MEMPHIS | Development News

[Johnny Ryall]

Expedient breaks out new, $8.7 million cloud in Southeast Memphis
Ed Arnold/ Memphis Business Journal

Expedient Data Centers opened its new $8.7 million Memphis facility Thursday, a project almost a year in the making, and soon Memphis businesses will back up data up to a cloud in Southeast Memphis. The 35,000-square-foot facility, formerly the Hilton Data Center, at 3180 Players Lane near FedEx World Headquarters...

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...-cloud-in.html

[Johnny Ryall]

U of M gets underway with new, on-campus basketball training facility
Michelle Corbet, Reporter/ Memphis Business Journal

The University of Memphis broke ground on an indoor practice facility for its football team in March. Now, it's looking to upgrade facilities for its basketball teams.
July 8, Linkous Construction Co. Inc. filed a $1.6 million building permit to construct a two-story, 63,000-square-foot basketball training facility for the U of M at 1115 E. Getwell Loop. The address is the site of the Billy J. Murphy Athletic Complex at U of M’s Park Avenue campus, which has undergone major renovations as part of the athletic department’s $40 million “Vision for Victory” capital campaign.

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...-training.html

renderings NATIONS GROUP

[Johnny Ryall]

Biomedical Company Expanding in Southeast Memphis
By Amos Maki/ Memphis Daily News

Cognate Bioservices Inc. is launching a 32,500-square-foot expansion at its manufacturing facility at 4600 E. Shelby Drive in southeast Memphis near Lamar Avenue. Baltimore-based Cognate Bioservices is a fully integrated contract biotech firm that provides development and manufacturing services for companies and institutions developing cell-based products. The expansion will cost about $9.4 million, according a building permit application.

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news...ng-in-memphis/

[Johnny Ryall]

Memphis Rockabilly Festival announced
Ed Arnold/ Memphis Business Journal

...Wednesday in the Edge District near Sun Studio, Universal Fairs and In The Wings Productions will announce the inaugural Memphis International Rockabilly Festival, set to take place August 15-16, appropriately located near Sun. The festival will span two blocks and feature two stages of performers. According to a news release, the musical lineup will "feature a variety Sun Records rockabilly legends along with some of the city’s most popular artists today." The event will also include a "Classic Muscle Car Hot Rod Show."

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...announced.html

photo ALAN HOWELL | MBJ

[Johnny Ryall]

Officials say Edge district poised for growth
By Amos Maki/ Memphis Daily News

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news...ul/17/on-edge/

photos (Daily News File/Andrew J. Breig)

[Johnny Ryall]

Renovation nearing for Nineteenth Century Club
Memphis Biz Journal

A $2.17 million building permit was filed by Union Group LLC last week, clearing the way for work to begin to turn the building into a restaurant.

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/b...tury-club.html

photo JASON N MILLER

[Johnny Ryall]

Methodist establishing Memphis IT campus
Memphis Biz Journal

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is turning the former Anthem Career College facility it recently acquired into a “Technology/Information Services Campus.” Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare bought the 64,000-square-foot office building at 5865 Shelby Oaks Drive from Bico Associates GP and Belz Investco GP for $3.9 million...

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...it-campus.html

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photo http://medical-assistant-training.net/

[Johnny Ryall]

Potential major expansion at St. Jude?

Downtown Crowne Plaza to receive $7M upgrade
Michelle Corbet/ Memphis Business Journal

Architecture Inc., the local firm leading the renovations, announced the $7 million would be put toward guest room renovations, public space upgrades and amenity relocations to maximize the hotel’s space and layout for guests... The first phase comes alongside a boom of development taking place in Downtown’s north end, including the recent opening of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid and a potential major expansion by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...m-upgrade.html

photo Crowne Plaza Memphis/ MBJ

[DoomJ]

Originally Posted by Johnny Ryall

Potential major expansion at St. Jude?

I know they own a good bit of land in the North/Northeast parts of Downtown- and they are sick of spending millions of $$$ on new parking garages for employees, and would like more employees to live near the campus. I bet you see them get into residential developments soon.

[DoomJ]

Interesting article from the Commercial Appeal last weekend re: hotel developments downtown:

City officials aim for larger Downtown hotels
http://www.commercialappeal.com/busi...owntown-hotels

A flurry of new hotel plans has Downtown officials considering tighter reins on public incentives.

A dozen or more projects are in the pipeline as developers look to cash in on Downtown’s visitor appeal, from Beale Street to Bass Pro Shops at The Pyramid....

....Another seven announced projects range from a 58-room, boutique Ascend hotel at 179 Madison to a 171-room hotel at 100 North Main....

