A familiar East Memphis office building, with its script “Century Building" sign in front and mechanized, louvered windows on the sides, is proposed to be demolished and replaced with a car wash.

Memphis-based International Paper Co. has donated $1 million to the River City Partnership, a collaboration between the University of Memphis, Shelby County Schools and the Achievement School District.

After more than a decade with only one hotel on the south side of Tenn. 385 near the Carriage Crossing center in Collierville, two new limited-service hotels are in various stages of development and a third hotel is under consideration.

Whether it’s Giving Tuesday or year-end giving, your gift is truly a gift.

Imagine an everyday scenario where friends meet for lunch without a plan. One friend suggests Chinese and everyone agrees. But where? Smartphones are drawn. A few swipes and a quick search later and the friends are headed to a nearby restaurant with positive reviews. This business owner is reaping the benefits of micro-moment marketing.

Dakota Garrity presides over central control at FedEx Ground in Olive Branch, Mississippi, like a NASA flight director overseeing a moon mission.

Despite big-box retailers such as Lowe's, Home Depot and Ikea, the custom cabinet business is alive and well in the Bluff City.

The developers of a Germantown-area retirement community are ready to begin round two.

Amanda and David Bass’ chances of having a healthy pregnancy were not good. Their fertility specialist told them there was a 75 percent chance that Amanda and/or the baby would not make it.

Oak Hall and Lansky Bros. are collaborating on a unique project that gives back to the patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A set of three pairs of collectible socks is available just in time for the holidays, and sales benefit St. Jude.

A new, larger Wiseacre brewery Downtown would enable the Memphis company to double its full-time employment and expand distribution of its craft beer initially into all of Alabama as well as Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. “We’re in seven states full-time,’’ co-founder Kellan Bartosch said Friday of Wiseacre Brewing Co.'s current footprint. “And we’ve had conversations with markets all over.’’

New management of  The Shops at Carriage Crossing wants to enhance the pedestrian-friendly shopping center’s customer experience – a shifting of direction for the business district.

While big-box retailers like Best Buy and Walmart tend to dominate Black Friday sales, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is when consumers “shop small.” In 2010, when small businesses were struggling from an economic recession, American Express declared the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday, a marketing effort that encourages people to include small, local businesses in their holiday shopping.

A keynote presentation by Paul Campbell, chief innovation officer at W.L. Gore & Associates, from the Back End of Innovation Conference.

About 26 years ago, Amy Howard started Amy Howard Collection, a company where she designed and manufactured furniture.

Wiseacre Brewing Co. plans to build a second, larger brewery Downtown. Abel Parcels LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wiseacre, is seeking a Board of Adjustment variance to build on 2.5 acres at the southeast edge of Downtown. B.B. King Boulevard, East Butler and Vance avenues and Abel Street border the site.

At a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are competing with e-commerce, Downtown Memphis is trying to figure out if it can support retail at all.

Shab Chic Marketplace, a set of gussied-up shipping containers housing retail, was originally supposed to open in November 2017. It is located in the parking lot next to the former Kudzu’s Bar & Grill, which had an address of 603 Monroe Ave. Across the street is High Cotton Brewing and Edge Alley, the latter of which also houses micro-retailers.

The Beale Street archway signs are loved by some and hated by some, but with nearly 1 million impressions in six months, there’s no debate. They work. For the past six months, Chris Porter, the local graphic designer who created the winning submission, has been keeping track of how many times the archways appeared in an online video or were posted to social media.

The Metal Museum proposes to spend $21 million to renovate Overton Park’s Rust Hall and make it a “world class museum and educational center." The museum board approved what it calls the “expansion plan" in September as part of its campaign to win the keys to Rust Hall.  The 78,000-square-foot headquarters of Memphis College of Art becomes available after the school closes in May 2020.

Shelby County’s unemployment rate rose slightly for the month of October, according to the most recent statistics released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Ray’s Take: The longest known will filed in probate court was in 1925. It was 1,066 pages long and belonged to Frederica Evelyn Stilwell Cook. Her will was bound into four leather books and detailed what should happen to every single item she possessed. It also included specific requests such as not putting her age on her tombstone. Can you imagine being the executor of her will?

There really is no such thing as “one size fits all,” especially when it comes to education. The needs and life circumstance vary from student to student. For adults who dropped out of high school for whatever reason and want to earn a high school diploma, Goodwill Excel Center and Shelby County Schools have worked the past few years to determine the exact fit for those students.

Highlights of a Back End of Innovation keynote by Alex Goryachev, managing director of innovation strategy and programs at Cisco's Corporate Strategic Innovation Group. 

The Racquet Club of Memphis will close in the spring as the owners pursue another use besides tennis for the 12 acres in the heart of East Memphis’ bustling Poplar Corridor.