Inside 100 N. Main
Here’s what awaits developers
Walk around the exterior of 100 N. Main and some of the challenges facing anyone who would try to redevelop the tallest building in Downtown Memphis become immediately clear.
Cement is falling off the facade, and windows up and down the 37-story tower are broken out. Inside, the elevators don't function, there's no electricity, debris litters the stairwells and each floor and words that cannot be printed in this publication are graffitied across the walls.
Vacant since 2014, and partially vacant well before that, the inside of the building is like a time capsule. Straws are scattered across the floor of what used to be a restaurant, a dentist's chair from a decade long past sits alone on the 21st floor, books still line the shelves of a former law office, one which incidentally was the scene of a 2017 fire when people broke into the building and decided to burn said books.
On the top floor, the circular structure that was home to the former rotating restaurant, windows have been smashed by people throwing furniture out of the circular room and onto the rooftop, which was once home to a Japanese garden.
The property will also likely need serious environmental abatement work. Since it closed seven years ago, it has only been used for tactical training for local law enforcement — posters of people holding guns are scattered throughout the tower — and by people who have illegally entered the building.
However, 100 N. Main does have its virtues. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it's eligible for tax credits if it is redeveloped. The property not only includes the 100 N. Main tower but the attached parking garage, several other buildings and a small dog park, presenting a rare opportunity to redevelop an entire city block.
And, of course, it offers unparalleled views of Downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River.
Glamor to ghost town
Ground was broken for the 438-foot tower in 1963, and 100 N. Main opened in 1965. The 37 floors offered 753,000 square feet of internal space. That included amenities like the health club, saunas and massage rooms on the 35th and 36th floors. At one time, the building also hosted a pool on the 36th floor with a retractable roof.
The pool was later filled in and that floor eventually became the home of the Tennessee Club. A dusty pool table still sits in what used to be the billiard room. The 37th floor was once a Japanese garden and housed the base of the rotating bar and restaurant.
The tower is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, according to the application to the registry, is an example of the "late International style due to its pilotis base, rectangular form, and flat roof with garden, round projection for the top floor, ribbon windows, lack of ornamentation, cantilevered projections, and open floor plan."
Over time, tenants vacated the building, sometimes leaving entire floors empty. By 2014, the building was only at 20% capacity, said Brett Roler, vice president of planning and development for the Downtown Memphis Commission. The building was sold that year and the new owner shuttered it.
The property changed hands multiple times in the past decade and, before being bought by the DMC, was most recently owned by New York-based Townhouse Management Co.
Who will redevelop 100 N. Main?
All that, the good and the bad, is what awaits one of the six developers who are finalists to get the property from the Downtown Memphis Commission and, the organization hopes, transform it into something vibrant to breathe life back into one of the most prominent pieces of Memphis' skyline.
The DMC has whittled the 11 development groups who responded to a request for proposals for the tower to six, who were announced earlier this month. The finalists are undergoing additional interviews, and a winner is expected to be announced at the end of this year or early next. The
final decision about who will acquire the structure will be made by the Downtown Mobility Authority, the DMC branch that owns the building.
Two of the developers are Memphisbased: 100 North Main Development Partners, led by Kevin Woods, and Carlisle Development Company, LLC, led by Chance Carlisle.
Alexander Company, led by Joseph Alexander is based in Madison, Wisconsin. Block Real Estate Services and Sunflower Development Group, led by Aaron Mesmer, is based in Kansas City, Missouri. Flaherty & Collins, led by David Flaherty, is based in Indianapolis. Russell Glen & Mathews Southwest, led by Terrence G. Maiden, is a partnership between two Texas-based development groups.
Whichever developer is selected would have to spend thousands of dollars examining the property with architects and contractors, creating renderings and completing other due diligence, before they could even think about starting work.
The proposals from each group vary somewhat, but multifamily use is one of the cornerstones of each proposal. Some of the developers outlined plans to bring the rooftop back as a bar or restaurant, while others proposed making it an amenity for residents or guests if there is ever a hotel component.
Woods said in an interview his group was interested in the 100 N. Main property partly because of a desire to see further revitalization brought to that part of Downtown — on the heels of the convention center renovation — as well as the opportunity to preserve a piece of Memphis history.
"Our activation is built around preserving historic space through bringing more people to activate that space 18 to 24 hours a day," he said.
His group's proposal would include a combination of retail, residential and hotel uses with a focus on increasing density within the city block.
"When you look out...100 North Main, you start to dream big and start to ask yourself what's possible," he said. "We believe this is a space worth saving. And that's something for the entire city and the region to get excited about."
Roler recently took a Commercial Appeal photographer and reporter on a tour of the building to show the current state of the structure and outline the assets of the building as well as the difficulties redevelopment efforts could face.
While parts of the building might currently seem an ideal setting to shoot a horror film, Roler said a developer who approached it with some creativity might be able to create something special.
Except for some interior columns, much of the walls on each floor could be removed, opening up floors of what used to be narrow hallways, boardrooms and often cramped offices to be reconfigured in any number of ways.
While what happens to the building next is unclear, one thing is fairly certain. If the building were to be knocked down, it's extremely unlikely another building of its scale would be built, given the market conditions for new construction in Memphis.
Roler has led almost 30 tours of the skyscraper and each tour group has been stunned by the views from the upper floors and rooftop.
“I haven't had anybody who made it up to the top and thought that there's not a reason to save it,” he said. “What does it say about us if we're willing to change our skyline in such a dramatic way?”