MEMPHIS | Development News

[Johnny Ryall]

Guesthouse at Graceland named AAA Four Diamond hotel
Elle Perry, Digital Producer/ Memphis Business Journal

The Guest House at Graceland was among 88 hotels recently added to AAA's Four Diamond Award list.

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...r-diamond.html

photo MBJ

[Wayward Memphian]

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

I've said this before and I'm going to rant again.

FedEx needs to explore commercial air service using smaller combi planes like ATRs or Q400s or jets like Bombardier's C-Ceres that also acts as a deliver tool to drastically expand mainstream same day package delivery for online retail like for Target, nike and Williams Sonoma and others that compete with Amazon.

Memphis International has plenty of space to run it from, using the passenger and freight to compliment each other in creating a network that ties dozens iof mid sized markets together making same day delivery readily available by sticking the packages on the planes bound for those areas as well.

Example: order a toy from Target on a Saturday morning for a birthday party that night here in Fayetteville AR, order is picked at the Target DC in Memphis, taken to FedEx and placed on the midday flight to XNA on a Q400 combi that seats 50 comfortably with cargo in the rear of the tube, arrives and is delivered by 5 pm at my door in time for the party at Chucky Cheese that night.

You better believe this is crossing Amazon's mind only to delivered via drone on the back end.

You would sell the passenger seats at a fairly fixed low price, open up tons on nonstop destinations from Memphisand places like Indy and Columbus)and tons of one stop connections as well. Example Fayetteville-MEM-Birmingham, St. Louis-MEM-New Orleans. This would eventually eliminate a lot of the trucking out of the equation like running packages from Northwest Ark back and forth to Tulsa for the flights to and from the sort in Memphis.

[DRG901]

"New Projects on Deck for downtown"- Toby Sells, Memphis Flyer, 2/2/17

http://www.memphisflyer.com/NewsBlog...k-for-downtown

[Wayward Memphian]

Looking at MEM passenger numbers for 2016, through November they were at 3,641,000 and some change. There's a good chance that Memphis will hit 4,000,000 total passengers for the year. Congratulations Memphis you are discovering you have an airport

lets go past 6,000,000 by 2025

Oh, noticed United is extending three daily to EWR into OCT.

[VSRJ]

Developers Request to Amend Downtown Hotel Project



https://www.memphisdailynews.com/new...hotel-project/

Memphis City Council members will consider an amendment Tuesday, Feb. 7, to plans for a 150-room hotel on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and B.B. King Boulevard.

The change by Wessman Holdings LLC for the Leader Federal Bank building and the two-story building next to it on the corner would add a new nine-story building past the corner on the B.B. King side.

The existing two-story building on the corner now runs north-south to Bates Alley next to a surface parking lot. The plan by Wessman and its architect, Chris Pardo, would keep half of the two story building at the corner but demolish the northern half running to the alley for the nine-story building.

Not bad!

[KingWestMemphis]

Originally Posted by VSRJ

Not bad!

Not bad at all! The area around the Sterick is really coming alive!

[James Owen]

Plans for the Belz redevelopment on Union & McLean into apartments have changed. While the old office building will still be torn down and replaced with new construction, the former Holiday Inn and adjacent retail center (currently an outpatient clinic) are now slated for renovation instead.

Midtown Market Plan Scaled Back To Keep McLean and Union Hotel
By Bill Dries
Memphis Daily News

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/new...d-union-hotel/

Belz Enterprises and Harbour Retail Partners, the developers of the ambitious project outline the smaller scale of what is now a $33.5 million project, compared to the original $43.5 million project, in a memo to the Center City Revenue Finance Corporation.

It keeps the eight-story vacant Artisan Hotel and renovates it as an apartment building with 175 units in place of the original plan to demolish it and build 188 new apartments. The Towery office building at the southwest corner of the intersection would still be demolished.

And the developers still intend to bring a “national gourmet store into the anchor tenant position of the retail.”

[DRG901]

Originally Posted by James Owen

Plans for the Belz redevelopment on Union & McLean into apartments have changed. While the old office building will still be torn down and replaced with new construction, the former Holiday Inn and adjacent retail center (currently an outpatient clinic) are now slated for renovation instead.

Midtown Market Plan Scaled Back To Keep McLean and Union Hotel
By Bill Dries
Memphis Daily News

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/new...d-union-hotel/

That's not too bad in keeping it with a modern look with the other new building. I've been wondering why there hasn't been much progress. But I did notice a construction sign finally the other day.

