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Pinch District condos bolster Downtown living

By Amos Maki
Memphis Business Journal
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2005

Betting on the success of Uptown to spur interest in living in the north end of Downtown, a group of developers is set to build a condominium project in the heart of the Pinch District.

Barnett Naylor Construction Services Group will build Harbor Lights, a $5 million, 24-unit condominium development, at the corner of Front Street and North Parkway, directly across the street from the Pyramid arena.

The developers expect to break ground on the project in March and be open a year later. The condos will range in size from 1,200-1,700 square feet and cost $200,000-$350,000.

Tammy Morgan of Naylor Construction is high on the area, citing St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's expansion and the continued emergence of Uptown. The company has offices on Front Street in the Pinch.

"This is where we're concentrating some of our efforts," Morgan says. "St. Jude is here and is a big player in this part of town. They are going through an expansion and all those doctors and researchers will need a place to live."

St. Jude is in the process of a $1 billion, five-year expansion that is doubling the size of the original campus.

"By putting in a residential unit like this, we hope it kicks off more development," Morgan says. "I think when we break ground on this people who have been waiting on the edge will jump in."

The Pinch District has been drawing the attention of developers recently.

Bluff City Group LLC is nearing completion of a 20,000-square-foot retail and residential project located at the corner of Auction and Front streets. The $2 million Turning Pointe development is the company's first venture, and it will feature 8,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor and 12,000 square feet of residential space on the second and third floors.

The Memphis chapter of Bridges USA, a national youth services organization designed to help high school students become future leaders, built a $9.5 million complex in Downtown just north of St. Jude.

In Uptown, work on The Metropolitan, a 114-unit apartment complex of 19 buildings covering six acres, is nearing completion. The complex is made up of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, which will lease for $562 a month, $674 a month and $775 a month, respectively. The apartments range from 750-1,400 square feet in size.

"Outside of Harbor Town and the South Bluffs, it's the first set of garden style apartments Downtown," says The Metropolitan property manager Jim Kilboy. "It's something brand new for Downtown."

So far, Kilboy has leased seven of the Uptown Partnership apartments. The Uptown Partnership is a collaborative effort between Henry Turley Co. and Belz Enterprises.

"I'm leasing them as fast as I can get them," he says. "As soon as the contractors turn them over, we fill them up."

The Metropolitan is the last of three leasing components of Uptown to come online. The other two, Uptown Square and Greenlaw Place, are completed and leasing.

In another sign of the continued resurgence of Downtown, a new project is under way that could finalize the redevelopment of the area around AutoZone Park.

At 287 Madison, Mike Todd of Monroe Associates LLC, is renovating the three-story structure for a possible condominium development.

Nestled between the 385-unit Echelon at The Ballpark apartment complex that opened in 2001 and directly across the street from the Downtown School, the 44,000-square-foot building was the last remaining piece of the redevelopment puzzle around AutoZone Park.

Todd says construction will be done in phases, starting with a 29-space underground parking garage and $150,000 in facade improvements, including restoring 18 original windows on the second and third floors and placing an awning out front.

"It will have a nice impact as you come down (Madison) and into Downtown," Todd says. "It is very well located and it offers a lot of flexibility in design."

Todd is counting on the aesthetic improvements to make the building more attractive to future developers, although he says he could move forward with a condominium project of his own.

"We'll see what type of bump in interest we get from creating this facade," he says. "I think it is going to be high. If I end up being the final developer, condos will probably be the most feasible."