Downtown Memphis Commission
Developers are hoping, once again, to revive the former U.S. Marine Hospital in the French Fort area this time with a $18.7 million project that includes 71 apartments.
The hospital was originally established in the 1880s to care for workers injured on waterways. Only one building — the Nurses Quarters — remains on the property from that time, however. Most of the remaining buildings, including the main hospital building there now, were built in the 1930s, according to the property’s owners. The hospital’s latest official use was as a National Guard headquarters during Operation Desert Storm.
Downtown Memphis Commission
In 2010, a plan to renovate the hospital with condominiums was scuttled by the faltering economy. In 2016, another plan would have converted the space into low-income housing. But the plan was vacated because property owner Lauren Crews didn’t like it and opposition was expected by French Fort neighbors and the Ornamental Metal Museum, according to documents.
Crews still owns the property and is back with a new plan and a new team to convert the long-vacant property. The plan would create 71 market-rate apartments with a pool, covered parking, courtyards, water features, fallout shelter, bike-care facilities, common areas, and a pet-washing station.
Downtown Memphis Commission
To do it, Crews’ company, Desoto Pointe Partners, hopes to score a 20-year tax break deal with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC). In a letter to the DMC, Crews said the project qualifies for the 24-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) deal, though he understands the usual term is 15 years. However, Crews said “the additional years are needed to make the project possible.”
The deal would be worth more than $3.6 million to the investment group, according to its application, over the 20-year PILOT term. Over that same time, the project would add $1.2 million more to local tax coffers than the property would if it wasn’t improved, according to the application.
DMC staff recommended the PILOT deal for the project in its report.
