technical services, transportation, information, utilities and construction.

Industry sales This component fell sharply from the previous quarter, losing 3.7 points to 51.1. About one-third of the respondents expect to see an increase in fourth-quarter sales compared with about 20 percent forecasting a decline. About 40 percent expect sales to remain flat.

The most upbeat sectors are construction, wholesale trade, finance, insurance and real estate. The manufacturing sector expects sales to decline.

Industry profits The component saw the second-largest decline, falling 2.1 points to 48.6. About 45 percent expect fourth-quarter

Capital expenditures The index declined 1.8 points to 48.9 points. Similar to the industry hiring component, 54 percent expect capital spending to remain the same while 24 percent are forecasting a decline and 23 percent are forecasting an increase in the fourth quarter. The manufacturing, professional, scientific and technical services sectors are the most optimistic while the health care sector is the most pessimistic. •

ABCI quarterly breakdown 2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Q1

54

58

67

62

59

54

47

32

49

55

51

Q2

63

56

67

61

61

56

43

32

50

56

57

Q3

60

61

69

60

59

57

43

46

52

51

50

Q4

56

61

66

54

54

51

44

47

48

46

48

Source: University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

31

EMERGE EMER Montgom grow

RGE mery ws up

Young professionalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; group evolves into influential organization

by David Zaslawsky photography by Robert Fouts

Jason Goodson, president of EMERGE Montgomery, and Victoria Belton, EMERGE Montgomery secretary, meet in a conference room at Gilpin Givhan.

perception there is little parking downtown.

The council recommended putting up signs to show where the parking decks are located.

That’s an important seat at the table.

“The unique thing about EMERGE is that most communities don’t give you what we like to call a seat at the table,” Goodson said. “They talk about and say you can form a young professionals’ group.”

That is not the case in Montgomery, where a handful of EMERGE members meet monthly with the mayor, but the EMERGE president also attends the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meetings with the area’s movers and shakers.

“Getting a seat at the table is something that every young professional wants and that’s what you’re driven for.”

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange has a monthly meeting with a group called the Mayoral Young Professional Council.

He spends one to 1½ hours with those young professionals and get this: Strange asks their opinions. “We talk about things that are good and things that are bad,” said Jason Goodson, president of EMERGE Montgomery, which is an organization for young professionals ages 22 to 40.

Goodson is an estimator/project manager for W.K. Upchurch Construction Co. Inc. EMERGE has six slots on that council, which encouraged the mayor to promote the downtown parking decks because of the

“Getting a seat at the table is something that every young professional wants and that’s what you’re driven for,” said Victoria Belton, EMERGE secretary and marketing director for the Montgomery Area Transit System. “Basically, that is the only way to voice your opinion. Through EMERGE, it has afforded me a lot of opportunities to sit on boards that I never thought I would be able to sit on and contribute. And they really listen to what I have to say.”

Board members want to hear what the young professionals have to say. It may not sound like much, but the young professionals have a real voice and their voices are being heard from the mayor to the business community.

“We are asked what event would bring you downtown,” Belton said. “What event would make you spend money and what event would make you bring your friends downtown to come and spend their money as well?

“Organizations don’t want to put on events with half the population not being there and we’re a good chunk of the population,” Belton said.

Remember that EMERGE has an active membership of 350, but there is an impressive database of more than 1,200 young professionals. Retaining members and adding 50 new members by year’s end are two goals this year, according to Goodson.

Goodson is even being heard through his monthly column in the Montgomery Advertiser and he wrote that young professionals are today’s leaders. Young professionals will write about education, health care, community involvement and finance and those young professionals will have expertise in those areas.

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Board of Directors came to EMERGE and asked for help to form a Junior Executive Board, Belton said.

Look at The Alley – the other bars and restaurants in the city’s entertainment district – and you’ll find businesses that cater to young professionals. “The active, creative young (professionals) are critical to the change taking place in Montgomery,” Goodson said.

Belton said that the types of businesses at The Alley are what young professionals are looking for and it’s helping to keep them here. It’s also attracting young professionals from Birmingham to move to Montgomery, according to Belton.

EMERGE, which is a program of Leadership Montgomery in partnership with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, was started in 2008. It is obviously in its infancy, but it has evolved into an influential organization.

One of the primary goals of EMERGE was to get young people involved in the community – keep them engaged – and they are more likely to stay. A major concern for many communities is the dreaded brain drain – an area’s best and brightest leaving to go to college and not coming back or taking a job outside the region after attending a local college or university.

One of the key components of the Chamber’s Imagine A Greater Montgomery II five-year strategic plan is “the commitment we have to the attraction and retention of young professionals,” said Randall L. George, president of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. “Everything about our survival as a wonderful community has to do with creating the environment that people want to come and be a part of and live here.”

Belton, who is secretary of EMERGE for the second year, has been with the organization from the beginning. “We are moving toward a bigger and better EMERGE,” she said.

The organization has come a long ways. “When we first started EMERGE, I would venture to say that the mission was to grab just any young professional in Montgomery – get him involved and get him connected; start networking; and create a group,” Goodson said.

“We have accomplished that goal. Now we need to start looking at the younger population – the people straight out of college. That’s our real target – that’s who we want to retain. We need to focus on that talent coming back here rather than going to Birmingham or Atlanta and contributing to our tax base and to our community and being involved in community service.”

EMERGE helps develop the young talent through its 40-member Torchbearers’ Leadership nine-month class, where the participants learn about Montgomery and do class projects that are community-based initiatives.

Continued on page 37

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

35

The program was born out of a Leadership Montgomery project that was handed over to EMERGE, which is a program of Leadership Montgomery in partnership with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.

A couple of years ago, a local law firm was bringing young interns into Montgomery and then offering them jobs, but were being turned down. A Leadership Montgomery project was begun to “make (Montgomery) seem less like a temporary, resume-building stop and more like a permanent home,” Weimer said.

iConnect helps young professionals network

by David Zaslawsky

photography by Robert Fouts

One of the teachers in the Teach for America program, who attended a dinner at Central for the group, was overwhelmed by the hospitality.

The teacher – David Simpson – was so moved that he sent an email to Braxton Weimer, who is an ambassador with iConnect, which is an initiative from the young professionals’ group EMERGE. “It was a huge success,” said Weimer, a financial adviser with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. They (teachers) were training at Birmingham South and told everybody, ‘You won’t believe what Montgomery did to roll out the carpet for us.’ ” In other cities, Teach for America teachers are escorted around town and often taken to a fast-food restaurant – not a restaurant the same caliber as Central.

“They felt connected,” Weimer said.

“They have reached out to other ambassadors to find places to live; where to get their hair done.”

EMERGE President Jason Goodson said that the Central dinner “was a good way to get them (teachers) connected with people already settled and established here. It

36

was a great welcoming committee as a city and showed that we care about you and we want you here in our community.”

J.W. Carpenter, who is executive director for the Alabama division of Teach for America, told Goodson that “we have never had that kind of reception.”

In another iConnect event, which was coordinated with MD Connection, Teach for America teachers and students in a medical residency program attended a rooftop party at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center.

The feedback from participants “has been glowing,” Weimer said.

“We have to build off of that.”

It’s all part of retaining young professionals by making them feel at home – feel connected to the community. The iConnect ambassadors provide an immediate network for young professionals.

There are 15 iConnect ambassadors from a wide range of companies and organizations, including accounting, pharmaceutical, city, attorney, construction, financial, architecture, media, aerospace, Chamber and even Montgomery Public Schools.

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

The goal was to provide an instant network for those interns and other young professionals new to the area so they could make new friends and begin to set down some roots.

“We don’t want them to go to work; go to the grocery store; and then go home,” Weimer said. “What we’ve done to try and combat that is pairing the ambassadors with the interns or the temporary workers. We’ll have events and showcase local River Region attractions.”

The program’s early goal is seven events, which will enable interns and temporary workers to connect with other young professionals.

