Several tenants listed for Columbia office complex

Some tenants who plan to lease space at a 63,000-square-foot office complex under construction in Columbia have been identified.

According to the City of Columbia’s website, four companies so far intend to occupy the 11 South development: Progressive Family Care, ATI Physical Therapy, Quantum Vision Centers and Community Health Systems. The website also states an unnamed urgent care facility, an unnamed investment firm also will lease space.

Progressive Family Care has locations in Columbia and Waterloo. ATI has locations in Columbia, Millstadt and Freeburg. Quantum Vision Centers has a location in Swansea. There are no local locations for Community Health Systems.

The project’s developer, Admiral Parkway Development Inc., also will maintain its headquarters there. The last of the steel work is expected to be finished at the end of next week.

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Analysts say a federal jobs report for April released Friday was disappointing.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy added 160,000 jobs in April, the fewest since October of last year and well short of the 200,000 added jobs that were expected.

The unemployment rate held at 5 percent.

Some analysts, though, see the April numbers as a sign that the economy is nearing full employment. A natural symptom of full employment is a slower pace of job growth and an increase of wages, both of which occurred last month, according to the report.

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You’d almost have to see the sign to believe it: A seasonal rule at a tobacco store in Owensboro, Ky. states “Due to rising temperatures, we will NOT be accepting BOOB or SOCK money!”

Translation: The store won’t accept cash if customers pull it out of their socks or bras.

“Some of them like to bring me some soggy money," said Cindy Collins, a manager at the store. "They dig deep into their not 'so called pocket's to bring me some nasty money that we don't want to accept anymore."

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New York City joined the ranks of a mere handful of other American cities when its city council approved a fee on single-use plastic and paper bags and sacks.

By a 28-20 vote, aldermen sent the minimum 5-cent fee to Mayor Bill DeBlasio, who has promised to sign the fee into law.

Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. have similar fees on bags, which local experts have said drive the use of those bags downward as customers decide to bring their own reusable bags.

Opposition to the New York fee included council members who worried that it would affect the poor and elderly who couldn’t afford even the slightest increase in the cost of living and that it could drive shoppers who wanted to avoid the fee to stores in New Jersey.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Several tenants listed for Columbia office complex."