College of Art to vacate S. Main; back to Midtown

901-529-2874

ACalifornia developer is planning to convert the Memphis College of Art on South Main into a boutique hotel.

A Downtown board on Wednesday waived a clawback requirement of a $200,000 grant for Memphis College of Art’s graduate school at 477 S. Main when it’s converted to a 66-room boutique hotel.

The Center City Development Corp. action cleared the way for the property’s sale to the developer, whose name wasn’t disclosed.

The college won the grant in 2010 as part of an incentive package to bring its graduate programs to South Main. The grant helped to fix up the building’s exterior.

The college is returning graduate programs to Midtown next year.

The grant agreement said it had to be paid back if the college left before 15 years passed. College attorney Henry Doggrell said the provision was designed to keep the building from being left vacant.

Downtown Memphis Commission president Terence Patterson said the waiver was in the best interest of the neighborhood.

Gray Fiser, attorney for the developer, said work should begin on the hotel after the current tenants leave early next year. It will include a ground-floor restaurant, he said.

Doggrell said the art college graduate program will open next year in converted residences on Tucker near the school’s main campus in Overton Park.

Fiser said Achievement School District offices on the upper two floors of 477 S. Main will be vacated by March.

The property would be one of 31 hotels planned or under construction in Memphis, including several in Downtown. Most of the projects are small, limited-service properties, which officials say don’t have the capacity to draw big events to the city.

Sixteen hotel projects are already in the pipeline for Downtown, although hotel consultant Chuck Pinkowski said recently that history shows it is unlikely all those projects will come to fruition.

“Of the 16 properties that represent about 2,500 to 3,000 rooms, less than half will happen,” Pinkowski said.

Fiser said the developer, which expects to close on the purchase “in a matter of days,” recently bought another building nearby.

The developer has done more than 50 projects and invested $400 million in equity, concentrating on the Coachella Valley of California, Fiser said.