Mid-century building to enjoy second life
Hotel, restaurant, bar planned
The new owners of a 54-year-old Downtown bank building plan to convert it into a 70-room boutique hotel with a streetfront restaurant called Teller and a rooftop bar called Errors & Omissions.
The building at 158 Madison Ave. is considered one of the city’s finest examples of mid-century modern architecture. Erected in 1962 as Leader Federal Savings and Loan, the concrete-and-glass building lost its most recent anchor tenant earlier this year when Regions Bank moved to another Downtown site.
“We are very excited about the project and being involved in the downtown Memphis resurgence,” architect Chris Pardo said by email.
The principal of Seattlebased Chris Pardo Design: Elemental Architecture is involved with the ownership group Wessman Holdings LLC, which purchased the 60,000-square-foot building late last week for $1.1 million.
The building stands directly across Madison from the First Tennessee Building. Nearby are two other boutique hotels that inhabit historic buildings: the soon-to-open 58-room Hotel Napoleon at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and B.B. King Boulevard and the 110room Madison Hotel at 79 Madison Ave.
The five-floor (plus basement) former Leader Federal building had been on the market only 30 days before being snatched up, said Brian Califf, broker with NAI Saig. He represented the Chicago-based sellers, 158 Madison LLC, which sold after losing Regions Bank as a tenant.
The Mid-South Minority Business Council remains a tenant in the building.
“There was a lot of demand,” Califf said. “When we put it on the market, ServiceMaster announced their big deal Downtown,” he said of ServiceMaster’s decision to move its headquarters of more than 1,000 workers to Peabody Place.
“That created some buzz Downtown,” Califf said, putting Downtown Memphis on the radar screens of a lot of out-of-town investors.
The building was featured in the book about local mid-century modern architecture, “A Survey of Modern Public Buildings in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1940 to 1980.”
“This building is an excellent example of the classical hypothesis that a building should express a bottom, middle and top as interpreted in the vernacular of modern architecture principles,” states by book by local architects Keith Kays, Martin Gorman, Lee Askew and Louis Pounders. “The bottom level is firmly anchored on its recessed glass wall pedestal, the next three floors are expressive of the office function which they accommodate and the top level recessed glazing provides a modern interpretation of cornice found in traditional design,” the book states. “The precast concrete facade is impeccably detailed ...”
Pardo said he was drawn to the building’s mid-century modern look “and feel it is a real jewel in downtown.”
“We are very excited to restore and rejuvenate the building with an active use,” Pardo said.