Tag: Downtown Memphis

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter From the Editor: Take Me to the PILOT

CREDIT: Raymond James

Remember when you were, say, in your early twenties, and you needed to move out of your crappy apartment because the landlord was a jerk and wouldn’t fix the water heater and the back-door lock was always broken? You’d call up a bunch of friends and say, “Hey, come over and help me move on Saturday. I’ll buy the beer!”

Amazingly, this actually worked sometimes. Your pals would drop by, help you stuff your worldly belongings into boxes, schlep your crappy couch and chest of drawers and floppy mattress onto a truck and unload it all at your new crappy apartment. All for the price of a case or two of Natty Light.

Raymond James

It’s kind of like what’s happening between brokerage firm Raymond James and the city of Memphis’ Economic Development and Growth Engine (EDGE). You see, Raymond James, a national company with 2018 revenues of $7.2 billion, needs a little help with its move from its current Downtown headquarters to a couple of buildings out in East Memphis. So it asked EDGE to cut them a break on taxes, you know, like friends do.

Raymond James has been in a dispute with its landlord at its namesake building at 50 North Front for a couple of years, mostly over the structure’s elevators. They break down sometimes, stranding employees and clients. The building’s landlord says they’re fixing the problem, but it takes time and it’s expensive and they need Raymond James to sign a lease so they can commit to that expense. Raymond James says, nah, we’re moving out east. Oh, and we’d like a little help from the city with moving expenses.

As The Commercial Appeal reported last week: “Because of the deterioration of its Downtown facility, Raymond James has recently signed two leases to relocate its operations into 250,000 square feet in two buildings located in East Memphis,” the Florida-based company said in an application for a tax break. The application further stated: “These leases are contingent on EDGE’s approval of our PILOT application.”

Enter EDGE and its friendly PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, which is considering the Raymond James company’s request for a $3.2 million tax break to help offset its moving costs.

That’s a lot of Natty Light.

EDGE has released documents that appear to financially justify the granting of the PILOT, citing the fact that Raymond James is promising to create 100 new jobs that will pay around $64,000 on average. EDGE also noted the positive tax-revenue impact of the $23 million Raymond James says it will spend to renovate and refurbish the buildings in East Memphis. The company added that many of the new employees will be relocated to Memphis from the Raymond James’ national headquarters in Tampa, where there is some concern that global warming will impact its operations.

Huh.

EDGE says Raymond James’ investment in the two buildings and the impact of 100 new employees moving to Memphis will bring in roughly $5.8 million in “tax benefits” to the local economy. So, granting a tax break of $3.2 million will mean the city comes out ahead in this deal by about $2.6 million. Theoretically.

Here’s a crazy thought: Why not let a $7.2-billion-dollar corporation suck it up and pay for its own move? That $3.2 million is chump change for Raymond James. And it would be a lot more expensive for them to leave town and move their 863 current employees somewhere else. They’re moving people out of Tampa, anyway. And here’s the kicker: After Raymond James moves out east, Memphis will be left with another big, empty building in the city’s core. Why would we want to incentivize a company to do that?

I can understand (sometimes) why PILOTs are given to attract companies to town or to spur investment in a blighted or neglected area, but I don’t understand why we would give a tax break to a multi-billion-dollar company just because it’s in a squabble with its landlord and wants to move to another part of the city. East Memphis isn’t exactly blighted or lacking in development. That $3.2 million in foregone tax dollars could be better spent, in my humble (but distinctly non-expert) opinion.

Maybe we ought to save that PILOT money and use it to lure a potential tenant into that distinctive but soon-to-be-empty Downtown building with lovely river views.

Or use it to fix the elevators.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Flat City

A story came out in The Commercial Appeal this week that caused some chatter around local social media networks. The story was about a report from the Census Bureau that said the nine-county Memphis metro area gained a grand total of 888 people in the past year. That’s “growth,” but an intimate kind of growth, the kind where we could invite all the newcomers down to Loflin Yard for drinks or something.

But it’s important to remember that’s not just Memphis, that’s nine counties, our entire metro area. Also relevant is the fact that, nationally, the growth rate for all major metro areas was .8 percent. Sure, there are still cities with higher-than-average growth rates, but the trend, at least lately, has been flat population growth for most American statistical metro areas.

