Nashville-based Premier Parking has been selected to manage operations of the garage at downtown's One Nashville Place.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a release, Daymark Realty Advisors, the property management company for ONP, said Premier was selected based upon its “proven ability to incorporate innovative technology with excellent customer service.”

Premier Parking has already begun to institute a plan to improve parking service for the 534-space garage, the company said. Some amenities will include providing parkers with loaner umbrellas, and car wash and detailing services, as well as a laundry pick-up and delivery service.

The Class A One Nashville Place, with about 410,000 square feet, rises 25 stories and is sometimes affectionately referred to by locals as the R2D2 Building. Major tenants include Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, Regions and CBRE.

Parmenter Realty, the owner of the Nashville City Center, has teamed up with Gresham Smith & Partners and R.C. Mathews Contractor to start work on the 475-space underground parking garage adjacent to the downtown office tower. Work on the five-story project is expected to wrap up late next year. The street-level plaza near Sixth Avenue North and Union Street also will look a little different by then.

BB&T officials on Monday said their Grandbridge Real Estate Capital division recently brokered a deal to help fund the construction of the 475-spot parking garage being built next to the Nashville City Center by Parmenter Realty. Miami-based Parmenter last year committed to build the underground garage — it could eventually have up to 25 stories built on top of it — to help convince law firm Waller to renew its City Center lease. The terms of the deal handled by Grandbridge: Five years, 6 percent and 18 months of interest-only payments.

Shareholders of Chicago-based Standard Parking will vote Tuesday to approve the company's planned acquisition of Central Parking, which was worth about $350 million when it was announced in March. That prompted to take a look through the Standard's proxy to see how Nashville-based Central Parking has changed since May of 2007, when a trio of private-equity firms took control of the parking giant. The short answer is that it's a smaller, much less indebted company but one that still isn't making money: Through the first six month of its current fiscal year, total revenues came in at $394 million, about 10 percent less on an annualized basis than in its first fiscal year after going private. The company has lost $190 million in the last four and half of years, the vast majority of which was from impairment charges in fiscal 2010 and 2011. The company's debt load, which stood at almost $660 million in 2007, has shrunk by more than two-thirds.

Away from the balance sheet, two other indicators struck us as interesting. Central Parking's employee base stood at roughly 14,000 this spring, down from almost 19,000 in the fall of 2006 — a small piece of that is due to the sale of its Canadian operations in early 2008 — and the company's portfolio of facilities has held steady in recent years as the sale of owned facilities was offset by more managed contracts. But the total number of facilities being handled by Central Parking employees is down 35 percent from 2004.

First Baptist Church officials have decided to demolish the recreation center building that suffered fire damage in April and use the site, located on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue South and McGavock Street, for surface parking.

Frank R. Lewis, FBC senior pastor, said to have replaced the structure could have cost approximately $1 million.

“Most of the ministries that took place in the recreation center will continue in other parts of our campus,” said Lewis, whose church is planning a campus master plan for a major redevelopment of its SoBro property.

Lewis said the church’s property management committee has not awarded a contract for the demolition but hopes to do so soon.

Full-scale work on Phase I of the new-look FBC might not begin until 2014. Lewis said the congregation has elected a steering committee, chaired by Hugh Sloan, that will begin its work next month in the hopes of presenting a recommendation to the congregation in the fall.

“A two-year window of time to plan and approve a project that will serve the Nashville community for another 50 to 70 years is not very long into the future for us,” Lewis said. “Bottom line is, we have an opportunity to provide a safer and more efficient space for needs in our downtown community.”

A partnership between Central Parking and Morgan Stanley has been cleared to submit bids to buy or lease a group of parking lots and garages that comprise almost three-quarters of all public spaces in Harrisburg, Pa. Pennsylvania's insolvent capital is looking to raise millions to help it manage its debts. Morgan Stanley and Central Parking are up against more than 10 other bidders ranging from pure-play parking management companies to investment firms.

In Chicago, a different Morgan Stanley venture may reap $9.58 billion in profit over a 75-year lease of city parking facilities, based on documents from the group. The bank, joined by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners, set up a venture to lease the Chicago operations in 2008. The profit was estimated based on projections in a 2010 offering document.