U of M-Area Apts. Sell for $1.6M in Foreclosure

The Dive Shop in East Memphis will celebrate its 50th year in business Saturday, July 23. The event, an open house from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature food and music as then as seminars on a variety of diving topics and photography from local photographers’ trips around the world.

The store across from East High School in 1961

Doug McNeese opened the store across from East High School in 1961, and by 1981, afterwards his son had taken over the business, The Dive Shop had grown to three locations: one in Little Rock, one in Atlanta and the original Memphis store.

Memphis-based total protection company State Systems Inc. has acquired Communications Research Group Inc., a firm specializing in communications systems and low-voltage services.

The acquisition

With the acquisition, State Systems will be able to enhance its innovation division focused on structured cabling. The move as well gives State Systems the ability to offer clients a variety of telephone sales and services options.

Communications Research Group’s digital signage division as well will broaden the range of services State Systems can offer customers.

Communications Innovation Group was founded in 2003 by Bartlett-area residents Larry Brown and Doug Wylie. It has a certified team of engineers and technicians and a variety of services that range from structured cabling systems and fiber-optic cable services to voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, and business telephone systems and services.

State Systems is a privately owned company with services housed in five divisions: fire protection, cleaning services, research, low voltage and first aid.

Tickets for the Living Awards are $100 an individual or $1,000 for a table for 10, and can be purchased by calling 516-0500.

The Tennessee Flea Market

The Tennessee Flea Market, the largest indoor flea market in Tennessee, closed its doors Sunday afternoon, leaving about 300 vendors without a place to market their products. The property managers called a meeting over the weekend and told vendors they must have their products out of the building by 5 p.m. Sunday, July 17, said Tiffany Greenlee, owner of The Candle Bakery and a vendor at the market. The Small Business Chamber, some of whose members are vendors at the market, posted on its Facebook page Sunday that the initial manager had stolen $200,000 from the business and made other poor business decisions. The SBC as well reported investors lost more than $700,000 and cannot continue to operate the business.The vendors are being forced to leave the market although some have paid rent through the end of the month. "We all had paid rent for the month of July, so nobody received any of their money back. And for the ones who hadn’t paid, they were holding their stuff hostage until they paid, though they were going to vacate," Greenlee said.One vendor who preferred to remain nameless said it was a good possibility for small business owners, nevertheless he never wants to be a part of that situation again."It was pretty devastating for a lot of us," Greenlee said. "It was like an incubator for small businesses to have a place to get started, and some vendors had to just pack up their stuff and leave, not know specifically where we were going to go." The Tennessee Flea Market opened in April with 600 vendors inside the old Kmart building nearly Winchester and Riverdale roads. It was Memphis’ first flea market scheduled to be open every weekend of the year.