Belz plans to recruit grocer to South Memphis

Belz Enterprises proposes to bring a new grocery to grocery-starved South Memphis by renovating Southgate Shopping Center and recruiting a grocer.

The plans emerged Friday with Belz’s application for a Community Builder tax incentive from the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) board.

Union Realty Company GP, a Belz affiliate, applied for a $1.15 million PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) total over 15 years to support its plan to renovate the 61-year-old retail center at 1897 S. Third.

The project would generate $434,084 in additional property tax revenues for local governments, the application states.

A $6.8 million capital investment would be made in improving Southgate, and 92 jobs would be created at an average $24,560 annual salary, documents show.

Opening a new food store and renovating Southgate will provide “a grocery store with a wide range of food products including fresh produce and other items to approximately 55,000 persons living within 3 miles of the center,” the application states.

“Without this grocery store, the neighborhood residents will have to travel a substantial distance to reach a similar size grocery store. Many of the residents do not own cars and bus service is limited,” the application states.

“This situation could create a ‘food desert’ in the community which will reduce the quality of life for the residents and impede the health of the community.”

The application did not name a prospective new grocery that Belz is pursuing, but implies that Belz has made progress lining up a grocery.

Belz proposes to lease the former Kroger space to a new operator “with substantial grocery experience in the Memphis market,” the application states.

Belz bought from Kroger for $525,000 the grocery’s existing fixtures, furnishings and equipment and will make them available to the new operator.

The new grocery will likely invest about $300,000 in more equipment and $650,000 in inventory, the application states.

Much of Southgate Shopping Center is vacant and will become even emptier if improvements aren’t made, the application suggested.

Nine spaces of 900 to 4,000 square feet are vacant and four spaces of 4,300 to 11,000 square feet are empty, the applicant states.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services has notified Belz that it will vacate its 20,000 square feet in Southgate by June 2019.

Southgate has historically served as the “town center” for much of South Memphis, the Belz application states.

“Southgate has provided essential products and services such as grocery, drug store, women’s, men’s, and children clothing, beauty and hair salons, banking and financial services, public library, governmental services (Social Security Administration, TN. Dept. of Children Services) and others,” the document states.