Beale, South Main projects in Memphis seek incentives
Shiny new developments are proposed at 380 Beale, site of a troubled former nightclub, and 18 South Main, an aesthetically challenged retail shop.
A $16 million, 120-room hotel is proposed at 380 Beale, site of the former Club Crave and Plush Club, which was shut down as a public nuisance in 2012.
The building that houses Murray’s and Jerry’s clothing stores at 18 South Main would be renovated into a $4.7 million mixed-use development including retail and creative office space.
Both projects are scheduled to seek tax abatements Tuesday from the Center City Revenue Finance Corp., an arm of the Downtown Memphis Commission.
TCH Memphis LLC, represented by Nick Patel of Knoxville, is seeking a 15-year tax incentive for the boutique hotel project at 380 Beale, the northeast corner of Beale and Fourth. It’s expected to take about two years to build.
The developer plans to tear down the building and build a five-story hotel that will secure guest parking off site.
Opened in 1975 as a movie house, Towne Cinema, it has also been the Muhammad Ali Theater, Plush Club and Club Crave. It was the subject of an unsuccessful 2014 plan led by developer Steve Adelman to open a music venue called The Palace on Beale.
It was closed in 2012 by Environmental Court order after a series of shootings and police calls associated with its nightclub.
The commission staff supports the project as a way of eliminating a blighted, vacant structure in a key location at the east end of the city-owned Beale Street entertainment district.
“A high-quality boutique hotel at this end of Beale Street has the potential to bring vibrancy and new energy to the eastern blocks of this iconic street,” a staff report said.
The eastern end of the entertainment district has languished with vacancies and turnover in recent years, attracting sparser crowds than the more vibrant western half.
The building at 18 South Main has been the subject of a
concerted push for redevelopment since last year.
Another agency affiliated with the Downtown Memphis Commission secured an option to buy the building and publicly offered it for redevelopment at a below-market acquisition price.
The applicant is Tom Intrator, through a business entity called 18 S. Main Mem, LLC. Intrator, of Brooklyn, New York, has been active in the Memphis market since 2013 and owns seven apartment properties totaling 1,630 units.
Intrator proposes renovation for a mixture of uses. The basement and ground floor would be retail or other commercial, and the upper floors would be creative office space.
A new exterior would give the building’s altered original facade a new, contemporary appearance.
The developer is seeking a 13 tax abatement, and the project would take nine months to a year.
The DMC staff is “highly supportive” of the project because it would repurpose an existing building, attract new development to the Downtown core and increase property values.