So how does that flat population number square with the boom in development in downtown and Midtown Memphis? People are moving in, obviously, or all these new apartments and condos and old buildings being built out for reuse wouldn’t be happening; all these new restaurants and entertainment districts wouldn’t be getting built. But that growth appears to be, at least for now, a function of these core areas gaining local residents at the expense of other local neighborhoods that are losing them.

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As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the areas that are beginning to show decline are the vast suburban tracts that were created as a result of the area’s suburban sprawl — the housing and development boom in Memphis’ outer reaches that marked the 1990s and early 2000s. It was seen as “growth” when it was happening, but it wasn’t. We got less dense, population-wise, but we weren’t gaining residents; we were just spreading our chips on the table, instead of stacking them. We built new schools, we got new malls, but it was mostly at the expense of Midtown and downtown Memphis, which lost residents. The growth trend now is back toward the urban core, as mall culture is dying and people are seeking community again.

How do we avoid making the same mistake in reverse: building up some areas while leaving other areas fallow and decaying? It will require first recognizing and accepting that we literally have spread ourselves too thin. We don’t have enough people living here to fill all the space in the metro area that we’ve built out and developed. We need to think creatively about how we recreate the inner core, making sure we avoid the mistakes made in developing our outer ring: overbuilt housing, cheap, transitory architecture, and automobile-centric design. And we need to get serious about de-annexing areas that have been complaining for years about having to be part of the city. Let ’em go. See you at the next Grizzlies game.

Development in the Memphis core must be smart, with an eye toward permanence and architectural cohesiveness. We need to be vigilant against overbuilding neighborhoods around entertainment districts or city parks — “pop-up” projects that appear destined to become obsolete in the coming years.

To that end, the proposed apartments at Sam Cooper and East Parkway are a good case study. The developers seem aware of the need to build something that is architecturally in sync with the neighborhood, but concerns have been raised about increased traffic at an already busy and complex intersection, one that serves as the primary gateway to the city from the east. The development’s proximity to the thoughtfully crafted and artistically welcoming eastern entrance to Overton Park is also a matter for consideration.

But controlling ambitious development in the urban core is a good problem for a city to have; certainly better than the alternative. Sometimes, flat is good.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The “G” Word

Sears Crosstown rendering

Last week was a busy one for Midtown news. To recap: Parkway Grill and those delicious chicken pitas are history, hopefully not for good. YoLo is moving west to make room for a restaurant at the southeast corner of Madison and Cooper. Crosstown Concourse’s apartment units, the “Parcels,” are available for pre-lease and will be ready in December. And the Greensward debate might finally be settled? I’ll believe that one when I see it.

More changes are on the way. Some seem exciting, others just “ehhhh.” I’m not sure all of them are good ideas, but I’m willing to wait and see. I’ve heard reactions to the Overton Square and Crosstown news that were far less measured, with terms like “overpriced” and “bullshit” and even the dreaded “G word” bandied about.

Whoa there. I had no idea y’all were so passionate about your frozen yogurt. You’d think Pho Binh was being replaced with an artisan mayonnaise boutique or something, the way some people were carrying on. Now THAT would be a crisis.

Let’s not conflate revitalization with gentrification. Not while we’re trying to compensate for a half-century of population loss and alleviate poverty in the poorest metro in the country.

We need Midtown, and Memphis as a whole, to thrive. Yes, authenticity is important. We strive to support and uplift local businesses. We also need safety and good schools and other public goods that cost money. These needs are hard to fulfill in a city that’s full of renters but relies on property taxes. Memphis the metropolitan area spans three states, but Memphis the city only collects sales taxes in one of them (Think about that when you drive to the outlet mall).

I digress. Go to smartcitymemphis.com — they explain this stuff better than I can.

I used to think Midtown was so much more fun when I was in my 20s. Really, my nostalgia was more for the plot of my 20s than the setting. I do miss Square Foods, when it was in the space the Bayou now occupies. I miss the old Hi-Tone. I miss seeing bands at the Deli. I miss the Republic Coffee that was on Madison. Everything else I loved is still around, though. Some things have moved or improved. Some are harder to get to, but that’s because the empty and abandoned places have been replaced by other nice things for all kinds of people to enjoy. Yes, “all kinds” should — and does — include people who live outside of zip code 38104.

