Group reveals $267M N. Main plan
Building team aims to energize the Downtown
After years of sitting abandoned, pieces of the façade intermittently raining down onto the sidewalk, a new life is on the horizon for Memphis’ tallest building.
The Downtown Memphis Commission’s Downtown Mobility Authority on Wednesday agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations with a local development team that has presented a $267 million vision to radically transform 100 N. Main.
Development group 100 N. Main Development Partners, which includes Kevin Woods, Billy Orgel, Jay Lindy, Adam Slovis and Michael Mclaughlin, hopes to make the property a neighborhood anchor with a hotel, apartments, restaurants, retail and office space, as well as additional parking.
The developers, public officials and Downtown business owners, hope the project will go beyond simply breathing life back into the derelict property, but can also energize that part of Downtown. Activating the space, they say, could mean new development, redevelopment, and new business offerings in the surrounding blocks, even before a redeveloped 100 N. Main opens.
Only a few blocks away is the recently remodeled, $200 million Memphis Renasant Convention Center, from which conference attendees will walk to Downtowns bars, restaurants and hotels, often passing 100 N. Main, said Brett Roler, DMC vice president of planning and development.
“Blight weakens the tax base and discourages new investment. Downtown is our brand to the world. We know that this building damages that image as an attractive place to live, work, visit and invest,” he said during the DMA meeting. “This is a prime opportunity here to transform a community liability and reposition it back as a neighborhood anchor.”
Woods said 100 N. Main would be one in a string of key projects across
Downtown — including the Tennessee Brewery transformation, One Beale and the expanded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital campus — that both activate their neighborhoods and tie key Downtown assets to one another.
“We’re excited about the activity that will be created when you’re able to activate this block for 18-plus hours a day,” he said. “When you have residents that are working, living and playing in this part of Downtown, we know that it’s going to benefit surrounding businesses as well.”
For Lernard Chambers, owner of The Genre at 200 Poplar Ave., anything that brings more people into the neighborhood will be a good thing. While the weekend crowd is more varied, on weekdays, his restaurant relies almost entirely on foot traffic from Downtown workers and residents.
“It will definitely help our business,” he said of the 100 N. Main redevelopment and other large projects. “I think Downtown will transition into a totally different area.”
Bert Smythe, co-owner of Downtown staple Mcewen’s, said it would be important to have more people living in Downtown apartments or staying in Downtown hotel rooms, both to increase overall density and to create some vibrancy on a city block that had long been neglected and for some might be unappealing to walk down.
“Anything that brings more density to Downtown is huge,” he said. “The more businesses and entities that are bringing people to Downtown, it’s better for everybody, whether you’re a barber shop or a shoe store or a restaurant.”
He also said the investment that could come to 100 N. Main made him feel more confident about the $2 million worth of renovations he and his business partner recently put into Mcewen’s.
‘Memphis is open for business’
DMC President Paul Young said acquiring the 100 N. Main property, an entire city block which includes not only the tower but also a parking garage, surface parking lot, small dog park and several other structures along Main Street, was one of the most ambitious things the organization had ever taken on.
Work won’t start right away. The exclusive negotiations give the development team the time to do further due diligence and studies on the property with the knowledge the DMC isn’t negotiating with any other developers.
Young said Wednesday it would be about six months before a development agreement would be signed. Once construction begins, it could take about 28 months, putting 100 N. Main’s completion at late 2024 or early 2025 at the earliest.
In just a few blocks around the property, there are numerous vacant storefronts and signs listing available commercial and office space.
However, the promise of work happening at the site could spur other development around it, officials have said.
And the work at 100 N. Main would not be happening in a vacuum.
Around the corner, the owner of the Raymond James building, which the company has moved out of, has plans to convert it into a mixed-use structure, with hundreds of apartments and retail options.
Nearby, the Brooks Museum will be building a new campus overlooking the river.
Ted Townsend, chief economic development officer for the Greater Memphis Chamber, said the revitalization of 100 N. Main would send the right message about the future of Memphis.
“From Crosstown to the Chisca Hotel and Central Station, Memphis has become known for making the old new through adaptive reuse. The push to redevelop Memphis’ tallest building is just the latest in a series of major redevelopments that are sending a strong message to the rest of the world that Memphis is open for business,” he said.
Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development and healthcare for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.kennedy@commercialappeal.com