Investments Blog

An activist investor has offered to buy Nashville-based restaurant company J. Alexander’s Holdings Inc. in a bid valued at $186 million.

Nashville Post reports that the offer came Monday from Ohio-based Ancora Advisors, which controls nearly 9 percent of J. Alexander’s (NYSE: JAX). The value is based on an offer to pay $11.75 per share of J. Alexander’s. Shares had closed Friday at $10.48.

J. Alexander’s did not respond to a request for comment from the Post.

In addition to J. Alexander’s,…

A local company is breathing new life into the former Silvertron Restaurant location in the Forest Park neighborhood.

In early fall, Jay Draper and Mark Thompson plan to open a café and new store in the space, which sits next to their store and greenhouse, Shoppe, according to Bham Now.

Silvertron closed last summer after restaurant owners Marco and Elan Morosini returned to their native Italy.

The new café will serve breakfast, lunch, loose leaf teas and coffees. Draper and Thompson are also…

Plus, a new pastry chef at Il Posto and a new spring menu at The Palm.

For the first time since Tivoil Brewing began making beer again in 2015, a member of the family that owned it at the time of its original closing in 1969 was brewing there.

The Roastery Coffee Kitchen has opened its third location — its biggest one yet by far.

The new flagship location is attached to the H-E-B grocery store at 5895 San Felipe St. in Houston and held its grand opening on April 8, according to a press release. Previously, that H-E-B was home to Table 57, the grocer’s first full-service in-house restaurant. The former restaurant debuted with the grocery store's 2015 opening and closed at the end of 2017.

The newest Roastery spans about 7,600 square…

It's no surprise to women in the industry, but researchers at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative say there’s a lack of women among the artists and songwriters on popular country music charts.

Their recent report, “No Country for Female Artists,” notes that, for the second year in a row, all nominees for entertainer of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards were men. NPR reports that news prompted the Initiative’s research.

Reba McEntire,…

Down because March Madness is over? We have something that might perk you up.

Business First is launching Caffeine Clash, a bracket competition pitting the best Albuquerque coffee houses against each other. Locals only — sorry Starbucks fans.

We'll start with 32 coffee spots and have readers vote until we're down to one. Following is the schedule for Caffeine Clash:

Round 1: Today – April 14

Round 2: April 15 – April 21

Round 3: April 22 – April 25

Round 4: April 26 – April 29

The winner…

The Kansas City Art Institute is ready to start helping its students get into the business mindset.

KCAI's new minor in Entrepreneurial Studies in Art and Design will be offered with the help of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

According to a Monday release, the new minor “will prepare artists and designers to have an entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen, and the leadership skills to engage in innovative artistic ventures.”

The…

Conflict between the federal Bureau of Land Management and organizers of the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert has put the annual counterculture gathering on notice.

Tensions began in March, when in response to organizers’ request for a new 10-year permit, the BLM — a division of the Department of the Interior — released a two-part Draft Environmental Impact Statement of the festival’s effects on the desert environment. About 80,000 people now attend the Black Rock desert…