New York developer's hotel plans lead to East Memphis move for Royal Furniture

DESIREE STENNETT | THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

For now, the longtime home to a Royal Furniture retail store and its corporate office at 122 S. Main St. is still filled with mattresses, bed frames, dressers, couches and recliners.

But, if the timeline for a 178-room boutique hotel holds, the furniture could be cleared out within months to get ready for construction. 

Developer Tom Intrator has plans to add nine floors above the historic building in a partnership with New York-based Dream Hotels that will bring the brand's first property in Memphis to Downtown.

Intrator recently made a name for himself by announcing a series of projects in the South Main neighborhood worth more than $100 million quickly followed by plans for a $1.1 billion development in the Pinch District that hopes to add apartments, office space, two additional hotels and retail between St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Pyramid.

When Intrator approached the Faber family, which owns Royal Furniture, to purchase the building in late 2018, the Fabers hadn't even put the building up for sale.

But with a $3.5 million offer on the table, they decided to sell. They then signed a one-year lease to give them time to find a new location while planning for the hotel was underway.

It has been just over a year since that sale and Michael Faber says his family has purchased a new building that will take Royal Furniture out of the Downtown market.

The new building is at the corner of Park Avenue and White Station Road, but it could be several months until Royal Furniture moves in.

"We're still a tenant" in the Downtown building, Faber said, adding they would remain at the Main Street location at least a few more months. "We do decent business down here, and the rest comes from Arkansas."

He said Royal Furniture's business is not shrinking, and it will maintain the same number of stores once it moves out of Downtown. While the focus is East Memphis, Faber also said his family has not ruled out having a Downtown store again one day.

"The Downtown market is just too hot right now," he said.

According to a construction timeline submitted with an application for public incentives in November, Intrator is still in the design development phase of the hotel project. 

He expects to file building permits by September and start construction in November. The hotel is expected to open in late 2022.