Rent was $500, split two ways, for the 2BR/1BA duplex near the Piggly Wiggly (better known to y’all new-to-town folks as “Cash Saver”) where I used to live in the early 2000s. It was much bigger than the entry-level Crosstown Parcel, which is $874. Unlike a Crosstown Parcel, it didn’t include wifi or a washer and dryer or a gym membership or a functioning stove. Like most things that are cheap, it was that way for a reason. The place was falling apart. Literally crumbling. What it lacked in amenities, it made up in “quirks” and experiences that would hopefully inspire a novel or at least an interesting chapter or two in my memoir.

Nearly every element of old-house charm had been painted over or sealed off to exempt the landlord from having to maintain it. I had to screw plywood boards to my window air conditioning unit so it would fit in the one window that opened. The hardwood floors were probably gorgeous at some point, before they were painted black.

The downstairs neighbors were a family of four hearing-impaired insomniacs who hated each other’s guts. Their favorite activities were yelling at each other and watching network television at top volume; often they did both at once. Vonage was running that commercial with The 5.6.7.8‘s “Woo Hoo,” and I swear it aired 100 times a day, double that on my days off. To this day I clench my teeth and fists whenever I hear that song.

The house was boarded up not long after we moved out. It’s still there, probably waiting for a fire or perhaps a strong gust of wind to put it out of its misery.

The character of Midtown hasn’t changed much, but little improvements like “not letting that entertainment district wither away completely” and “finally doing something about that dormant 1.5 million square foot building” seem to be working out OK so far. Housing demand is increasing as more people want to move in than to leave. New apartments are being built for the first time in years, and the market will decide whether the prices are right. Meanwhile, let’s hold off on throwing around words like “gentrification” — at least until the mayonnaise store opens.

Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphian and a digital marketing specialist.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Homicide Wave: Memphis is Up Against It

Apropos Memphis’ homicide wave: To put it bluntly, we are indeed up against it — the “we” including Mayor Jim Strickland, his interim Police Director Michael Rallings, the members of the Memphis City Council, and … who

else? Oh, yes, that “we” includes us, all the residents and businesses of Memphis and Shelby County, and all the tourists and other visitors who come here, drawn by the city’s legendary reputation for barbecue, boogie, and whatever else.

Specifically, count two of downtown Memphis’ foremost attractions, Beale Street and the Bass Pro Pyramid, within that group of potential victims of illegal violence — and, hey, summer, whether destined to be the long, hot version or not, hasn’t really even gotten started yet.

When Justin Welch, a distressed and/or mentally unstable 21-year-old, went on a shooting spree Saturday night, wounding innocent people in the Pinch District and Bass Pro and killing Police Officer Verdell Smith with a stolen vehicle, he put an exclamation mark on what was already an untenable situation.

Strickland must have known what he was getting into when he ran for the mayoralty, an office of responsibility that he’d had an opportunity to observe during his eight years as a city councilman. And we can only hope he knows what he’s doing now as he sets forth on what would seem to be a new course of active “partnerships” with other law-enforcement agencies: namely, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

For obvious reasons, there has always been some jurisdictional cooperation between the Memphis Police Department and these and other agencies, including the Tennessee and Federal Bureau of Investigation. But this new arrangement is different; it puts a new spin on the old conundrum of whether the sum of separate parts can be greater than the whole.

We are reminded of another not-so-distant time, the late 1980s, when the “jump and grab” incursions into Memphis of the late activist Sheriff Jack Owens were regarded with a fair amount of jealousy and suspicion by the MPD and city government at large. The new combine of crime-fighting forces has, by the very fact of its being proposed, become a graphic illustration of the emergency we seem to have found ourselves in.

Simultaneous with an upsurge in homicides, surely the most chilling spectre on the public horizon, there are basic matters affecting the MPD that must be resolved. There needs to be a permanent police director, pronto. And, even though we have been assured by the wise lights in our local governments that the reductions in benefits for our police officers and other first responders were absolute fiscal necessities, we cannot regard this matter as closed. Strickland’s proposals for reactivating PST assistants  and for increasing pay and other incentives may, in fact, not be enough to offset what is clearly an understaffed protective infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Strickland is not the only public official who is on the spot; another is former district attorney and state Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons, who will shortly be assuming his new dual role of president of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission and director of the new Public Safety Institute at the University of Memphis.  

Let’s hope Strickland is on the right track with his new crime plan, but we need as many new answers as we can come by.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Downtown Memphis: Less is More

An early proposed version of Beale Street Landing.

The one thing Memphis and Shelby County have surely learned from the past decade or so, during which hard times visited and stayed around for a while, is that necessity truly is the mother of invention — and often a single mother at that. 