“We’re trying to put Montgomery’s young professionals’ best foot forward to make this an attractive place to live,” Weimer said. “We want this to be a complement to what other businesses and organizations are doing to retain these young professionals that are really central to the growth of the companies.”

It costs about $100 a person to be in the program and the hope is that companies and organizations will sponsor their own interns/young professionals. Local businesses are also sponsoring events.

At the same time, EMERGE is building a formidable database of the young talent coming to the region.

The iConnect program is nimble enough to respond to feedback from companies “on how best to help them,” Weimer said.

Weimer said iConnect is not just for interns and temporary workers, but is geared to retain any young professional.

He said that company executives do not want to hire a young professional who is just building their resume. •

Growing Impact

by David Zaslawsky

If you ask a couple of the top officers of EMERGE Montgomery to briefly describe the organization you receive the wellrehearsed two-minute elevator speech.

It goes like this: “EMERGE is the premier young professionals’ organization in Montgomery that is designed to give young people a vehicle to grow as a professional; to interact with their peers; to connect with their community; and voice their opinions.”

“We’re growing constantly at a rapid pace and we are revamping some things so we can have a better EMERGE,” said EMERGE Secretary Victoria Belton. “We’ll have an even bigger influence on the city.”

EMERGE has grown rapidly in its fourplus years and has nearly outgrown its venue for the organization’s Young Professional of the Year. The event is held

Continued from page 35

The Rally in The Alley was one of those class projects and combines a kickoff for the River Region United Way campaign with a drive for school supplies and sign-ups for volunteer groups and organizations.

at the Capital City Club and EMERGE had 145 people at the event earlier this year – about 15 from capacity.

Belton said that the award could someday expand to include other cities such as Birmingham.

Because EMERGE is nearing its fifth birthday, the organization is taking a close look at itself.

“The direction the organization is currently heading is a positive direction,” said EMERGE President Jason Goodson.

“The scale of the program needs to grow. It’s such a great model, but we need businesses to promote it. I want all the young employees to know that this is something that’s great. The bigger your membership is, the more impact it will have on the community.”

Belton: “The city is behind us and they help us. We have a seat at the table, which is what we wanted all along. Now, it’s about keeping it and doing our part.” •

“Basically, you can rely upon your brand only and people come and want to join, but coming into five years – it’s not a new organization anymore,” Goodson said. “We are trying to do some strategic planning to reshape some of the committee structures and how leadership is put into place and some of our procedures and protocols so we can do better things going forward.”

Belton: “We are moving toward a bigger and better EMERGE.” •

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

37

Investor Member Profile BUSINESS BUZZ (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 63)

Chuck DiLaura is president of Neptune Technology Group and has been with the company for 36 years.

A Huge Economic Impact Neptune Technology Group celebrates 40 years in Tallassee

by Jennifer Kornegay

photography by Robert Fouts

For the last four decades, Neptune Technology Group has been making water meters in Tallassee (over 54 million to date). But the 120-year-old company is making more than products in the city â&#x20AC;&#x201C; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s making a huge economic impact.

earlier to leaks, fraud and other problems. The company recently announced it has partnered with Esri and 3-GIS to provide new geographic information system mapping.

As Neptune celebrated its 40-year anniversary of operation in Tallassee this past June, the company touted the many benefits of its presence.

In just 2011 alone, Neptune reported an overall economic impact of $50 million in Alabama, including employee payroll and local spending such as payments to suppliers, utilities and freight services, and has generated cumulative revenues of $4.3 billion over its 40 years in Alabama. The company currently employs nearly 500 people in the state, with 220 living in Tallassee and 280 commuting to Tallassee each day. Last year, Neptune had a $15 million impact on Tallassee.

Neptune’s been good to Alabama and Tallassee, no doubt, but according to company president Chuck DiLaura, it’s a symbiotic relationship. “Neptune was founded in 1892 in Long Island City, New York. The decision was made to relocate to the South and to Tallassee for several reasons,” he said. “Lower costs of doing business, a better business atmosphere and room to grow were a few of the initial ones, and through the years, the choice has proven ideal.”

When the international utility systems and metering company held its grand opening on June 28, 1972, it was one of the first major manufacturing companies to come to Alabama and the first to make use of state-provided job training programs, at that time conducted by the Vocational Division of the State Department of Education. It began operations with approximately 100 employees; since then, the company has hired 400-plus more.

Neptune’s foundation is built on providing water meters to the utility industry, but in the last 20 years, the company has evolved to include Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems and today, is one of the country’s leading providers of this technology. Currently, Neptune systems read more than 38 million utility meters per month throughout North America.

And Neptune stays on the forefront of the industry. Now, Neptune is focused on a migration strategy using wireless technology to increase the accuracy and speed of collecting consumption and other meter-related data. DiLaura explained, “Wireless technology allows our utility companies the option to receive transmitted data via a handheld collector, a car-mounted collector allowing the meter reader significant productivity and safety gains, or meter reading data collected daily from fixed network collectors transmitting directly to the utility office.”

Neptune knows that staying successful here for almost half a century requires continued investment. In April 2010, the company opened a new 19,000-square-foot engineering building. “We have to always innovate and come up with those new products that add value for our customers,” DiLaura said. “But we’ve also got to watch costs; we’re always working both ends.”

Yet all the technology and commitment to research and development would not mean much without good employees, a fact Neptune is well aware of. “We have to take care of our employees for them to take care of our customers,” DiLaura said.

“We put a lot of emphasis on employee safety, health and well-being.

Really, our focus on our people sets us apart from other companies.

We’ve created a great place to work and treat our people fairly.”

But don’t just take his word for it. A look at a chart hanging in a hallway in Neptune’s offices shows employee longevity. Some have been with the company for 39 years; DiLaura, who’s been with Neptune since 1976, still only ranks 30th on the seniority chart. “We keep our employees,” he said.

Neptune’s philosophy also includes giving back as evidenced by its level of community involvement. “We support organizations that have a broad impact,” DiLaura said. These include groups like United Way, Relay for Life and others, and many of the company’s employees serve on boards and are in leadership positions in the community.

Neptune is also a sponsor of Auburn University’s BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) robotics competition, and several Neptune engineers volunteer their time to mentor a team from the local middle school each year. And it doesn’t stop in Alabama.

The company is a worldwide sponsor for the international charity, Water For People, for which DiLaura is Chair of the Board. •

Neptune Technology Group Inc. Year founded

1892

Relocated to Tallassee

1972

Number of employees

About 500

Recent awards/honors

2011 River Region Ethics in Business and Public Service Award

Recent advances include major upgrades to the company’s AMR and AMI software and the creation of a new, more powerful mobileto-mobile data collector that weighs only five pounds. “It replaces a product that weighed 40 pounds,” DiLaura said. Typically, Neptune’s systems result in efficiency gains of 90 percent as well as improved cash flow and meter reading accuracy. Not only does this mean easier collection and quicker billing, but also alerts utilities much

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

39

Fouts Commercial Photography

Driving Future into

the

Proposals transform Atlanta Highway into modern thoroughfare

by David Zaslawsky

When Tyler Caldwell began researching Atlanta Highway he learned that there was never a plan for the thoroughfare – it just grew out of necessity to handle increasing traffic flows.

An example of that lack of planning is the width range, which is 110 feet to about 250 feet across. If you take a closer look at the 3.5-mile stretch of Atlanta Highway from Ann Street/Federal Drive to Eastern Boulevard you will occasionally see sidewalks, but mostly they are non-existent. You will find a telephone pole in the middle of a sidewalk; and you will find a sidewalk about a foot-andhalf wide.

You won’t find a bus shelter, but you may find a bench without shade or no bench and no sidewalk so bus passengers wait under a nearby tree.

You will also find the surrounding neighborhoods in decline – there are nearly a dozen such neighborhoods around Atlanta Highway – and you’ll find some less desirable businesses along the thoroughfare.

