New $17.9 million mixed-use project planned on South Front

The South Main district of Downtown Memphis is on a roll, and a new development will add to its already busy construction climate.

The Center City Revenue Finance Corporation – a board of the Downtown Memphis Commission – granted 266 Developer LLC a PILOT this week for a new mixed use project.

The development, at 266 S. Front Street, will add 145 apartment units as well as 8,000 square feet of commercial space to the South Main district. Robert E. Mallory, John H. Dicken Jr. and Vince Smith Jr. are the developers behind the $17.9 million project.

Located at the southeast corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and South Front Street, the mixed-use development will consist of three buildings on 1.73 acres. A one-story office building will be demolished to make way for three new buildings: a 76,000-square-foot, three-story apartment building; a 60,000-square-foot, three-story apartment building; and an 8,000-square-foot, two-story commercial building.

All three structures will be connected by an outdoor courtyard.

The apartment floor plans will range in size from 450 square feet to 937 square feet. The vast majority will be one-bedroom units.

Now that the CCRFC has granted the 10-year tax abatement, the development group plans to close on a $14.6 million loan in January 2015. Construction is set to begin in March 2015, with delivery of the first building expected in April 2016 and project completion in February 2017.

DMC president Paul Morris said 266 S. Front Street will bring vibrancy to a corner that currently boasts no more than a surface parking lot and blighted building. The 145 new units will equate to roughly 200 new Downtown Memphis residents, he said.

It’s also part of the larger warehouse district revitalization on Downtown’s south end, where empty, blighted buildings are being torn down or repurposed to make way for new development. In July, D. Canale & Co. announced it would open the Old Dominick Distillery and public tasting room at 301 S. Main. And construction work is underway in earnest on the renovation of the former Chisca Hotel building at 272 S. Main.

Developers Smith and Mallory aren’t new to the area but 266 S. Main represents a larger-scale investment than their previous projects.  The pair recently completed construction on the Printer’s Alley apartments at 347 S. Front, a mixed use project with 30 apartments, nine townhouses and commercial space.

They also recently pulled a building permit for The Annex Lofts, a 23-unit project next door to Printers Alley, at 345 S. Front.

By Jane A. Donahoe