$24 million in tax breaks approved for South Main projects; here's a peek at what's planned
DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
More than $24 million in tax breaks were approved Tuesday to help spur about $100 million in development in Downtown Memphis' South Main neighborhood.
The total budget represents five projects led by a single developer, Tom Intrator of New York.
The breaks came in the form of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) incentives approved by the Downtown Memphis Commission's Center City Revenue Finance Corp. board.
The northernmost project at 107 S. Main St. is about a half-mile from the southernmost project at 386 S. Main St., filling in mostly long-vacant buildings and empty lots that Intrator hopes could convince more people to live Downtown.
"We're looking at this as an ecosystem — the cliche live, work, play," he said. "I personally don't believe people will move Downtown unless they have somewhere to go."
In Intrator's vision, his projects have the potential to bring more foot traffic to pedestrian-starved stretches of Main Street.
"We need to be incentivized to make this happen, but really we need to be incentivized to be able to incentivize our operators," Intrator said of the tenants that would one day set up inside his properties.
At Tuesday's meeting, he shared more about the most significant of the projects and what he thinks they could mean for Memphis.
Dream Hotel a 'catalyst'
In Intrator's New York, projects like the Dream Hotel planned for the Royal Furniture building are commonplace, but for Memphis, he expects the $54.5 million boutique hotel to grab attention.
"In Nashville, it was a very big deal when (another Dream Hotel) opened less than a year ago," he said. "I think if it was able to make a large splash in Nashville, it will be able to do the same in Memphis. ... Since that announcement came out, for my purposes, it put Memphis on the map, and that's essential."
He said the profile of the hotel could attract out-of-town restaurateurs to open inside Dream and bring new food options to Memphis that might otherwise not have come.
He called Dream Hotel "a catalyst" and said its success could also improve the dining options surrounding it, adding more pedestrians to Main Street during the day and at night.
Erasing blight, filling vacancies
For more than a decade, the DMC has been trying to fill the vacant four-story building at 107 S. Main St., between Gayoso Avenue and Union Avenue just north of where Dream Hotel will eventually open, DMC President Jennifer Oswalt said.
The building was almost demolished in the past because of water damage caused by a faulty roof, but it was saved and a temporary mural was painted on the outside to beautify the spot until a more permanent plan was created for the building.
Intrator said he is already in talks with a company that manages coworking spaces and there is a chance that building will, at least in part, be transformed into office space for entrepreneurs and small companies in need of office space.
The details are not finalized so he didn't share which company was considering a lease. However, he did tell the CCRFC board that it was not WeWork, the embattled real estate company that specializes in shared office space and was for a long time the biggest name in the field.
Other projects at 311 S. Main St., 386 S. Main St. and adjacent properties 316 and 324 S. Front St. all include filling either empty buildings or empty lots. On those spots Intrator will add nearly 200 new apartments, 120 parking spaces and a mixed-use building that could house a coffee shop, possible coworking space or even a small restaurant.
More investment to come
As these projects went before the CCRFC board, work was ongoing at another property Intrator has already invested in at 18 S. Main St. That building will eventually be a mixed-use space for retail and office tenants.
Days before Tuesday's meeting, Intrator was still buying Downtown Memphis properties. His most recent purchase is 372 S. Main St.
"We have a boutique fitness operator that we didn't sign yet, but we think that's likely," he said. "They'll occupy probably half the ground floor. What we'll do with the balance of it, I'm not sure yet."
He went on to say that he has considered adding more floors atop the building that could bring more residential units in a future development but that kind of addition is not financially feasible right now.