You will find a thoroughfare that was designed for the sole purpose of moving vehicles, and now it’s a lot of vehicles – 33,000-plus a

40

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Tyler Caldwell is design studio coordinator for the City of Montgomery’s Development Department.

day on some stretches of Atlanta Highway, according to an Alabama Department of Transportation 2010 report.

“There is nothing that says Montgomery and nothing that says Alabama,” said Caldwell, design studio coordinator for the city’s Development Department. “There is nothing that says anything but American suburbia.

“We want our gateways into our city and even the major corridors in our city – we want them all to have character. We are doing that on Fairview and Madison Avenue and now (Atlanta Highway) is a future evolution of this.

“Do we continue with an unplanned, single-use corridor or do we start to explore different options?”

A charrette was conducted and in conjunction with PlaceMakers, a series of recommendations was presented to the Planning Commission to turn Atlanta Highway into a fully planned thoroughfare for vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and buses.

“This is a massive undertaking, but it can be done,” Caldwell said. “It’s a big project, but it affects so many people that it is imperative that it is examined.”

It certainly does. There are 9,500-plus homes within a one-mile radius of Atlanta Highway.

The Planning Commission approved the recommendations, which just dealt with the right-of-way and did not include any rezoning requests. It will take a lot of money and time to accomplish the goals, considering that it took about three years for the Madison Avenue streetscape, and that was just threequarters of a mile.

There is a starting point and that is an audit to learn what is underground and “above the head,” Caldwell said.

> Connect Atlanta Highway to Goodwyn Park to make it easier for residents to access the public park.

Early steps would be making Atlanta Highway, which is owned by the city, more accessible to pedestrians with striping at 10 key intersections.

It is interesting to note the importance of the neighborhood associations because without their buy-in the project may never get done.

The Atlanta Highway Improvement Plan recommendations are: > Build consensus among the neighborhoods > Create a Business Improvement District > Perform an infrastructure audit > Establish infrastructure investment zones > Adopt appropriate thoroughfare sections > Develop interim crossings for pedestrians and bicyclists > Construct bus shelters

“The neighborhood consensus and action is one of the most important components of a rebuilding of a community,” Caldwell said.

“If the neighborhood associations aren’t on board and haven’t been galvanized, the chances of success are much lower. They all have a vested stake.”

The plan calls for three infrastructure investment zones or nodes: one at Ann Street; one at Perry Hill Road and one by Faulkner University. Those are priority areas for improvement and the idea is to create character – a place where people want to go such as Fairview Avenue in Cloverdale.

The plan divides the 3.5-mile designated area of Atlanta Highway into much smaller sections. There are different designs reflecting various widths of Atlanta Highway and whether the area is more residential or more commercial. One section may have three travel lanes, two bike lanes and one median while another features four travel lanes, four slip lanes, two bike lanes, three medians and two parking areas.

“Once this plan is in place and we’ve gotten some traction … it becomes a tool for economic development,” Caldwell said.

“We’re investing money in this area. Do you want to get on board? The character of this area is changing. Do you want to be a pioneer?” •

> Have a manual that details lighting, signage, types of trees, utilities, walkways/paths, etc.

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

41

Placemakers are Creating places with character

by David Zaslawsky photography by Robert Fouts

He is a speaker for the National Association of Realtors and spends a lot of time doing advocacy work and educational outreach.

Nathan Norris is known locally as the former marketing director who helped design The Waters in Pike Road. He is principal and director of implementation advisory for PlaceMakers, but he said his informal title is “in charge of what to do and how to do it.”

He was the facilitator for the City of Montgomery’s Atlanta Highway charrette and PlaceMakers developed a detailed plan in conjunction with the City’s Development Department for dramatically changing the thoroughfare and the surrounding neighborhoods. PlaceMakers, which has seven employees, has clients from Huntsville to Canada and Ecuador as

well as Mississippi, Tennessee and even the Mormon Church, Norris said.

PlaceMakers works with developers and municipalities on new urban planning.

“It’s important that the character of Atlanta Highway change and the reason is because the market will not pay a premium for being around it right now,” Norris said. “You have this aging, declining housing stock.” He said that rentals have increased in the area and the absent landlords are not maintaining the properties. “The rentals are going up because the housing stock is going down,” he said.

Transforming Atlanta Highway from a vehicle-only thoroughfare to one for bicyclists and pedestrians will not only strengthen the surrounding neighborhoods, but be a catalyst for economic development, Norris said. He said that Atlanta Highway “can be more vibrant and can be even stronger commercially.”

He said the weakest commercial area along Atlanta Highway is near Faulkner University.

“That’s the most underleveraged dirt in the entire city right now,” he said. He said the strip mall across the street from Faulkner

42

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

“is extremely low intensity considering the purchasing power of what’s around there.”

“Atlanta Highway can be more vibrant and can be even stronger commercially.”

PlaceMakers suggested turning Atlanta Highway into “Montgomery’s first multi-way boulevard” by Faulkner University. “They (Faulkner University officials) were thinking about buying land elsewhere because they felt they had no more land. I told them, ‘You’re not land-locked – you’re designlocked.’ They have so much land that is under-utilized because they have laid out their campus in a suburban fashion.

“If you put an urban thoroughfare in front of Faulkner, you create the opportunity for urban buildings to arise. If you get urban buildings for two blocks, that provides additional classroom space, additional dorms, additional commercial opportunities.”

It all starts with a redesigned Atlanta Highway. It is about creating character.

“There is no place where you want to stay for any length of time,” Norris said.

It’s a plan for a 3.5-mile stretch of Atlanta Highway that features sidewalks and/or trails, slip lanes, sidewalk trees, medians, a bus lane, bus shelters and bike lanes.

Nathan Norris is principal and director of implementation advisory for PlaceMakers.

“It is a wonderful, wonderful location,” Norris said about Atlanta Highway. “It stands to benefit greatly from the revitalization of downtown Montgomery and the Atlanta Highway area is more convenient to getting downtown (than Cloverdale).

“Atlanta Highway and that corridor stand to benefit greatly if that corridor changes, but if it doesn’t (young people) aren’t going to put up with it.” •

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November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

43

Excellenc Excellenc nceExcelle Excellenc nceExcelle Pursuing Excellenc Excellence Excelle nce xcellence nce Copperwing Design flourishes with dogged determination

by David Zaslawsky

ce ce ence ce ence ce ence Copperwing Design’s founder Angela Stiff took what she called “a leap of faith” when she moved her company from a Bell Road office building to a newly constructed building in Parliament Place at Sturbridge in east Montgomery.

The firm originally leased a single suite on Bell Road that had about 1,200 square feet. Then it added a second suite within two years and by the firm’s fourth year, Copperwing had grown to encompass about three-fourths of the office building – about 3,500 square feet.

“We were a small marketing and communications firm,” Stiff said.

We were doing really, really well.” And still is, with an average annual revenue increase of 15 percent during the past three years and having now grown to 17 employees.

Back in May of 2008, Copperwing moved into its new home – a brand new, upscale home – with 6,000 square feet on the first floor and another 3,000 square feet for expansion on the second floor.

And Copperwing’s timing could not have been worse. Stiff, managing principal and creative director, talked about the “devastating economic event” at the end of 2008 – the Great Recession, which was the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression.

“We not only survived it, but we managed to grow in spite of it,” she said. “I don’t want to give the impression that we just sailed through it. There were bumps and bruises.

“We regrouped and we learned from everything that we went through. We became better businesspeople because of it. We honed our skills and we planned for the future. We knew we could walk out of it (recession) along with everyone else. Everyone had to rethink what you were doing and I think a lot of people found ways to diversify and we did, too.”

The days of an ad campaign, radio spot or outdoor billboard were long gone. Copperwing adapted to new mediums – the digital world.

“We had to think about what we were doing differently,” Stiff said. “We had to think about what we were doing for our clients differently. We had to think about a different type of business model; a different type of structure; a different type of collaboration internally and externally with our clients and with our resource partners. The whole mindset had to change. We were looking at things in a more organic way.”

