$7.5 million plasma donor center planned
For-profit plasma donor centers in Memphis are typically housed in Class B or Class C buildings and in commercial districts near economically struggling neighborhoods, where more residents might have reason to sell their blood than give it away.
But now comes BioLife Plasma Services. The company has filed building documents showing it intends to construct a “world-class,” $4.5 million facility. Counting equipment, furnishings and soft costs, the project is a $7.5 million initial investment, company officials told The Commercial Appeal by email.
And the site where BioLife chose to build in Memphis — a bustling section of the Germantown Parkway corridor — is hardly stressed. The vacant lot is across Bellevue Parkway from Wolfchase Toyota and just around the curve from the new Ikea.
By contrast, a review of the existing Memphis buildings housing plasma-collection facilities shows that the one with the highest value was the corporate headquarters for the Memphis-based Interstate Blood Bank. Its 32,539square-foot building at 5700 Pleasant View is appraised for tax purposes at $1.2 million by the Shelby County Assessor’s Office.
More typical would be the facility at 3582 Walker near the University of Memphis and all the college students in need of $25 spending money per donation. That Interstate Blood Bank building is appraised for $134,400. Or Plasma Biological Services at 3514 Ramill in Raleigh, which is housed in a strip center space appraised at $180,000.
Larry Moss, who heads the Interstate Companies, appeared surprised this week when informed by a reporter that BioLife intends to invest so much in a Memphis facility. Grabbing a piece of paper and pen to write down where the BioLife facility is planned, Moss indi-
centers in the Mid-South and we look forward to the success of this investment,” Flanagan said.
Colliers International’s Dan Wilkinson, Brad Kornegay and Allen Wilkinson will lead marketing and leasing for DeSoto 55 Logistics Center.
Core5 Industrial Partners was capitalized in 2015 by Kajima USA Group, and has development activity of more than 7.5 million square feet in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles/Inland Empire and South Florida as well as Memphis.