....Turkey Creek plans a 115-room Holiday Inn Express and a 140-room Hilton Garden Inn. That’s 255 rooms in the same block, but separated by a parking deck under separate ownership. Turkey Creek president Nick Patel said there’s been discussion of adding a Home2 Suites by Hilton next to the Hilton Garden Inn and making other tweaks if necessary to win incentives....

The gist of the article is that the CVB wants to tweak incentives to target larger hotel projects, not just any project.

[Wayward Memphian]

Originally Posted by DoomJ

Interesting article from the Commercial Appeal last weekend re: hotel developments downtown:

City officials aim for larger Downtown hotels
http://www.commercialappeal.com/busi...owntown-hotels



The gist of the article is that the CVB wants to tweak incentives to target larger hotel projects, not just any project.

An Indigo and Hard Rock would be nice.

In other news, Allegiant has announce nonstop service to PIE (clearwater/St. Pete) and AUS (Austin, Tx). That's stepping Southwest's toes competing head to head in Orlando.and Tampa now and going after some Southwest connecting via Houston and Dallas.

[Johnny Ryall]

Originally Posted by DoomJ

I know they own a good bit of land in the North/Northeast parts of Downtown- and they are sick of spending millions of $$$ on new parking garages for employees, and would like more employees to live near the campus. I bet you see them get into residential developments soon.

I shouldn't be surprised because they're supposed to be in the midst of a $1billion master plan. Perhaps another building is in the works. Speaking of residential, there is a large lot to the north of the east side of their property which I'm guessing is theirs in the Uptown redevelopment. It's where the crane was stored for the last building constructed and they've built at least one major parking ramp since.

[DoomJ]

Originally Posted by Johnny Ryall

I shouldn't be surprised because they're supposed to be in the midst of a $1billion master plan. Perhaps another building is in the works. Speaking of residential, there is a large lot to the north of the east side of their property which I'm guessing is theirs in the Uptown redevelopment. It's where the crane was stored for the last building constructed and they've built at least one major parking ramp since.

They may own that land- I know for sure they own some of the warehouse area south of North Parkway and East of Danny Thomas-

[kingchef]

it was my understanding that they were going to erect a large 9 or 10 story parking garage. it was reported sometime after the early part of the year. btw, does anyone have a copy of the new master plan for le bonheur. many additional buildings on their campus won't put them too far from reaching the medical center.

i never understood why the 13 stories was never added to the downtown marriott. to me, i would think it entirely possible to build the 13 stories on top of the current 2004 or 2006 addition. it is done ever day in construction.

i noticed that none have commented on the huge nike distribution. i was very impressed by the numbers concerning this structure. the building is the length of 49 football fields, in addition to the additional information given by both the ca and the mbj. it is the new global headquarters. to me, even though memphis has a huge amount of distribution warehouse facilities, fedex is another global facility. simth and nephew has grown and apparently continues to do so, as well as medtronic, and international paper. the volvo plant in benton county, etc. and others. it seems memphis continues to attract and keep more and more companies. i wonder if the nike structure is a shadow of things to come, as the size is so large. i don't know if they use mostly over the road trucking or railroad, river or air. to me, there seems to be much more happening in shelby county than just riding along for the ride. too, it seems that olive branch and desoto county in general has slowed down in both population and business attractions.

it would really be nice if some additional fortune 500 and 1000 companies would settle in downtown. one final comment, shortly before the present government party took possession of the capital bredesen made the comment that memphis should stop whinning about some of the political situations that supposedely happened solely because memphis failed to work w/ others or sell its metro. it was specifically mentioned that memphis had done virtually nothing over the last 20+ years, unlike chattanooga, knoxville, and perhaps some others, ending his statements by stating that the u of m should be a university of 50,000 instend of a current enrollment it had, when it became the u of m. from what i have seen, knoxville has always been the first in line to the feed bag, and chattanooga, and others always seemed to get the spoils over the u of m. most in this area know that this type of behaavior has long existed, when the other two divisions of the state could pull it off. i would love to see the ut memphis campus get the funds it is promised, as well as the u of m. the u of m could have that 50 or 60 thousand enrollment. bring the funds on.

[Dr Nevergold]

^To be honest, education funding in Tennessee is a total mess. It has dropped drastically in the past decade, to the point where most state schools are essentially private with a small public component. Tuition and books is now over $10,000 annually for essentially any program you want to start in these days at any state school. That's insane for 'public' education.

I was looking into going back to UofM, was accepted, but didn't follow through when I realized how bad education funding has become here. Plus I've got some other opportunities I'm following up on, but its been fun to be in Memphis this year regardless.