It all had to start with the boss herself becoming more comfortable with new media. Stiff, who calls herself “a designer at heart,” had to get comfortable with the idea that “a high level of creativity could be embedded” in new media. “It could be a good marriage between a high-quality, creative product in a digital medium.”

Nell Rankin, principal and strategy director, said, “What we offer is the integration among all of those disciplines – branding the Continued on page 46 Angela Stiff (left) is the founder, managing principal and creative director of Copperwing Design. Nell Rankin is a principal and strategy director for the firm.

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

45

“You have to be determined that every day you’re going to produce products and services of excellence.”

Continued from page 45

digital medium, media and strategic vision.

Those things have to be fully and completely integrated. They cannot be looked at as separate pieces.

“This integration absolutely enables us to be able to tell many aspects of the same narrative – many aspects of the same story.

You have to be able to tell different pieces of this narrative in different ways and for different mediums.”

As important as digital has become, there is no digital department at Copperwing.

“It’s integrated into everything that we do and every role in the firm,” Stiff said.

“Every member of our firm has to be technologically savvy.”

Although digital “has been a driving force,” according to Stiff, branding still plays a critical role. “We’re still very much at our core driven by design and creativity, but we’re also a think tank,” she said. “We’re an ideation firm.”

Asked to explain how the firm is a think tank, Stiff replied: “People come to us for ideas and concepts as much as they do any other end product that we could produce.”

Why has Copperwing been so successful?

“We have a diverse group of thinkers and a diverse talent base here and all that collectively creates a much stronger product,” Rankin said. “You have to have one foot in the present and one foot very far into future because you have to be looking at what is coming to your industry … long before the market reaches that same place in order to be able to be prepared to offer those services to your clients.”

Stiff: “Determination. You have to be determined that every day you’re going to produce products and services of excellence.

That is what we are trying to achieve – excellence. You have to be really focused and really determined to do that because you’ll have everything pull at you from time, the budgets, disparate visions and goals – there are tons of challenges.

“You just have to be very single-minded when it comes to wanting to produce excellence.” •

46

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Industrial Partners General Manager Nim Frazer (left), along with his dad, Rod Frazer bought the former Wells Fargo headquarters in Montgomery. John Stanley, president/broker of John Stanley & Associates (right), was the listing agent for Wells Fargo. Nim Frazer is an associate with Stanley.

A unique opportunity Frazers buy corporate campus on Eastern Boulevard

by David Zaslawsky

photography by Robert Fouts

To say that Industrial Partners General Manager Nim Frazer did not have to go far to purchase a corporate campus is an understatement.

His partner is his dad, Rod Frazer, an active investor in Montgomery who owns more than two million square feet of high-quality industrial and warehousing space.

Actually, Nim Frazer did not have to leave his office. That’s because John Stanley, president/broker of John Stanley & Associates, was the listing agent for Wells Fargo, which moved its Montgomery headquarters to the Lakeview Center in the EastChase development. Nim Frazer is not only an associate with Stanley, but Frazer shares office space with Stanley.

It really is a small world.

Although the Frazers declined to say what they paid for the 12.5-acre property that features two, 25,000-square feet buildings, Rod Frazer replied: “I think – as we say in the South – we bought it right.”

The property was originally on the market for a little more than $2 million and was later reduced to $1.925 million, according to Stanley. It was on the market for about 15 months before the Frazers bought it. Stanley said that he had shown the property to 10 to 12 people and two or three of them showed a lot of interest.

“I regarded it as an iconic piece of property in Montgomery and a beautiful piece of

property,” said Rod Frazer, whose only other office project was part ownership in a downtown building.

“I loved the building,” Rod Frazer said. “It was regarded as a signature corporate park.”

It was built in 1978 by Algernon Blair Industrial Contractors and the architect was PH&J Architects. The building is located at 2895 Eastern Blvd.

“It is a unique piece of property that was unlike any other office facility available for rent in Montgomery,” Rod Frazer said.

“It was all bought on speculation,” Nim Frazer said. “We had no tenants and now we have one.”

Continued on page 48

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

47

Continued from page 47

The one tenant is TCU Consulting Services, which is leasing between 6,000 and 7,000 square feet, according to Nim Frazer. The Frazers have spent close to $1 million renovating the property, which included a new elevator in one building; new electrical and air conditioning work; and a new roof. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are doing a lot of detailed work,â&#x20AC;? Rod Frazer said.

Rod Frazer

The rental rates are $12 a square foot in the Castle Building, where TCU is located, and $13.50 a square foot for the other building.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is a unique piece of property that was unlike any other office facility available for rent in Montgomery.â&#x20AC;?

-Rod Frazer

Those rates are subject to change depending on changes required for the client. Stanley said those rental rates â&#x20AC;&#x153;are very competitive.â&#x20AC;?

Rental space is available from 5,000 square feet to about 43,000 square feet.

Rod Frazer said that he offered to lease space to Montgomery Public Schools and the UAB Health Center Montgomery, which is a three-year internal medicine residency program.

Although the Frazers are out of their element of industrial and warehousing space, Nim Frazer said he saw a great opportunity. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think this is a unique opportunity and a unique time weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in. The better quality buildings like this are getting purchased by prospects like my father. The interest rates are so attractive right now that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost crazy not to take advantage of these opportunities today because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re hopeful that the market is on the way back and better days are ahead.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;˘

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BUSINESS BUZZ

BusinessBuzz spent nine years in Rödl Warren Averett’s Birmingham office.

He provides multi-disciplinary services to Korean-owned businesses including auditing, taxation and start-up/ expansion consulting on tax and business incentive filings.

Jangkeun (Paul) Han

RÖDL WARREN AVERETT EXPANDS WITH SECOND KOREAN BUSINESS SERVICES OFFICE MONTGOMERY – The certified public accounting firm of Rödl Warren Averett, LLC announced the opening of an additional Korean Business Services office in Montgomery.

The Korean Business Services offices in Auburn and now Montgomery are strategically located in the heart of the Korean automotive corridor and specialize in serving the U.S. subsidiaries of Korean entities.

In addition, two members of the team have been promoted.

Jangkeun (Paul) Han, a certified public accountant, has been promoted to national service leader - Korean business and will serve from the new Montgomery office. He has

“We are excited to welcome Paul to Montgomery and look forward to the impact he will have on the business community,” said Richard Stabler, co-managing partner of Warren Averett Wilson Price, a division of Warren Averett, LLC. Yong Seok Kwon has been promoted to director of Korean business services for Rödl Warren Averett and will continue to work from the Auburn office.

Yong provides the firm’s Korean clients with audit, income tax and merger/acquisition services.

He has experience working with manufacturing, trading and real estate investment companies.

RSA OPENS DATACENTER IN DOWNTOWN MONTGOMERY MONTGOMERY – The Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) opened its new stateof-the-art RSA Datacenter.

The datacenter, which is located in the RSA Dexter Avenue Building, provides businesses and government entities with a redundant infrastructure and the latest in access control and video surveillance.

The RSA has invested in a colocation datacenter to create and recruit high-tech and highpaying jobs to Montgomery, similar to high-tech industries in other parts of the country.

The RSA Datacenter provides 24/7/365 management of all datacenter critical component systems, infrastructure and access control. With 24/7/365 access, the customer retains full control and management of all devices hosted and contained in the datacenter. Various options are available for tenants to choose from hosting needs as well as monitoring services.

The RSA Datacenter features more than 300 secure card access racks contained within six datacenters, all totaling nearly 42,000 square feet. The datacenter contains a secure area for telecommunications carriers and providers to hand off circuits and various other connectivity throughout the center.

Danny Jeter

Jackson Thornton Technologies Expands Hosted Cloud Services Portfolio MONTGOMERY – Jackson Thornton Technologies (JTT) announced the expansion of its cloud-hosted services into a state-of-the-art datacenter through a partnership with Retirement Systems of Alabama.

