Only five Memphis hotels boast more than 300 rooms, and just two of
those — the Peabody and the Marriott — are located
downtown. Other luxury hotels downtown have fewer than 200 rooms.
But a proposed 11-story, 298-room hotel at the corner of Linden and
Fourth may increase the city’s odds of attracting large business
meetings and conventions. The county Land Use Control Board approved
the hotel earlier this month.
“We’re trying to provide a luxury environment that will compete with
the Peabody,” says Marlon Phoenix, managing partner with Royal Phoenix
Development. “We’ll have plenty of meeting space, and, in the ballroom,
we’ll be able to hold events for at least 600 people.”
Phoenix says the company is still in negotiations with a couple of
four-star hotel brands. He hopes the hotel will open in the spring or
summer of 2011. The proposed location is currently a parking lot owned
by the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ.
John Oros, executive vice president of the Memphis Convention &
Visitors’ Bureau, says more downtown hotel rooms are essential to
attracting large conventions to Memphis.
“Convention planners want to avoid shuttling, and they want to avoid
having to sign 10 or more hotel contracts,” Oros says. “The trend in
the industry is going for the large mega-hotel complexes, like Opryland
in Nashville. They prefer to have their people under one roof.”
The proposed hotel project also will include upscale retail on the
ground floor, though Phoenix has yet to negotiate with any retail
companies.
Not only will a hotel at Linden and Fourth attract more conventions
to the city, Phoenix thinks it also will help to revitalize a blighted
area of downtown. The 11-story hotel would be located south of
FedExForum, in an area where empty parking lots and rundown buildings,
such as the abandoned Chisca Hotel, dominate the landscape.
“We’re really trying to make an effort to redevelop in that area,”
Phoenix says.
With the economy still suffering from the recent downturn, it might
seem like a strange time to build a large, luxury hotel, but Phoenix
disagrees.
“Things are ripe now for development,” Phoenix says. “We hope to
have this project open at a time when there’s an upswing as opposed to
waiting for an upswing to build the hotel.”