Even before the Great Crash of 2008-9, there was a general sense that we had let our ambitions on the development front soar a little too much. Take our riverfront: Organized opposition on the part of Friends of the River and other environmentally interested citizens was, along with alarms about the anticipated costs of the project, a major reason why some of the more ambitious iterations proposed by the Riverfront Development Corporation did not come to fruition. 

What was left on the plate was Beale Street Landing (BSL). Beset with delays, cost overruns, design controversies, and intermittent failures to cooperate by a sometimes unruly river, it finally got done within the past year. The public spaces are welcoming, the views are spectacular, and BSL has proved, if nothing else, to be a great place to have a party. The Flyer‘s own annual Best of Memphis celebration was held there to good effect earlier this year. 

It brings to mind the phrase — and the concept of — “less is more,” a term which, we discovered upon doing a little research, was originated not by the minimalist architect Mies van der Rohe, as was long supposed, but by Robert Browning in the British master’s 1855 poem, “Andrea del Sarto (Called ‘The Faultless Painter’).” 

We were stirred into admiration of a sort a few months back at an insight offered by Mayor A C Wharton (whom we had previously taken to desk, along with city planning maven Robert Lipscomb, for the grandiosity embedded in some of the ideas floated out of City Hall): Frustrated  by the scarcity of the times, by the drying up of public and private funding sources, and by overt warnings about fiscal over-reach from the state Comptroller’s office, Wharton offered a new, leaner version of development, which cast downtown Memphis as an open-air arena, with its parts — among them FedExForum, the National Civil Rights Museum, the soon-to-be Bass Pro Pyramid, and, yes, Beale Street Landing — being connected by relatively inexpensive public transportation. 

This was how the mayor saw us responding to tourist and convention competition from, say, Nashville, with its massive (and massively expensive) new Convention Center. 

“Less is more.” Yes, indeed. And even the nascent Main Street to Main Street Big Water Crossing project (aka Hanrahan Bridge project), establishing pedestrian connections between downtown and West Memphis, involves minimal transformation of existing natural surroundings at relatively low cost — the key component being a $14.9 million “Tiger Grant” from the federal government. Greg Maxted, the project’s executive director, made that modest but far-reaching project sing when he described its prospective glories to a luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Memphis on Tuesday. 

We have much to look forward to, and much of what is to come is already there, in a landscape that needs only some judicious tweaking, not a massive overhaul.

Categories
Opinion

Robert Lipscomb Explains Heritage Trail Plan

Clayborn Temple

  • Clayborn Temple

Reacting to concerns of downtowners last month, Memphis Housing and Community Development and MHA Director Robert Lipscomb has issued a detailed explanation of plans for Heritage Trail, the blighted area south of FedEx Forum.

In a letter to city officials and downtown stakeholders, Lipscomb said there have been “misunderstandings” and inaccurate accounts of the proposal that would use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to pay for improvements with future tax increases from higher property values.

The document is here in PDF form.

HeritageTrailQ_A.pdf

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

Haute Life

The Big Muddy eases by a couple hundred yards away, and the streetcars rattle along a block over. A little farther away is the nexus of the hottest blues and coolest jazz in the area. A light breeze wafts with the aroma of some of the city’s finest Southern fare. You sit in a comfortable courtyard surrounded by brick and a fleur-de-lis-topped iron railing.

No, you’re not in New Orleans. You’re in that other Mississippi River city, the one atop the bluffs. You’re in downtown Memphis, right next to Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, at RiverCrest condominiums on Front Street and East Pontotoc Avenue.

RiverCrest is the brainchild of Fred and Donna Dee Sliney and Don Morris of Horizon Construction. Donna Sliney of RE/MAX Elite pulls double duty, as she is also the real estate agent for the project. RiverCrest did not happen overnight, and as it has taken shape, the building has drawn a lot of attention from downtown residents, workers, visitors, and diners at Gus’s. The chicken shack, once standing lonely between a parking lot and a field, now has a big brother.

“We have been at this for over a year,” Donna Dee Sliney says. RiverCrest broke ground on May 30th, 2006. “We felt it would take one year to get the quality we wanted.”

The owners not only took their time on the project, they also limited the size of the development. “We wanted to keep it at three stories with the rooftop [terrace level], and we thought that we could get more quality by limiting the number of units to 11,” Sliney says.