JTT’s expansion into a datacenter in downtown Montgomery will provide expanded service opportunities including hosted-cloud services, hosted applications, co-location of customerowned equipment and disaster recovery/backup services.

“The demand has never been greater to provide secure access to client applications and data than it is now,” said Danny Jeter, senior manager and leader of (Continued on page 50)

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

49

BUSINESS BUZZ Doctor of Business Administration Program

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49)

Jackson Thornton Technologies.

“Today businesses face many data challenges whether it’s securing protected health care information, financial data or systems that provide a competitive advantage against their competition.

“Our datacenter facility provides the ‘best in class’ environment to ensure maximum reliability, security and availability through redundant systems that are monitored around the clock from our operations center.”

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION DONATES $33,600

TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE TOP

MONTGOMERY – The Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (AAICU) has distributed $33,600 in UPS Scholarships to students at each of its member colleges and universities in the state.

Continue working full-time while pursuing the highest level of business education with the Doctor of Business Administration degree from the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell College of Business. The Mitchell DBA program includes concentrations in management and marketing and provides all of the tools and skillsets necessary for graduates to pursue careers in academia, consulting or industry. Coursework will cover such disciplines and topics as entrepreneurship, strategic marketing, statistics, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, organizational behavior, strategic management, and consumer behavior. Mitchell DBA faculty are widely published in these areas and will work closely with DBA students to bring their own research interests to publication.

The scholarships were made possible by a grant from the UPS Educational Endowment Fund administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in Washington, D.C. Nationally, CIC and the UPS Foundation teamed up to provide nearly $1.5 million in student scholarships this year, which will be distributed through state-based private college associations around the country.

THREE -YEAR FORMAT Doctoral students are admitted each spring with classes beginning in May. The program is designed to allow all requirements to be completed in 36 months.

EXTENDED WEEKEND CLASSES

Courses will meet during Friday, Saturday and half-day Sunday sessions held 11 times per year during the first two years of the program and 6 to 8 times per year during Year 3 of the program. Each session will include pre-session preparation activities and will be followed by post-session assignments which may be submitted electronically.

To learn more about the Doctor of Business Administration Program, visit www.southalabama.edu/dba or contact Dr. John E. Gamble, Director of Graduate Studies, at 251.460.6180

MCOB_18486_2012_Doctoral_Print_Ad_3-58x10.indd 1

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

8/9/12 2:29 PM

Colleges in Alabama receiving UPS Scholarships this year from AAICU include Amridge University, BirminghamSouthern College, Concordia College, Faulkner University, Huntingdon College, Judson College, Miles College, Samford University, Spring Hill College, Stillman College, Talladega College, Tuskegee University, United States Sports Academy and the University of Mobile.

Thomas Ashley Harris

MERCHANT CAPITAL CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY MONTGOMERY – Merchant Capital is celebrating its 25th year of providing investment banking services focused primarily on public and corporate finance.

Established in 1987, Merchant Capital has grown over the last 25 years to almost 30 employees and has become one of the Southeast’s leading investment banks in public, project, real estate, housing and corporate finance as well as venture capital.

Since its inception, Merchant Capital has served as manager or co-manager on bond financings totaling more than $32 billion.

The firm manages and sells complex and large municipal issues, having completed on a standalone basis transactions as large as $500 million.

Merchant Capital has closed transactions in 39 states and has been consistently ranked as one of the top five senior managers of municipal issues in the Southeast and in the top 20 nationally. Merchant Capital has ranked No. 1 in the number of negotiated issues senior-managed every year for the past 18 years.

Merchant Capital has consistently ranked in the top three from 2003-2011 in the number of negotiated issues underwritten in its primary four-state market area (Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi).

BUSINESS BUZZ “We are proud to celebrate this special anniversary in the life of our firm,” said Thomas Ashley Harris, chairman of Merchant Capital. “At Merchant Capital, we take pride in growing a company here in Montgomery which has helped so many across the Southeast attain their goals by assisting in their strategic planning and capital raising processes.

“I credit this unique milestone to our long-standing commitment to provide our clients with the best possible outcomes for their financing needs. We are grateful for the confidence they continue to place in our team and we look forward to serving them for the next quarter century.”

year through a comprehensive nomination and qualifying process and awarded a “Best Practices Agency” designation.

The designation signifies an agency is among the 35-40 top-performing agencies in the country.

“Our passion is serving people and making sure that their insurance needs are met,” said Trey Starke, president of Starke Agency. “We are very thankful to our employees and clients for this incredible honor.”

Merchant Capital is a regional investment banking company with corporate offices in Montgomery, Atlanta, Columbia, South Carolina, and Bellevue, Washington.

Jack Hawkins Jr.

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AT TROY UNIVERSITY OPENS NEW MONTGOMERY OFFICE

Trey Starke

STARKE AGENCY RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS HONOR MONTGOMERY – Starke Agency Inc. was selected again as a Best Practices Insurance Agency.

Since 1993 the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers Association and Reagan Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, have joined forces every year to study the country’s most elite agencies in six revenue categories. The agencies comprising the study groups are selected every third

MONTGOMERY – The Confucius Institute at Troy University has opened a new office at Troy’s Montgomery Campus, giving citizens of the River Region closer access to the institute’s business, educational and cultural resources.

Troy’s Confucius Institute is the state’s only such institute, with a statewide mission of providing the people of Alabama with knowledge of China that will serve business, educational, cultural and public interests.

Opened this fall, the new Montgomery campus office will be staffed with a full-time Chinese business language teacher, giving local schools and (Continued on page 52)

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

51

BUSINESS BUZZ

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51)

businesses increased access to a variety of services including language training, study-abroad programs and translation services among other programs.

“Obviously the interest we have in China as a state and nation continues to grow, and for a variety of reasons we believe that as two world powers come together, we had best function as friends,” said Troy University Chancellor Jack Hawkins.

“The Confucius Institute is one of the best examples of soft diplomacy ever created.”

Among the programs offered

by Troy’s new Montgomery Confucius Institute office will be “Chinese in Schools,” aimed at developing Chinese language programs in Alabama schools.

The “Chinese in Schools” program will provide training and professional development for teachers, networking for schools taking part in Chinese language initiatives and afterschool programs for middle and high school students among other services.

Sales are up 10 percent through the first nine months of the year – 539,814 vehicles sold compared with 492,914 sold in 2011.

Hyundai has already surpassed the total number of vehicles sold in 2010 and is within about 105,000 units of matching last year’s all-time record.

About 35,500 of the 60,000-plus vehicles sold were Elantras and Sonatas, which are built in the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) plant in Montgomery. Elantra led the way with 18,305 units sold while there were 17,332 Sonatas sold.

HMMA built its secondmost vehicles in one month – 30,951 – this year. The top production month was August with 35,000-plus units.

“We’re well positioned for a strong fourth quarter as sales of the newly launched Elantra GT, Elantra Coupe, the all-new Azera and all-new Santa Fe continued on a brisk pace,” Dave Zuchowski, executive vice president of sales for HMA, said in a statement.

The institute’s Montgomery office is located in Whitley Hall, room 307, and can be reached at (334) 240-7325 or confucius@troy. edu. The Troy campus office can be reached at (334) 808-6348.

HYUNDAI TOPS 60,000 VEHICLES FOR SEVENTH STRAIGHT MONTH More than 60,000 Hyundai vehicles were sold in September as the Korean automaker broke the 60,000 milestone for the seventh consecutive month.

Hyundai Motor America (HMA) announced that 60,025 vehicles were sold in September, a 15 percent increase from the previous September. It also marked the 25th straight yearover-year monthly sales increase.

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Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

David Allred

NON-PROFITS SELECTED TO RECEIVE FREE MARKETING SERVICES MONTGOMERY – LWT Communications received more than 185,000 votes on its Facebook page that determined which non-profits in five Southeastern cities will receive free marketing services during its CreateAthon.

