$1.1 billion development plan announced for Downtown Memphis' Pinch District
DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
New York developer Tom Intrator announced plans Wednesday for a $1.1 billion development in Downtown Memphis' Pinch District.
The first phase of the project, worth about $600 million, will include 942 residential units, two boutique hotels, about 170,000 square feet of retail and about 222,000 square feet of office space near St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Future phases would add more residential units, office space and retail.
"From St. Jude families and staff to Convention Center visitors to Downtown employees and beyond, the Pinch District will welcome and bring together people from all walks of life,” Intrator said.
The announcement was made during a presentation before the Shelby County Commission's Economic Development & Tourism committee. It came one day after Intrator was approved for more than $24 million in tax breaks to help fund just over $100 million in projects in Downtown's South Main neighborhood.
Moments after Wednesday's presentation, Intrator was off to board a flight back to New York.
But he shared a little about his vision for a dense Pinch District that would hopefully also stretch into the Uptown neighborhood.
"You start to build through all these open pockets, all these empty pockets," Intrator told commissioners. "Empty parking lots suddenly become buildings, become vibrancy, become people walking around. That's in a nutshell what we're looking to do."
Intrator said the plans for the Pinch District started about a year ago, building off a master plan prepared by local architecture firm LRK about four years earlier. He called LRK's plan ambitious but said it was difficult to execute because there were about 20 property owners in the area he wanted to see develop and "to get those 20 to come together to do anything would be pretty difficult."
So his company started arranging land deals.
"We’ve been very quiet but we have been assembling a number of properties in the Pinch between St. Jude and Bass Pro," he said. "We own the vast majority of land between Second Street and Front Street crossing on Jackson, Overton and Shadyac (avenues)."
The project stands to service growth at St. Jude, said Jennifer Oswalt, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission.
Tax break to help fund project
Intrator will request a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) incentive to help fund project infrastructure, Oswalt told commissioners Wednesday.
This tax break will function slightly differently from other PILOTs. Normally, developers simply save about 75% of their property tax obligation under a PILOT. With this PILOT, Intrator will pay full projected taxes but 75% of that will be funneled back into the project to fund infrastructure work.
"Bonds will be issued to build the project and paid back with taxes generated from the project," Oswalt said. "If the project doesn't get developed in the way that it says and at the value that it is projected, it won't generate the taxes that will support the project. That's the full vetting process that our staff goes through."
Information about the full value of the PILOT has not yet been revealed.
"I think building up and connecting Downtown is just wonderful," Commissioner Van Turner said. "When we go to other downtowns... we're always so jealous of what we see in these other downtown areas. I think we're really on the verge with the renovation of the convention center as well. We're going to see a new downtown that we won't even recognize five years from now."
Wednesday's meeting was an initial discussion so the Economic Development & Tourism committee did not call forward any votes on the incentive.
At a series of meetings within the next month, details of the project will be shared with City Council, the DMC's Center City Revenue Finance Corp. and the full County Commission.
State approval must also be sought. All four entities must sign off before the PILOT can be granted.