New York developer buys Downtown Memphis Royal Furniture building for $3.5 million

DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

The Royal Furniture building on South Main Street near Gayoso Avenue has been sold for $3.5 million to make way for what will eventually become a mixed-use building.

For now, Royal Furniture, which had owned the building at 122 S. Main St. since 1982, will remain in the building. It was purchased by New York developer Tom Intrator, who has worked on seven apartment developments in Memphis since 2013.

“This Royal Furniture space is particularly compelling for ground-floor retail and either hospitality, residential, or office space above," Intrator said in an emailed statement. “The property sits on the trolley line in the core of Main Street and is blocks from historic Beale Street and Orpheum Theatre and the reimagined riverfront. We’re exploring all options and view this as a great opportunity for the continued revitalization of Downtown Memphis.”

Royal Furniture has a retail store and its corporate office in the building. The company negotiated a one-year lease with the sale of the building, said Richard Faber, whose family owns Royal Furniture.

"They're looking for a dynamic retailer and we're looking for a new location," Faber said, adding that the furniture store hopes to stay Downtown with a single building for its corporate office and retail store but is open to splitting between two buildings.

Intrator purchased another building at 18 S. Main St. about a quarter-mile away last summer.

He hired a Los Angeles-based retail firm to help find tenants for the building. That building sold for $710,000 and was approved for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes incentive by the Downtown Memphis Commission. That incentive will save the company 75 percent of its property tax obligation.