BUSINESS BUZZ Each year during LWTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CreateAthon, non-profits receive marketing services including strategic planning, brand development, copywriting and design on projects such as websites, print advertising and collaterals, and broadcast and social media campaigns.

This year, community members were asked to vote for the winning non-profits through a two-week Facebook campaign.

The winning non-profits chosen by their communities for CreateAthon 2012 are: Aid to Inmate Mothers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Montgomery Sight Savers America â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Birmingham Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mobile

for competition based on productivity, training certification, individual CSI scores and overall performance. Lyne was one of 10 finalists selected and captured first place by outscoring his competition on a 50-question test and outperforming his competitors on a 14-point vehicle walk-around.

Columbus Symphony Orchestra â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Columbus, Georgia Judge Ben Gordon Jr. Family Visitation Centers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Destin, Florida â&#x20AC;&#x153;LWT is excited to expand CreateAthon to markets outside Montgomery in 2012, including Birmingham, Mobile, Columbus, and Destin, reaffirming our commitment and involvement in communities we serve,â&#x20AC;? said LWT Partner David Allred.

Over the past 10 years, LWT has donated creative services to more than 90 organizations in conjunction with CreateAthon.

Annually, LWT provides in excess of $50,000 in pro-bono agency services during the CreateAthon event. This is the 11th year that LWT has provided those services.

Craig Lyne

CAPITOL HYUNDAI SERVICE ADVISER WINS NATIONAL COMPETITION MONTGOMERY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Capitol Hyundai service adviser Craig Lyne recently won top honors in a national competition among Hyundai service consultants and earned a slot to compete in the world competition in Seoul.

Service advisers from more than 400 Hyundai stores across the nation were selected

A native of Wetumpka, Lyne has more than 26 years of experience in the automotive industry, including a stint as manager of a large domestic service department and interim service manager at Capitol Hyundai. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re extremely proud of Craig and his big win,â&#x20AC;? said Stan Hurst, general manager of Capitol Hyundai. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This achievement speaks volumes (Continued on page 54)

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November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

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BUSINESS BUZZ

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for Craig’s dedication and work ethic and exemplifies our company’s philosophy in regards to customer service.”

Cindy Scott

Scott has served in public relations and marketing positions for more than 20 years and is the current vice president of communications of the Montgomery chapter of the PRCA.

and Alabama Gulf seafood sourced from local farmers and suppliers. A lunch menu is offered Tuesday-Friday; dinner is Monday-Saturday starting at 5:30 p.m. and there is a Sunday brunch from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

To be recognized as a senior practitioner, an individual must meet three of four criteria set forth by the Southern Public Relations Federation: have served on the board of directors of their local chapter; have been a practicing public relations professional for 15 years or more; have won a professional public relations award; and/or be an accredited public relations professional

“We’re excited to bring a completely unique restaurant to the Capital City that focuses on outstanding service and a relaxed, yet sophisticated dining experience with no gimmicks or fillers – just simple, locallysourced ingredients and dishes full of flavor,” True said.

Carol Gunter

PUBLIC RELATIONS ORGANIZATIONS RECOGNIZES TWO LOCAL MEMBERS MONTGOMERY – Two members of the Montgomery chapter of the Public Relations Council of Alabama (PRCA) were recently recognized.

Carol Gunter, public relations administrator with the City of Montgomery and Jackson Thornton Marketing Director Cindy Scott were recognized as senior public relations practitioners by the Public Relations Council of Alabama and the Southern Public Relations Federation.

Gunter, a past President of the PRCA, has worked in public relations for more than 15 years. She is a graduate of Troy University with a degree in public relations and print journalism.

54

True, who was born and raised in Mobile, attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. True moved back home to Mobile and along with his wife opened the award-winning TRUE and True Midtown Kitchen.

BEASLEY ALLEN ATTORNEYS NAMED TO 2013 BEST LAWYERS LIST Wesley True

AWARD-WINNING CHEF OPENS TRUE RESTAURANT MONTGOMERY – Husband and wife restaurateurs, Wesley True and Bobbi Heirtoff, have opened TRUE restaurant.

True, who is a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist for “Best Chef in the South,” opened the restaurant at the former Roux space at The A&P Development in Old Cloverdale.

Combining his years of experience and classical French training with his own signature twist, he crafted the menu at TRUE to reflect flavorful ingredients, meats

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

MONTGOMERY – Three lawyers from Beasley, Allen Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013.

Gibson Vance has been named the Montgomery Product Liability Litigation - Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year.” Leigh O’Dell has been named Montgomery Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions - Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year.” William E. Hopkins Jr. has been named Montgomery Personal Injury Litigation Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year.”

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal

excellence. Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peerreview survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas.

Mugs Mullins

LOCAL AGENT ELECTED VP OF REAL ESTATE GROUP MONTGOMERY – Mugs Mullins with Aronov Realty Brokerage Inc. has been elected the 2013 central region vice president for the Alabama Association of Realtors.

He will be representing 11 real estate boards and associations for the state association. Mullins currently serves as the MLS president for the Montgomery Area Association of Realtors.

“Agents such as Mullins are invaluable to our industry in serving our profession with passion and dedication and he truly epitomizes the professional standards Realtors are held to,” said Carol Andrews, vice president and general manager with Aronov Realty.

MONTGOMERY AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RECEIVES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARD MONTGOMERY – The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce received a Silver Excellence in Economic

BUSINESS BUZZ Development Award for its Success Starts Here Tour.

The Success Starts Here Tour, which was held last September, was launched as a business retention and expansion initiative as part of the Chamber’s Imagine a Greater Montgomery five-year strategic plan.

The Chamber won an award in the category of Business Retention and Expansion - Single Events for communities with populations of 200,000 - 500,000 from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

The event consisted of a half-day whirlwind tour, where media, business and political leaders toured various industries. There were four stops on the tour to showcase seven expanding

industries with a combined 1,582 existing jobs, 194 new jobs and nearly $57 million in new capital investment.

The companies on the tour were MOBIS Alabama, All State Beverage Co., J & P Khamken Industries, Smith Industries/Jay R. Smith Manufacturing Co., Thermalex, Shinsung Petrochemical and KyungshinLear.

“We recognize the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce for creating innovative and successful strategies to promote economic development in this period of global recovery,” said Jay Moon, chair of the IEDC. “The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce demonstrates that they are at the forefront of the economic

development profession and are using cutting-edge, effective practices that can be replicated in other communities.”

ABC32 WNCF TV COMPLETES POWER INCREASE MONTGOMERY – ABC32 WNCF TV announced the completion of its power increase from 50 kilowatts to 720 kilowatts.

The increased power means that over-the-air viewers as far away as Demopolis to the west, Clanton to the north, Union Springs to the east and the Florida border to the south can pick up the signal.

satellite, or over-the-air,” said Jesse Grear, vice president/ general manager of WAKA/ WNCF/WBMM TV. He manages the station for Sagamore Hill Broadcasting under a shared services agreement.

“Since the conversion, we have received calls from viewers as far away as Tallahassee, Florida to the south and Clay County to the north picking us up.” • To submit your business news for publication, email a press release to editor@montgomerychamber.com.

Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Members only.

“This is part of our commitment to provide a high-quality signal to our entire market so that it can receive ABC32 programming whether on cable,

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November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

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Members on the Move “We’re extremely pleased that Mark is joining Aliant and we are excited to welcome his extensive knowledge of Alabamians’ banking needs,” said Aliant Bank CEO Harlan Parrish. “He has exceptional experience serving clients locally and regionally.”

Mark Spencer

Spencer will be based in Alexander City.

ALIANT BANK HIRES SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT MONTGOMERY – Bringing more than 24 years of banking experience in Alabama, Mark Spencer has joined Aliant’s executive team as senior vice president and retail banking administrator.

Spencer will be in charge of retail operations for Aliant’s 15 branches in Birmingham, Montgomery and Tallapoosa.

He will also manage treasury management, marketing and the Aliant Financial Services division for the bank.