The result is a building with units ranging in size from 1,860 to 2,700 square feet (and each style unit with multiple floor-plan options). With units having 10-foot ceilings, there’s plenty of room to breathe. All units are loaded with windows, and the model is as bright as the summer day outside. Flats and

townhouses on the second and third floors have private balconies. Top-floor units also boast private roof-garden terraces. Townhouses include 21-by-10-foot lofts.

The smallest units are still expansive. Each flat has two bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. The master bath is almost sinful: a huge bath/shower combo. Bedrooms, which are carpeted, have two walk-in closets and a full bath each. The rest of the interior is either hardwood (the purchaser’s choice of one of five Bruce “Natural Reflections” hardwood floors) or ceramic tile.

Condos also offer a full laundry, kitchens with stainless-steel appliances, including double ovens, and TV and wireless Internet provided as part of homeowner-association membership. In addition to hardwood-floor choices, residents can pick from six styles of granite countertops for the bathrooms and kitchen, the ceramic tile, carpet,

cabinetry, interior wall colors, and an interior trim color throughout. An allowance is given to purchasers for interior fixtures.

Diane Gordon, principal designer of SEE the Difference Interiors, was selected to do the interior design for RiverCrest. “We were most impressed with Gordon, and we basically gave her free rein,” Sliney says. Gordon’s credentials are impeccable: In the Memphis Area Home Builders Association’s 2006 Vesta Home Show downtown, Gordon won four awards: Best Interior Design, Best of Show, Best Lifestyle Appeal, and Best Kitchen, all for her work on CityHouse.

“I was selected to be the interior designer for the project, from picking out the paint colors to the cabinets to the granite, making the units have consistency and flow, and setting up the model,” Gordon says. “Picking out colors is very important so there is consistency.” Designing RiverCrest’s

Donna Dee Sliney

model, Gordon went through the same process she does for all her clients. “I go to High Point, North Carolina, and I make my own selections and purchase everything directly from the manufacturers: rugs, furniture, accessories, lighting, wall décor, bedroom suites, dining room suites, and upholstery.

“RiverCrest has a New Orleans flair to it, and to be able to come in and do an updated home furnishing on it really fit the style of the complex,” she says. “I would probably call it a soft eclectic style. Everything in Memphis is 90 percent tradition, so when people come in, they’re like, Wow. Every time you go to home furnishing stores and models, you either get that total modern, contemporary look, which is what a lot of downtown is going to, or you get kind of an eclectic look, which is basically matching different pieces from different vendors instead of everything being from the same company that matches up perfectly.”

Gordon, a native Memphian in the interior-design business for about 12 years but who just opened her showroom in December in CityHouse, will be on hand to assist RiverCrest purchasers with the selection process.

One of the most coveted possessions downtown — covered, secured parking — is one of the amenities RiverCrest offers. Each unit comes with two secured, underground parking spots accessible from the entrance off Pontotoc. And there’s not just an elevator that can take you from the garage to all floors. It’s

Diane Gordon

furniture-friendly, ready for moving in. All entrances to the building, including the garage, are keypad secure. There are also individual, customized storage areas for residents.

A large courtyard graces the central/back portion of the building, evoking New Orleans in word and design. The landscaped area includes gas grills and picnic tables, perfect for escaping from it all — right in the middle of it all.

RiverCrest is the Slineys’ first foray into downtown Memphis development. “It’s been exciting,” Donna Sliney says. “Downtown is alive. We think downtown is just wonderful, and that’s why we chose to build RiverCrest here. We’re just real thrilled to be a part of downtown.

“RiverCrest is not the typical residential building. It’s for professionals and people who want to enjoy all the amenities of downtown,” she says. “The upside of living downtown, and especially at the Rivercrest, is that you can walk to the Orpheum, you can walk to Beale Street, you can go to FedExForum, and with all the new restaurants opening, the lifestyle is great. From the rooftop you can see the river, and the view of downtown is just incredible. But there’s dead silence in your unit.” According to Sliney, units are soundproofed to the extent that you can’t hear passing traffic on Front Street.

Units range from $389,000 to $559,000, and purchasers can be in their condo within 30 days, maximum. “They’re all sheetrocked and ready for purchasers to approve,” Sliney says. ■

For more information on RiverCrest, contact Donna Dee Sliney at 901-485-7970 or by e-mail: donnasliney@remax.net. Diane Gordon can be reached at 901-522-9696 or seedianegordon@aol.com.