Developer plans mixed-use building on Main

JACOB STEIMER | MEMPHIS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Tom Intrator has purchased another Downtown building for redevelopment.

The New York-based developer has made a bevy of purchases in recent months, include the Royal Furniture building, two other South Main buildings, and about $8.3 million worth of property in the Pinch District.

Intrator plans to turn his latest, $1.2 million buy — 390 S. Main St. and its adjacent parking lot — into a mixed-use building with apartments and ground-floor retail.

“Continuing to add to our South Main portfolio is exciting for us,” Intrator said. "We’re actively working through drawings and look forward to sharing plans later this year.”

The existing building was erected in 1900 and holds about 11,000 square feet. The lot is described as 20 feet by 175 feet, according to Shelby County documents, accounting for the building being long and skinny. The parking lot is .16 acres.

After buying 311 S. Main St. — the Signs First building — in April, Intrator told Memphis Business Journalabout plans to make "a number of other acquisitions" and to invest millions into making South Main Street a more dense and active corridor. He wants South Main to become a “showcase” neighborhood for Memphis, the way The Gulch is a showcase for Nashville.

“When somebody from Los Angeles, New York, or San Diego [goes to Nashville], they … [see] The Gulch, maybe the West End — a very small area,” Intrator said in April. “[But], they say Nashville is a very cool city and they go back and tell all their friends … and some end up moving.”

None of Intrator's South Main projects would succeed on their own, he said. While South Main is already a hot spot for tourists and locals alike, Intrator believes making the street more dense — from Madison Avenue down past the National Civil Rights Museum — will be huge for his properties and the city as a whole.

“If you create the coolest space but as soon as you walk out of it … everything is dark and vacant, [it won’t work],” he said. “But, if you create a corridor … that starts to draw people into various usages.”