With a strong background in retail and commercial banking, Spencer has primarily worked in the Central Alabama market, including Montgomery and the nearby markets of Lee and Tallapoosa counties.

He most recently worked for ServisFirst Bank, where he was responsible for developing and expanding the bank’s local relationships and working to grow the bank’s commercial loan business. His banking career also has included leadership roles at Wachovia, SouthTrust Bank and Colonial Bank.

56

Jim Marshall

Daniel R. Thompson

JACKSON THORNTON ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONS MONTGOMERY – The accounting and consulting firm Jackson Thornton announced several promotions in offices throughout its three-state footprint.

Daniel R. Thompson, a certified public accountant, was recently selected to become a principal in the firm. Thompson joined Jackson Thornton in 2007 after beginning his public accounting career in 1998 in Montgomery.

His practice includes accounting, tax compliance, planning and consulting for closely-held small businesses with concentrations in

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

the commercial construction and health care industries.

Thompson is a graduate of Auburn University at Montgomery, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration/accounting.

James B. “Jim” Marshall III was promoted to senior manager.

Marshall, who joined Jackson Thornton in 2006, manages the firm’s utilities consultants group, providing rate design, financial forecasting and other consulting services to clients across the Southeast.

Prior to joining Jackson Thornton, Marshall worked with Energy Solutions Inc. as an energy analyst. He received his undergraduate degree from Hampden-Sydney College.

In other developments, Allison Guice was promoted to manager of the business valuation and litigation consulting group; Keina Houser was promoted to manager of the small business group; Robert Lang was promoted to manager of the utilities group; and Christy Weakley was promoted to manager of the health care group.

SYNOVUS MORTGAGE CORP. NAMES LOAN ORGINATOR MONTGOMERY – Synovus Mortgage Corp. announced the addition of Jennifer Dassel Janes as a loan originator.

She will work at the Sterling Bank location in Prattville. Dassel Janes has 14 years of mortgage lending experience.

Sterling Bank is a division of Synovus Bank.

Walter C. Dowdy

STARKE AGENCY HIRES RISK/ BONDS CONSULTANT MONTGOMERY – Starke Agency Inc. announced the addition of Walter C. Dowdy as a risk and bonds consultant.

He will be responsible for creating relationships with clients seeking to minimize risk and advise those seeking counsel on surety bonds.

Dowdy is an Auburn University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business finance. Dowdy has 30-plus years of experience in the insurance industry and has worked with several insurance brokerage agencies throughout Mississippi and Alabama.

“We are elated to have Walter join our family here at Starke,” said Starke Agency President Trey Starke.

Starke Agency is an insurance brokerage and risk management company.

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

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New Members AccountingCertified Public Samuel E. Bone, CPA Samuel E. Bone 2529 E. 5th Street Helena, AL 35080 205-260-8904

Advertising-Digital C2B Media USA Nick Autrey 201 Gunn Road Montgomery, AL 36104 334-832-3822

Antiques Montgomery Antiques & Interiors, LLC Tiffany Beasley 1955 East Boulevard Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-0961

Architects Infinity Architecture Rick Wendling P.O. Box 211208 Montgomery, AL 36117 334-836-4667

Associations/ Non-Profit Central Alabama Youth Football League (CAYFL) Thomas Wilson P.O. Box 210065 Montgomery, AL 36121 334-271-0857

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Just Keep Smiling, Inc. Mary Huey 1703 Platt Place Birmingham, AL 35203 205-397-2397 Lighthouse Counseling Center, Inc. John Roper 1415 East South Boulevard Montgomery, AL 36116 334-239-7700

Credit Union APCO Employees Credit Union Philip Farris 244 Dexter Avenue Montgomery, AL 36121

Foods-Specialized The Butcher Shop Shane Williams 9559 Vaughn Road Montgomery, AL 36117 334-303-7238

Hospitals/Clinics All Med for Women Andrea Peel 7065 Sydney Curve Montgomery, AL 36117 334-386-1400

Jewelers/Jewelry Heidiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fine Jewelry Heidi C. Woods 7857 Vaughn Road Montgomery, AL 36116 334-286-5980 Ext 223

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Legal Services Court Reporting Freedom Court Reporting & Freedom Litigation Support Mike Turner 2015 3rd Avenue North Montgomery, AL 36117 334-277-2490

Radio & Broadcasting Companies Bluewater Broadcasting Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36124 334-277-4900 WACV-THE GUMP 104.9 FM/1170 AM Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36107 334-265-3034 WBAM-Bama Country 98.9 Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Pike Road, AL 36064 334-649-4415 WJWZ- JAMZ 97.9 Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36109 334-277-1810 WQKA-HD3/YO! 107.1 Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-1170

WQKS-HD2/LITE 100.5 Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-1170 WQKS-Q96.1 Terry Barber 4101-A Wall Street Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-1170

Transportation Equipment-Mfr. ThermaSys Corporation Brett Border 2760 Gunter Park Drive West Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-0961

Uncategorized Ameresco Inc. William Mara 1992 Riva Ridge Road Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-0961 Montgomery Judo Academy & Ultimate Warrior Training Yvette Soto-Balestrieri P.O. Box 241481 Montgomery, AL 36106 334-244-0961

RIBBON CUTTINGS & GROUND BREAKINGS

HERE WE GROW AGAIN

Firestone Complete Auto Care 7035 EastChase Parkway Montgomery, AL 36117 334-244-1576 www.firestonecompleteautocare.com Tommy Gibson-Store Manager Automobile Repair Services

Saddleback Ridge Apartments 135 Hambleton Road Montgomery, AL 36117 334-244-6832 www.fosheeresidential.com Donna Chumley-Regional Property Manager Apartments

High Maintenance 2631 E Meadow Ridge Lane Montgomery, AL 36117 334-233-4420 www.highmaintenance.com Robyn Rowan-Owner Clothing & Accessories-Online

Brantwood Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home 1309 Upper Wetumpka Road Montgomery, AL 36107 334-265-0784 www.brantwoodchildrenshome.com Kim Herbert-Executive Director Community Services/Agencies

Alabama Outdoors 7917 Vaughn Road Montgomery, AL 36116 334-277-3234 www.alabamaoutdoors.com Scott McCrory-President Outdoor Supplies/Apparel

IndraSoft 60 Commerce Street, Suite 830 Montgomery, AL 36104 334-356-7035 www.indrasoft.com J.B. Carteret-Operations Manager Information Technology Firms

Goodwill Industries 5326 Atlanta Highway Montgomery, AL 36109 334-215-1723 www.algoodwill.org Gary Oos-Vice President Retail Operations Associations/Non-Profit

Women of hope 5523-C Wares Ferry Road Montgomery, AL 36117 334-279-9890 www.thewomenofhope.com Maria Ashmore-President Associations/Non-Profit

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

59

Economic Intel Unemployment Data Civilian Labor Force Area Montgomery MA

Unemployment Rate

September p

August r

September r

September p

August r

September r

2012

2012

2011

2012

2012

2011

168,763

171,401

170,858

7.70%

8.60%

9.10%

Autauga County

25,551

25,952

25,815

6.80%

7.70%

8.10%

Prattville City

16,184

16,367

16,286

6.20%

6.70%

7.10%

35,241

35,779

35,632

7.10%

8.00%

8.40%

4,174

4,259

4,335

13.20%

14.40%

16.70%

Montgomery County

103,797

105,411

105,075

7.90%

8.80%

9.30%

Montgomery City

93,355

94,831

94,483

7.80%

8.70%

9.20%

517,698

522,186

530,274

6.80%

7.60%

8.30%

88,512

89,716

91,038

9.10%

10.30%

10.90%

209,863

210,004

213,652

6.40%

7.20%

7.60%

90,236

90,385

91,719

6.60%

7.50%

7.70%

191,105

192,154

192,986

8.50%

9.60%

10.10%

89,286

89,805

90,355

8.80%

10.10%

10.70%

2,146,405

2,164,780

2,193,544

7.60%

8.50%

9.00%

155,075,000

155,255,000

154,022,000

7.60%

8.20%

8.80%

Elmore County Lowndes County

Birmingham-Hoover MA Birmingham City Huntsville MA Huntsville City Mobile MA Mobile City Alabama United States

MA=Metropolitan Area. pPreliminary rRevised Estimates prepared by the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations in Cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, based on 2011 benchmark.

