New York developer wants to bring national brands to Memphis — including yoga business

DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

After buying nine properties along South Main and South Front streets, signing a partnership with boutique hotel brand Dream Hotels, then announcing a massive $1.1 billion project in the Pinch District, Tom Intrator's next move was to break into the yoga business. 

Last week, the New York developer became a franchisee of fitness brand YogaSix, which will eventually open inside one of his South Main neighborhood buildings.

Describing itself as a "modern take on the ancient practice — poised for scale," YogaSix started in San Diego in 2012 and was purchased by Irvine, California-based Xponential Fitness in 2018. It has 29 locations in nine states. Xponential Fitness also owns the wildly popular Pure Barre brand as well as others related to Pilates, cycling, dance and running.

Looking national, not local

Intrator would bring the first YogaSix to Tennessee. The company offers six types of yoga classes that range in difficulty for practitioners across skill levels. Intrator chose it on purpose and plans to use the same offensive strategy to seek out the right tenants and operators for his other properties as well.

He's got thousands of square feet to fill across Downtown and, so far, has no plans to put up signs announcing that his buildings are open for leasing. 

"Instead, we've been approaching operators, primarily (food and beverage), hospitality and fitness," he said. "We've been approaching operators from definitely outside of Memphis — larger, more established — and investing in their businesses in one form or another to expand into Memphis... We're saying, 'I love what you're doing in Miami, and I know you're also doing it here and here. I want to invest in you to come and do the same thing in Memphis.'"

That intentional outreach, Intrator said, has the potential to raise the quality of business offerings along Downtown Memphis' Main Street while also welcoming more well-known national brands to the city.

Although Intrator's plan seems to rely heavily on out-of-town companies, Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Jennifer Oswalt said she thinks there will still be plenty of room for Memphis' entrepreneurs to get in on the growth while welcoming newcomers.

"We want Downtown to be a place that's welcoming to everyone," Oswalt said. "I think that requires a mixture of some name brands that people know nationally as well as a lot of local options. If they are able to attract some national brands that are successful, it's only going to help local businesses because they will be right next door. I think it's only going to provide a better landscape for local businesses to have a few good, national brands for shopping or eating."

Intrator didn't say which building would house the new yoga studio. To determine that would require more time for him to look at all his properties, examine what local businesses already exist around them and to take into consideration what he and other developers and business owners have in the works.

That's the holistic view he plans to take to pick the perfect location for the yoga studio and every other tenant that will eventually occupy his space, he said.

An old idea for a new Downtown

Intrator's history in Memphis dates back several years.

About six years ago, he was splitting his time between Memphis and New York while managing a portfolio of multi-family properties.

His office was in East Memphis, but he chose to live Downtown. Monday through Thursday was spent in Memphis, and he flew back to New York most weekends but occasionally, he'd spend some of his off time here.

"I'd walk around and think, 'Wow, this place had charm.' There was something unique here that you don't find in other cities. I had then this idea of doing this big Downtown revitalization project... This is an idea from six or seven years. This is not an idea from yesterday."

But Downtown development was slow, and Intrator was focused on buying and selling apartment buildings. Although he recently sold some of his properties to raise capital for his Downtown Memphis plans, Intrator hasn't abandoned his multi-family background. His portfolio holds about 4,000 units in the Midwest and Southeast, including about 1,700 in Memphis.

About two years ago, the idea started to gain steam again.

Union Row, Memphis' largest project before Intrator's Pinch District plans were announced, had not become public yet but Intrator was seeing movement on a Loews convention center hotel, then possibly planned for 100 N. Main St. Arrive Hotel, also led by out-of-town developers, was also getting off the ground.

Sensing early movement in Downtown, Intrator started talks with Oswalt and the DMC. 

"I didn't come here to buy a 30,000-square-foot building," Intrator said, referring to 18 S. Main St., the first of his Downtown Memphis purchases. "I came back on this idea from years ago to do a Downtown revitalization. I had certain buildings in mind, some of which I did end up buying but the premise was not this building or this building... It was are we going to change Downtown? Are we going to part of that? Are we going to take a big market share of it or not?"

Intrator thinks this is the right moment both for Memphis and for himself. 

"I'm waiting for the person that is going to get up and say, 'Are you worried that Union Row is going to cannibalize the Pinch or that the Pinch is going to cannibalize Union Row?' The answer is very simple," he said. "Any city that you want to aspire to be, do they have one neighborhood downtown? Or do they have two successful ones?Or maybe even three or four? If we can't see past this, we should just pack up and go home, if we can't hope to see two neighborhoods Downtown."