For what its worth, UofM is a flagship state university. It has more chairs of excellence, more centers of excellence, and outstanding programs than any state school except for UTK. UT Knoxville is the only other state school that can compete with UofM. I know there are rankings that go back and forth between them both, but I still think of UTK as a bit of a football school, while UofM has always been more serious about academics.

Just a personal preference... Both are fine institutions.

But funding is down for all of them. Make no mistake, the future for students isn't going to be bright since $40-$50,000 of debt (unless you have wealthy parents and/or special scholarship opportunities) is essentially minimum to graduate these days. Its uncharted territory and not sure how well the future generation will manage.

[Chris Warren]

Trolley Extension?

Memphis Daily News:

Consultants for the Memphis Area Transit Authority are exploring an extension of the Madison Avenue trolley line east of Cleveland Street to Overton Square and North Cooper Street.



Consultants to the Memphis Area Transit Authority are exploring the idea of extending the Madison Avenue trolley line east of Cleveland Street to Overton Square.

(Daily News/Andrew J. Breig)

It is one of seven Midtown routes the transit authority might change or enhance with a bus rapid transit concept that involves fewer stops, fewer turns off main thoroughfares and shorter travel times.

In the case of a “Fairgrounds via Madison” route, instead of buses, the consultants, Doug Moore from HDR Inc. and Geoff Slater of Nelson-Nygard, are suggesting using streetcars on a line running from Downtown that currently stops a few yards east of Cleveland.

“Pretty obviously that would be a streetcar route,” Moore told a group of 100 citizens at a July 16 public hearing hosted by Liveable Memphis.

But it wasn’t obvious to some in the audience at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.

The first question was how the transit system could realistically consider such an option when all existing trolley service stopped more than a year ago. It currently is being rebuilt to include a maintenance and operations foundation that barely existed before.

“It’s our intent to have trolleys back on Madison,” MATA deputy general manager Tom Fox told the group. “It is pretty tight and I think that is the next level of detail on Madison – figuring out if there’s enough room to accommodate travel lanes, parking, bike lanes and some type of transit.”

Nelson-Nygard did a 2011 study for MATA, which led to another study about specific bus rapid transit options for Midtown.

Moore and Slater and their teams rated and pared the possibilities down to seven, including the Fairgrounds via Madison route.

The other six are:

• A bus rapid transit remake of the Poplar-Germantown route, which is MATA’s most popular existing route in terms of ridership. The transit authority attempted a bus rapid transit treatment of the route in 2012 but abandoned it after several months.

• University of Memphis via Union Avenue and Poplar Avenue

• University of Memphis via Union, Cooper and Central that would be an east-west route with north and south movement along Cooper to include Overton Square and the Cooper-Young neighborhood.

• Crosstown at Cleveland and North Watkins, the second most popular existing MATA route.

• Crosstown that adds Elvis Presley Boulevard to the Cleveland and Watkins configuration. (This too would incorporate a previous MATA try at bus rapid transit. In this case it was the Whitehaven Flyer route on Elvis Presley Boulevard that folded in late 2013 after a few months.)

• Airport via Poplar and East Parkway including the Medical Center.

In those six possibilities, the consultants will consider bus rapid transit with and without a dedicated bus lane.

The exclusive lane for buses came in at an estimated capital cost of $20 million to $40 million per mile compared to $5 million to $10 million per mile for shared bus lanes.

The average speed with a bus-only lane would be 25 to 30 miles per hour and 15 to 25 mph in a shared lane.

The consultants estimate the frequency of service for both types of bus lanes at five to 15 minutes.

“That’s the next step is to look at each of these different routes to see what are the physical constraints,” Moore said. “Is there an opportunity to have a lane dedicated to bus service or are there different techniques we would use if there isn’t an opportunity to take the lane for buses?”

Slater said Midtown, like the rest of the city, has more potential east-west transit corridors than north-south. Unlike the rest of the city, Midtown has a density that lends itself to bus rapid transit.

The consultants estimated the Poplar express route could serve 112,021 jobs by 2010 employment numbers and the University of Memphis Union and Poplar route could serve 84,445 jobs.

But some listening again were skeptical.

Among those in the audience was John Gemmill, the director of the Memphis office of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Gemmill told Moore and Slater that working, low-income riders who are now the bulk of MATA’s ridership – 85 percent of all MATA riders do not own a car – don’t live in the areas that are among the Midtown options.

“They’re everywhere where that’s not,” he said pointing at projected maps on a screen. “I think you are advancing the transit system and not user groups.”

But the consultants and Fox told the group that the Midtown routes are just one part of a larger reworking of MATA’s citywide system with other parts of that system aimed at issues beyond building Midtown ridership.

