🪫GM exits battery plant; Airport to offer easy exit; Taylor exits tour this weekend.

General Motors has agreed to sell its stake in a nearly completed electric vehicle battery plant in Lansing, Michigan. The sale to joint venture partner LG Energy Solution of South Korea is expected to close by the end of March. GM has paid about $1 billion toward the factory, and said it expects to recoup its investment.

Blackland Distillery, established in 2019 by attorney/chef Markus Kypreos, is getting an investment from Terlato Artisan Spirits to expand nationally. Blackland's products include bourbons, vodka, gin and rye whiskey. Terlato is best known for its Chimney Rock wines.

The first 23-hour-a-day stock market trading platform has been approved by the SEC. How will it change the industry?

To reduce traffic and wait times, D-FW International Airport announced that it will soon be going cashless at its exit plazas in 2025. Starting in February, travelers can pay using toll tags, credit/debit cards, or Apple and Google Pay.

Texas has been a desired spot for cryptocurrency mining data centers. With the drain on power grids, state regulators soon will require companies to register and submit detailed disclosures about their energy use and operations. 

The Arlington Carmelite nuns, who have sued and battled with Fort Worth Catholic Bishop Michael Olson more than a year, are "extinct," according to the Vatican.

Embraer recently announced a $70-million investment in a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility at Perot Field Alliance Airport in Fort Worth. Breaking Defense caught up with the Embraer CEO to learn more about its U.S. plans.

The real estate arm of entrepreneur Ron Sturgeon, a commercial property investor and noted shirt and car collector, has acquired McMillan Center, a three-building, 137,083-square-foot complex with 16,073 square feet of covered dock space on 9.9 acres at 2550 McMillan Parkway in Fort Worth. The seller agreed to flip the project after just a few months of ownership. Sturgeon eventually will move his headquarters from Haltom City. Bradford Commercial Real Estate represented Sturgeon. 

Ready Capital has agreed to acquire United Development Funding IV, a REIT focused on residential real estate financing. The deal offers UDF IV shareholders a mix of cash and Ready Capital stock. In 2022, four executives of then Grapevine-based UDF IV were found guilty of fraud, misusing investor funds to cover obligations of its other funds. 

William Campbell Gallery, started by Bill and Pam Campbell and now under the stewardship of the Fort Worth Contemporary Art Partners, is 50. Here's your chance to take a look. 

Texas Christian University Chancellor Victor J. Boschini is transitioning to Chancellor Emeritus, the school announced, and TCU President Daniel W. Pullin will succeed him June 1, 2025. Chancellor Emeritus means Boschini will keep his title with the university.

The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at TCU was presented with the 2024 NASDAQ Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. This national honor is the highest recognition that a university entrepreneurship center or institute can receive.

Rehab on the Range: What can the Fort Worth Narcotic Farm teach us? Built southwest of the city where the Federal Medical Center is today, the farm was the only federally funded drug treatment center west of the Mississippi when patients arrived in 1938. Professor and author Holly Karibo's new book analyzes the impact and legacy of the progressive and controversial drug treatment facility.

Expensive ale: According to an airport beer price study, the average cost of a domestic beer at D-FW International Airport is $11.99, the third most expensive price across 50 U.S. airports.

Tour for the ages: Taylor Swift’s 21-month Eras Tour ends this weekend in Vancouver, leaving an economic legacy. The tour has boosted economies worldwide. The U.S. enjoyed a $4.3B contribution to its gross domestic product (GDP). In New Orleans, three sold-out shows boosted the local economy by $200M. The average ticket price was $1,088.56.

Daily digit: $47,612 = The average price for a new car in the U.S. in October, according to data from Edmunds. It's a jump of almost $10,000 from the average price in October 2019. Because of high interest rates on car loans, the average monthly (new) car payment in October was $742.

Significant stat:  43 percent of American adults have at least one unused gift card, gift voucher or store credit. Those unused gift cards add up — to $244 per person on average, according to a new survey by Bankrate..

Notable and quotable: "You drill your fair share of dry holes, but you never lose your optimism." —T. Boone Pickens (1928-2019), oil wildcatter, hedge fund manager 

Snippets:

• The Dallas Observer on “tour” with Fort Worth photographer Rambo Elliott’s healing homage to connection and vulnerability. 

• Uncuffed: Non-profits can get up to $50k in grant funding from the Fort Worth Police Department.

• Fort Worth Bike Sharing cycles out; Trinity Metro will have replacement program in 2025.

• At 17, he bought a sandwich shop for $125,000. He re-named it Jersey Mike’s and just sold it for $8 billion. 

• How businesses can get the most out of generative AI right now.

   

Announcements:

• First Cash: Douglas Rippel retires from Board.

• Omni Fort Worth Hotel: Names Noel Vera National Sales Manager. 

• Fun on the Run Plus One: Adds Jeremiah Bush as CFO. 

• Fort Worth Chamber: Promotes Ashley Payne to Senior Membership Manager.