business briefs
• Knoxville Catholic High School recently hired Adarius Bowman as associate director of Admission Outreach and International Enrollment.
Additionally, he will assist Fighting Irish football as a wide receivers coach.
Bowman recently completed his career in the Canadian Football League and recently was honored as a member of the CFL’s All-Decade Team (2010-2020) as a wide receiver.
Bowman led the CFL in receiving yards three seasons and helped lead the Edmonton Eskimos to a Grey Cup Championship in 2015.
• FirstBank, which has a branch in Farragut, has committed to a $10 million investment in The Housing Fund for the organization’s Shared Equity Program of affordable housing.
The Shared Equity Program allows for sustainable, continuous affordable housing solutions through renewable single-family homes.
FirstBank’s commitment will fund home loans made to low- to moderate-income individuals in majority minority census tracks for families in Tennessee.
Homebuyers in the program are only required to provide 1 percent of the purchase price, with 25 percent contributed by The Housing Fund and the other 74 percent coming from a FirstBank loan.
Once the homeowner is ready to move on, they can sell it only to another qualified low- to moderate-income buyer affiliated with The Housing Fund. At closing, The Housing Fund gets back its 25 percent contribution at 0 percent interest.
• Lesa Baker has joined Weichert, Realtors – Advantage Plus’ Knoxville office, 10160 Parkside Drive.
• BarberMcMurry Architects recently won an AIA Tennessee and two AIA East Tennessee awards for their work at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and the University of Tennessee. For the restoration of St. George Greek Orthodox Church, BMA won an AIA Tennessee Merit Award. The restoration followed a 2015 fire and included the church’s traditional Byzantine architecture and hand-crafted glass mosaics. BMA won an AIA East Tennessee Merit Award for renovating ETCH’s chapel and for its design of UT’s Student Union in conjunction with McCarty Holsaple McCarty.
• Knox County and Knoxville-Knox County Planning are embarking upon a comprehensive planning process, dubbed Advance Knox, to guide community land use and transportation decisions for the next two decades.
The process was launched last year by Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs when the search process for a consultant to lead the project began. A consultant team led by Kimley Horn and Planning was selected near the end of the year.
Advance Knox will analyze population growth projections, land availability and infrastructure conditions in Knox County. It also will incorporate an in-depth and fiscal impact analysis of the county’s transportation network, including safety, capacity and multi-modal access.
• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee recently announced appointees from Knox County to a series of key boards and commissions.
The appointees include: Jenny Boyd, Arts Commission; Tom Midyett, Forestry Commission; Todd Skelton, Tennessee Housing Development Agency Board of Directors; and Tomi Robb, University of Tennessee Knoxville Advisory Board.
• Suresh Babu recently was appointed senior advisor for research and STEM workforce development initiatives at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in a role focusing on strategic investments in research and development and curricular innovations aimed at preparing a 21st-century STEM workforce.