“This is looking for a starting point,” Slater said. “These seven alignments are the seven that appear to us to hold the highest potential in terms of benefitting the highest numbers of existing riders, attracting new riders,” Slater said.

[kingchef]

dr. you will probably be found bagged and floating down the ms or wolf river, due to some of your remarks/comparisons of u of m and the utk. hope not.
as for st. jude and housing, i would think that all of that area just south of st. jude, where they are in the progress of building various types of living structures that could house 1000 families would keep st. jude out of the housing market. too, as a private not for profit and all the restrictions, i don't believe that would lend itself to the housing market idea. currently, at the end of the island, on the north memphis side, a large apt complex is approved. it is supposed to be very nice and on par w/ market rates. finally, as for the trollies, i think they should be brought back, as they do draw tourist, and local traffic downtown. i'm not convinced that we have the right leadership in some of these positions. sometimes i have wondered if any structural engineers, traffic and city planning engineers are really in this state and in this metro---same thing w/ jackson, tn.

[Johnny Ryall]

New Daisy Renovation Signals New Era for Historic Building
By Madeline Faber/ Memphis Daily News

With a national partner found in Live Nation Entertainment, the New Daisy Theater is getting all dolled up to host nearly 200 musical acts annually... East Beale is also renovating The Palace, a nightclub down the street from the New Daisy at at 380 Beale. When construction is completed on the New Daisy in September and The Palace shortly thereafter, Adelman said the two venues will make Beale a regional destination for touring acts.

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news...oric-building/

photo (Memphis News/Andrew J. Breig)

[kingchef]

the city has had a recent change in the last 5years or so. there are less and less passers-by that fail to greet w/ a hello, smile, or wave. less concern for helping neighbors (people who we don't necessarily know, but are in the community.) i have seen two accidents recently. one lady tripped stepping down off the sidewalk and landed on one knee. no one came to her aide, even though several were around. i was too far away, but i was really surprised to see the people pass by w/out even a gesture to help. a communicant caught his wood leg under the kneeler at the cathedral of immaculate conception, and it probably took two minutes to free himself from his snare. perhaps, some thought it would be embarrassing to draw attention to the situation, others may have spent a bit more time communing w/ God, but one would have thought the ushers would have helped, at the very least.

i'm not saying that it is because of so many who are from the north or extreme west, but it seems to be harder and harder to find that wonderful southern accent. some of us were discussing this over drinks the other night, and some stated that imc "snobby" anyway, and they have always been so. i disagreed, and made a similar comment about the ones outside of the southern region. interestingly, most agreed w/ that statement, an at least 5 of those present were reared in the north. while one had recently moved to memphis from portland, oregon. a few in the group stated that they were surprised over the number of people who failed to speak, while in elevators, meeting in doorways, etc., as they thought people would be much more open and talkative. others, however, indicated that they were completely surprised that memphis was so different than what they expected. the main comments were that it was much larger than they had been told or assumed, surprised at the number of jews and catholics in the city, and two found that their move was refreshing and exciting, as their northern section of the country was more like a small township, even though it was a metro area. memphis was much more urban than they expected. so, i thought this was a good conversation, and it seems that most areas of the country are fairly similar.

[Wayward Memphian]

There was a bit about TDOT backing down on the bridge clousure in the ADG over here. While, and this is just my opinion from making hundreds, maybe thousands of crossings, a single, open bridge would pose great risk to residents that work and also depend on healthcare in Memphis. A single major wreck while the Old Bridge is closed would result in a massive traffic jam of epic proportions. Eastbound crossing into Tennesse would be even more dangerous. A single crossing between Dyersburg and Helena is and should be unacceptable. I'm all for this work but the fact is that a third Memphis/Arkansas bridge needs built first and this needs to be feverishly pursued. It's more important than any future I-69 bridge down past Helena. I've always believed this. I've seen the third bridge alternative route plans and the one that makes the most sense would be the one the goes south of West Memphis and crosses just north of Horseshoe Lake and ties in with US51/I-69. I See this tying into I-40 around the Lehi exit just west of West Memphis. Due south of the huge intermodal facility, I would build a spur north to tie into the Intermodal facility. This gives a great relief route for trucks head to Memphis' and North Miss' DCS as well as through truck traffic, lt reduces the burden of the shared corridor thru West Memphis and Memphis' loop. It also opens up vast swaths of flat land in Arkansas for economic development whether for industry or DCs. It might even prove major work on the Memphis side at the Crump exchange unnecessary. I have always wanted a crossing that crossed over from Turrell to to Millington where future I-69/ current 385 meet, but that would be too far north to really help relief traffic from I-40. In a perfect world both of those would be built but one will be hard enough if not impossible.