Downtown Memphis Royal Furniture building to become 178-room hotel

DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

The New York developer who purchased the Royal Furniture building in Downtown plans to transform the building into a 178-room hotel.

Tom Intrator bought the building at 122 S. Main St. in December for $3.5 million, negotiating the deal although the family-owned furniture store had not put the building up for sale. Royal Furniture is expected to remain in the building through the end of the year.

The hotel is expected to open in 2022 under the Dream Hotel Group brand. Dream Hotels has one other location in Tennessee that opened in Nashville earlier this year.

"We are thrilled to partner with Dream Hotel Group to welcome their iconic Dream Hotels brand to Memphis. Dream represents a vibrancy and sophisticated experience that we’re confident will become a focal point of the neighborhood and city as a whole,” Intrator said in a email statement. “Through this partnership, we... are standing by our commitment to simultaneously honor the past while redefining the currency and capacity of Downtown Memphis.”

Its rounded corners and glass block window details make the building unique and will remain features of the new hotel, a press release said.

Still some things will change. When the building purchase was announced, Intrator said he planned to make it taller saying "it's not going to be the Empire State Building, but it's also not going to be another two or three floors."

Renderings show the building growing by about 10 stories.

“I talk all the time about our development strategy of building up and not out,” Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said. “Having a global brand like Dream Hotel Group come Downtown and transform a historic space into a vibrant, new hotel fits in perfectly with that vision. I’m happy to welcome them to Memphis and look forward to experiencing the progress and finished product.”