60

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

Montgomery Regional Airport SEPTEMBER 2012

SEPTEMBER 2011

Year over Year % Change

YTD 2012

YTD 2011

Year over Year % Change

Air Carrier Operations

992

983

1.0%

8,893

8,759

1.5%

Total Operations

5,651

5,051

11.9%

49,783

47,632

4.5%

Enplanements

14,962

15,886

-5.8%

137,627

137,566

0.1%

Deplanements

14,813

15,387

-3.7%

138,668

136,399

1.7%

Total Passengers

29,775

31,273

-4.8%

276,295

273,965

0.9%

Source: Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM) Dannelly Field

Hyundai Sales

Airline Fares Roundtrip airfare comparisons from Montgomery, Birmingham and Atlanta airports to key destinations.

Destination

VEHICLE

YTD 2012

YTD 2011

Accent

SEPT 2012 4,313

SEPT 2011 4,525

51,438

40,770

Montgomery

Birmingham

Atlanta

Sonata

17,332

18,181

175,346

174,761

Baltimore (BWI)

$412

$246

$236

Elantra

18,305

14,386

152,575

147,922

Boston (BOS)

$387

$363

$284

Santa Fe

7,378

6,213

50,961

57,981

Charlotte, NC (CLT)

$218

$213

$152

Azera

Chicago (ORD)

$330

$241

$276

Tucson

Cincinnati (CVG)

$367

$359

$299

Dallas/Ft Worth (QDF)

$372

$332

$222

Denver (DEN)

$413

$422

Detroit (DTW)

$409

Houston (HOU)

891

79

5,993

1,407

4,573

3,724

37,844

34,896

Veloster

3,020

834

28,338

834

Veracruz

1,224

817

7,340

6,869

$233

Genesis

2,669

3,000

27,016

25,224

$392

$274

Equus

320

292

2,963

2,283

$378

$362

$318

60,025

52,051

539,814

492,914

Indianapolis (IND)

$392

$360

$291

Las Vegas (LAS)

$474

$502

$413

Los Angeles (LAX)

$481

$503

$380

Memphis (MEM)

$429

$351

$281

Miami (MIA)

$395

$359

$318

Nashville (BNA)

$380

$188

$342

New Orleans (MSY)

$401

$327

$327

New York (JFK)

$342

$312

$240

Orlando (MCO)

$377

$231

$244

Philadelphia (PHL)

$412

$282

$384

Pittsburgh (PIT)

$392

$382

$263

St Louis (STL)

$296

$217

$289

Seattle (SEA)

$453

$452

$377

$1,736

$1,211

$1,390

Tampa (TPA)

$387

$241

$300

Washington DC (DCA)

$392

$217

$284

Seoul, Korea (SEL)

Total

Source: Hyundai Motor America

Date of travel: Nov. 13-18, 2012. Date of pricing: Oct. 14, 2012. Source: travelocity.com

Building Starts Building Permits

Building Valuations

SEPTEMBER 2012

AUGUST 2012

SEPTEMBER 2011

SEPTEMBER 2012

AUGUST 2012

SEPTEMBER 2011

New Construction

28

27

14

$3,381,000

$4,124,200

$1,812,000

Additions and AlterationsÂ

50

85

64

$2,532,200

$6,307,200

$2,831,600

Others

30

31

45

$1,040,200

$258,000

$303,000

Total

108

143

123

$6,953,400

$10,689,400

$4,946,600

Source: City of Montgomery Building Department

November/December 2012 Montgomery Business Journal

61

Montgomery Metro Market Home Sales SEPTEMBER 2012

AUGUST 2012

Month/Month % Change

SEPTEMBER 2011

Year/Year % Change

Statewide SEPTEMBER 2012

Median Price

$131,750

$125,000

5.40%

$126,200

4.40%

$125,601

Average Price

$149,068

$145,194

2.67%

$150,309

-0.83%

$142,674

Units Listed

2,844

2,818

0.92%

2,899

-1.90%

33,510

Months of Supply

10.8

10.1

6.93%

12.3

-12.20%

10.5

Total # Sales

264

278

-5.04%

235

12.34%

3,178

Days on Market

101

99

2.02%

99

2.02%

159

Year over Year % Change

YTD 2012

YTD 2011

Year over Year % Change

Source: Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE), The University of Alabama

Sales Tax Collections SEPTEMBER 2012

SEPTEMBER 2011

Montgomery County

$3,207,050

$3,126,695

2.57%

$29,712,959

$28,873,410

2.91%

City of Montgomery

$7,636,168

$7,315,443

4.38%

$70,083,335

$67,919,315

3.19%

Pike Road

$171,778

$206,231

-16.71%

$1,452,470

$1,263,900

14.84%

Autauga County

$605,224

$567,121

6.72%

$5,542,571

$5,366,627

3.28%

$1,537,609

$1,492,792

3.00%

$14,639,605

$12,428,028

17.80%

Elmore County

$763,663

$421,122

81.34%

$5,231,133

$3,854,984

35.70%

Wetumpka

$457,481

$429,711

252.69%

$4,269,148

$4,095,671

4.24%

Prattville

Sources: Montgomery County Commission, City of Montgomery, City of Pike Road, Autauga County Commission, City of Prattville, Elmore County Commission, City of Wetumpka, City of Millbrook Note: YTD numbers are January 2010 thru current month. * Did not receive this months numbers.

Quarterly Reports NAME

QUARTERLY REVENUES

NET INCOME

EARNINGS PER SHARE

EARNINGS ESTIMATE

YEAR-AGO REVENUES

YEAR-AGO NET INCOME

Ruby Tuesday

$332.9M

$2.6M

$0.04

$0.05

$330.3M

$3.1M

Sales rose for the first time in 7 quarters

Costco Wholesale

$32.2B

$609M

$1.39

$1.31

$28.2B

$478M

Online sales increased 14%

Yum! Brands (Pizza

$3.1B

$471M

$1.02

$0.97

$2.8B

$383M

Profit jumped 23%

Marriott International

$2.7B

$143M

$0.44

$0.40

$2.5B

(-$179M)

Family Dollar

$2.4B

$80.9M

$0.69

N/A

$2.1B

$79.8M

Rite Aid

$6.2B

(-$41.4M)

(-$0.05)

(-$0.07)

$6.3B

(-$94.7M)

Walgreen

$17.1B

$353M

$0.39

$0.55

$18B

$792M

(Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse)

$2B

$110.8M

$0.85

$0.83

$1.9B

$106.6M

Added non-seafood items to Red Lobster menu

Bed Bath & Beyond

$2.6B

$224.3M

$0.98

$1.02

$2.3B

$229.3M

Sales rose 12%

AutoZone

$2.8B

$323.7M

$8.46

$8.42

$2.6B

$301.5M

Sales increased 4.6%

Cracker Barrel

$700M

$34.7M

$1.47

$1.30

$612.9M

$17.5M

Profit nearly doubled

Wells Fargo

$21.2B

$4.9B

$0.88

$0.87

$19.6B

$4.1B

$367.6M

$26.2M

$0.24

N/A

$339.6M

$16.6M

Hut, KFC, Taco Bell)

Darden Restaurants

Pier 1 Imports

62

Montgomery Business Journal November/December 2012

NOTABLE

Revenue per available room rose 7% Sales increased 10.8% 4% increase in the number of prescriptions filled Profit declined 55%

Mortgage banking revenue surged more than 50% to $2.8B Comparable store sales up 6.7%

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Post Office Box 79 Montgomery, AL 36101

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