[Wayward Memphian]

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...outh-main.html

Arrive Hotel

[DRG901]

Originally Posted by Wayward Memphian

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...outh-main.html

Arrive Hotel

Looks like the developers behind the Arrive and other 9-story boutique hotel on Madison is rehabbing a building across the street from the latter- 119 Madison Ave.

'High-end craft cocktail bar,' coffeeshop, apartments proposed for historic Downtown building

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

[KingWestMemphis]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biz...android-att-us

Well, I'm down with this if it is going to be even more ambitious.

[DRG901]

"Archimania drops South Main plans, cites 'suburban' feel"- Tom Bailey, Commercial Appeal/ 2-10-2017

http://www.commercialappeal.com/stor...main/97344084/


This is interesting, and while I do agree a lot with what they say about some of the other apartments on that end-- I had to read the article to make sure they weren't talking about their own plans. Seems odd as it was announced so far back and some of those apartments were already built. Either way, hopefully they have been encouraged to do something else downtown and have bigger plans.

[VSRJ]

^ That's my biggest gripe with that area. Most of the apartments look like they've been transplanted from Cordova or another suburban area. They're uninspiring and out of place to say the very least. Some (stricter) design guidelines for that area would be a great start.

Edit: I'd love for them to incorporate their offices into the old 52 S. Front St. proposal: http://www.archimania.com/projects/m.../#.WJ8-ZxIrKRs

[DRG901]

Originally Posted by VSRJ

^ That's my biggest gripe with that area. Most of the apartments look like they've been transplanted from Cordova or another suburban area. They're uninspiring and out of place to say the very least. Some (stricter) design guidelines for that area would be a great start.

Edit: I'd love for them to incorporate their offices into the old 52 S. Front St. proposal: http://www.archimania.com/projects/m.../#.WJ8-ZxIrKRs

Yeah I totally forgot about that. Hope something like it happens.

[arkitekte]

Originally Posted by DRG901

"Archimania drops South Main plans, cites 'suburban' feel"- Tom Bailey, Commercial Appeal/ 2-10-2017

http://www.commercialappeal.com/stor...main/97344084/


This is interesting, and while I do agree a lot with what they say about some of the other apartments on that end-- I had to read the article to make sure they weren't talking about their own plans. Seems odd as it was announced so far back and some of those apartments were already built. Either way, hopefully they have been encouraged to do something else downtown and have bigger plans.

That's their excuse for not building there, not the reason.

[DRG901]

Originally Posted by arkitekte

That's their excuse for not building there, not the reason.

Yeah, that was what I got from it too.

[DRG901]

Article with info about a lot of projects in the Shelby suburbs going on right now.

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/new...f-the-suburbs/

State Of The Suburbs
By Patrick Lantrip/Memphis Daily News- 2/11/17

[apokryphon]

My hypothesis is that Archimania saw the numerous proposals for the Pinch district and decided they wanted to be part of the action there. There is a drastic difference between the proposed Pinch district plans and the relative isolation of the South End.

[DRG901]

"UTHSC plans new Medical District apartments"- Elle Perry/Memphis Business Journal- 2/23/2017

"University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) plans to build new apartments on 10 acres in the Medical District. The planned site, which is already owned by UTHSC, is bordered by Jefferson Avenue, Manassas Street, Madison Avenue and Orleans Street."

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...nts-on-10.html

[kingchef]

post #4306 by maximus shows a proposal for the renovations and additions to the cook convention center. imo, it would be a mistake visually to create the extremely long linear addition, as it gives no relief to the eye, and creates more visually uninteresting architecture in that area. from what i see, there are no setbacks, bumpouts, use of brick or other building materials that gives the eye a place to rest, as presented in the plan. to me, it would make a bit more sense to, at the very least, add an architectural element, which mimics the current polished aluminum art piece currently located on the property. whether a dome, raised tower, etc., it should be utilized to break up that extreme length. the current plan would only accentuate the length of low-lying buildings and the relatively uninteresting area below the water front.
perhaps, a canopy somewhat like the sidney opera house? i'm not suggesting that it should be that size nor ht., but it should take the eye up, and it should be pleasing and interesting.

one last comment, should a hotel of 600 rooms be constructed, why in the world not go for an ovoid-shaped, 30-36 stories, which would definitely give some depth to the area. another 13- to 15 story building only continues to crop the skyline. the mariott/sheraton convention hotel is 17 and 13 stories, and had the vision of downtown been really studied, it would have made a very nice 30 story structure, ultimately leaving more space for the convention center. the memphis skyline needs to be a bit more assertive, and i think that most caring citizens and visitors think the same.