BEALE STREET:
Financial adviser submits bid to take control of the historic district
Memphis businessman joins bidding for job of managing historic district.
Brian Saulsberry led unsuccessful efforts last decade to buy and repurpose big, empty public buildings: the MidSouth Coliseum in 2005 and the Pyramid arena three years later.
Now the Memphis native and financial adviser is at the forefront of a bid to take over management of the city-owned Beale Street Historic District.
Saulsberry’s DSG Group was the only new applicant to submit a management proposal last month to the Beale Street Tour- ism Development Authority. DSG joined two firms, 21 Beale Street Inc. and ML Professional Properties, that had previously submitted responses to an initial request for proposals last year.
The city of Memphis owns the threeblock district between Second and Fourth streets and leases property to bars and restaurants. It’s one of Tennessee’s bigger tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 5 million visitors a year.
ML is led by Mark Lovell, a Memphisbased organizer and promoter of fairs and trade shows, including the Delta Fair; 21 Beale’s principals are real estate executives Reginald Peyton and Kelvin Willis of Memphis and lawyer and former nightclub operator Dwain Kyles of Chicago. The original RFP — the request for proposals — drew four proposals. The Beale board in April voted to reject them all and begin the process anew after members said they weren’t completely satisfied with any of the firms. Two of the original candidates, international real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle of Chicago and Memphis office building manager Capital Realty Services, elected not to submit new proposals. The authority’s lawyer and search consultant were still vetting proposals last week in preparation for interviews by a management committee.
Officials cast a wider net for would-be managers the second time around and said they were encouraged when at least 13 firms expressed interest. But search consultant Jeff Sanford cautioned that interest wouldn’t necessarily translate into proposals, and only three application packets were received before a June 24 deadline.
The tourism development authority was formed by the city last year to oversee Beale Street, which has been under interim management by the Downtown Memphis Commission since previous manager John Elkington’s firm ended a 31-year run at the end of 2013.
Saulsberry’s group and 21 Beale are minority-owned.
Saulsberry said he didn’t submit a proposal the first time because DSG Group was in the process of winning certification as a minority-owned business from the Mid-South Minority Business Continuum.
All three proposals address the need for more attention to safety and security on Beale as a major issue. While the RFP was open, Beale Street was the subject of high-profile incidents including reported late-night stampedes by crowds and the death of a police officer, who was struck by a vehicle at Beale and B.B. King Boulevard.
Lovell’s proposal says key manage-
ment functions will be performed by executives from within his organization. DSG Group and 21 Beale propose to assemble key associates to deal with tasks such as security, finance and accounting, building maintenance, marketing and entertainment programming.
Saulsberry, 40, grew up in Hickory Hill, graduated from Kirby High School and received a finance degree from Howard University in Washington.
He said DSG’s qualifications for the contract include private equity finance work on sports facility deals and multifamily housing. DSG owns controlling interest in Live Entertainment Group, which books concerts at venues including Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis.
DSG was part of a group that pursued the former Montreal Expos Major League Baseball franchise more than a decade ago.
Saulsberry’s company, DLG Baseball LLC, pitched a plan for a publicly financed stadium in Nashville to house the Expos in 2003, according to The Tennessean. Two years later, Saulsberry proposed a baseball stadium financing plan to the D.C. Council in 2005, The Washington Post said.
Saulsberry said his firm was a financial adviser on the eventual Washington Nationals stadium deal and had a role in the M Street entertainment district near the stadium.
Saulsberry led DSG Capital Group in a proposed $8 million to $11 million deal in 2005 to lease-purchase and renovate the Mid-South Coliseum as an entertainment venue. He backed off after the city and county didn’t act on the offer for several months.
In 2008, Saulsberry’s DSG Capital Realty Group Inc. joined with an Atlanta-based group of pro athletes, Allied Athlete Group LLC, to propose a $12.8 million purchase of the vacant Pyramid arena for a family-oriented entertainment attraction. The city was already deep in negotiations with Bass Pro Shops at that time.
Saulsberry was on the ballot for a City Council seat in 2007 and entered, but withdrew, from the 9th Congressional district race in 2012 and the city mayor’s race in 2015.
Lovell is a candidate in the Republican primary for the state house seat held by Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville.
Dwain Kyles’ 20-year stint as a Chicago nightclub owner ended in tragedy in 2003 when 21 people died in a stampede at the club Epitome. Kyles was found guilty of indirect criminal contempt in housing court, a misdemeanor linked to building code violations, but an appeals court judge later ruled the owners’ actions were “not the legal proximate cause” of the disaster.