Once a pawn a time in Memphis, the U.S. Chess Federation held their high school championships at the Renasant Convention Center. Kidding! That’s happening today — Wednesday, April 6.

Also today, the Shelby County Commission will hold their committee sessions. And the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Design Review Board meets this afternoon with the Conwood II development on the agenda. 

This morning at 10 a.m., the Greater Memphis Chamber and UnitedHealthcare will announce a new health coverage option for the city’s small businesses. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

FedEx Logistics President & CEO Udo Lange (middle) jokes about the big scissors during a grand opening ceremony at the new global headquarters inside the former Gibson Guitar Factory building on Monday. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

FedEx Logistics, meet FedExForum: FedEx Logistics’ new Downtown global headquarters opened on Tuesday just across the street from the arena bearing the company’s name. The new $50 million headquarters is located in the former Gibson Guitar factory, and more than 600 FedEx workers will be consolidated into the single Downtown workspace. The move was first announced in 2019, but plans were delayed by the murder of Greater Memphis Chamber president Phil Trenary on a Downtown sidewalk that same year. “We needed to kind of take a step back, process that as a community and also our employees. We had to ensure our employees felt safe down here,” said FedEx Express president and CEO Richard Smith. 

Groundbreaking for the Grand Hyatt is slated to begin this May, and Caption by Hyatt will open this summer. The new hotels, as well as the Hyatt Centric, shown here, are part of the One Beale development. (Ziggy Mack/Special to The Daily Memphian file)

One Beale and the Soulsville TIF: The Memphis City Council approved back-up funding for the One Beale development on Tuesday. The debt service on One Beale’s three hotels, totaling 700 rooms, in the $220 million multi-use development includes the possibility that the city would put up $3.25 million of a secondary $6 million reserve fund. City chief operating officer Doug McGowen said ongoing economic uncertainty from the pandemic has raised prices to get projects like One Beale financed. The city also approved a pair of resolutions that are the first step toward a Soulsville Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district. Previously, the council had discussions about how the small area included in the Soulsville TIF wasn’t expected to generate enough money — $3 million total over a 30-year period — to be worth it. But Jeffrey Higgs, from one of the groups pushing for the TIF, said “I don’t want to say something is better than nothing. But, you know, we’ve got to get going. We’ve got projects lined up.”

“I can assure you the No. 1 factor before expertise would be independence,” Memphis City Council attorney Allen Wade, seen here in 2017, said about an energy consultant. (Daily Memphian file)

Council to hire energy consultant: On Tuesday, the Memphis City Council approved a resolution to hire its own energy consultant to advise them as Memphis Light, Gas & Water considers whether or not to stay with Tennessee Valley Authority as its power provider. The council isn’t sure yet how much a consultant will cost or what the scope of their work will be, but council attorney Allan Wade told the group the most important quality for a consultant is independence from the numerous factions pushing for MLGW to stay with or leave TVA. Council member Cheyenne Johnson, who introduced the resolution, said the consultant should look at the more than two dozen proposals made to build parts of a new electric supply system should MLGW break with TVA.

Teresa Hinton walks out of the Dave Wells Community Center gymnasium after voting in this 2019 file photo. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)

More calls for more early voting sites: The Memphis City Council approved a resolution urging the Shelby County Election Commission to increase the number of voting locations during the first two days of early voting, which starts on April 13. Because most of the early voting locations are churches, the election commission is only providing one voting site — the Shelby County Election Commission office Downtown — for the first two days of early voting, and then voting expands by a few more sites that Saturday, April 16. But the full list of voting sites won’t be open until after Easter Sunday. Last week, a group filed a lawsuit against the election commission alleging the lack of voter sites open before Easter amounts to voter suppression. The council’s resolution is not binding on the election commission.

“Gas stations evidently are a very profitable business, but we want to make sure we get them on our terms,” Arlington Mayor Mike Wissman said. “And that doesn’t just apply to gas stations. It goes for the hotel/motel moratorium and other types of businesses too.” (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian file)

Foot off the gas: The leaders of Arlington want to make good and sure any new gas stations there are built on their terms. On Monday, their Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously extended a ban on building gas stations until January. They had previously approved a 12-month moratorium last April. The board also unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance to create a fund for the development of a new Arlington Town Hall. 

MEET MEMPHIS

Joshua Hood is the author of “The Treadstone Transgression” from Putnam, part of Robert Ludlum’s Operation Treadstone series. (Beth Lee/Courtesy Putnam)

Who better to write military and espionage thrillers than a former SWAT team sniper and Iraq War veteran? After his son was born, Collierville’s Joshua Hood thought, “There might be safer ways to make a living.” Since then, he’s written three books in Robert Ludlum’s Operation Treadstone series, the latest of which — “The Treadstone Transgression” — was released this week. Ludlum, who died in 2001, was the creator of the Jason Bourne series, and his estate and publisher chose Hood to expand the action in Ludlum’s covert CIA world of Operation Treadstone. Hood will talk about his book tonight at a release event at Novel. 

THE NICE TO KNOW

Chef Tam Patterson reacts at a watch party for Food Network’s “Chopped,” which she won. “I’m so grateful to have everyone here to celebrate with me,” she said. (Houston Cofield/Special To The Daily Memphian)

Deep-fried victory: Chef Tamra Patterson of Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe was the winner on last night’s “Chopped” on the Food Network. The cooking competition’s theme was “Epic BLT Battle,” and Patterson beat out three other chefs and won $10,000 with her Big Tex Deep-fried Mac and Cheese with Tomato-Sriracha sauce. Patterson held a watch party and celebration at her restaurant on Union Avenue last night, and roughly 200 people turned out to celebrate. Patterson addressed the crowd, after walking onto the cafe’s stage to Queen’s “We Are the Champions”: “I’m so glad to finally be able to celebrate it, for everyone to know how it turned out.” Patterson taped the episode in October but was sworn to secrecy about the outcome.

Utah jazz guard (and former Grizzly) Mike Conley, left, defends against Memphis Grizzlies guard Tyus Jones (21) on April 5 in Salt Lake City. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Grizzlies lose, but Redbirds win: The Memphis Grizzlies ran out of gas as they lost, 121-115, in an overtime game against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night. Kyle Anderson grabbed the offensive rebound and flipped it up to tie the game at 110 as the horn sounded, and rookie Ziaire Williams tickled him in celebration. After forward Jaren Jackson Jr. fired them back into the game in the final minutes of regulation with a pair of 3-pointers, his shots went cold and the Grizzlies fell. Sure, that’s disappointing as the Grizzlies have been on quite the winning streak. But we have some good news: The Memphis Redbirds won their season opener against the Gwinnett Stripers Monday night at AutoZone Park, 2-1.

Looking in on Lucy: All of the buzz around legislation affecting ownership and operation of county schools inside municipal boundaries has centered around Germantown’s three namesake schools — Germantown Elementary, Middle and High. But the bill, which passed the state House earlier this week and will soon go to the Senate, could also affect Lucy Elementary in Millington. “We are sitting back and watching. It won’t affect anything until this is finalized,” said Millington Municipal School District Superintendent Bo Griffin. At this point, Millington has not held conversations with the county school system. 

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Here’s your friendly reminder that Memphis Grizzlies playoff tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today.

And with that, I’ll see you later!

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