MDC26
-
Posts
812 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Project Database
User Guide
Store
Events
Posts posted by MDC26
-
-
58 minutes ago, VSRJ said:
Wow! Those are some interesting facts. I had never noticed the spires in older photos.
I hadn’t either. It also looks like there’s an additional trim at the top of the roof. I think the spires and roof trim make it look even better, and hope the are both reinstalled.
-
1 hour ago, JTM1 said:
Thank you. That was a detailed and interesting read on Zhong, Kemker’s investor. I am dumfounded that he didn’t take a deeper dive into this guy’s financials.
When this development was first announced, I was under the impression that Kemker was partnering with the group that developed the corner on Sam Cooper and E Parkway. I am not sure why I was thinking that.
If he doesn’t find any partners to invest, he has definitely made it easier for the buyer of the property to develop it. I personally would like to see a modest change, but it’s going to be interesting to see what comes next, because I am sure one of those cutthroat developers were waiting to pounce on this property.
If your investor's financing is from BTC and he just tells you he got in early on it, and has a bunch, then I don't know what else you could have done. No way to find out that he stole it from Silk Road. Credit score and banking records won't do you any good.
-
1
-
-
Couple articles from Memphis Magazine about the Sterick & redevelopment.
https://memphismagazine.com/features/longform/long-live-“the-queen-of-memphis”/
https://memphismagazine.com/features/longform/the-story-of-the-sterick-building/
https://memphismagazine.com/features/longform/so-what’s-it-like-inside-the-sterick-building-today/
Interesting notes: - The original color of the building was natural stone color, then it was painted white in 1957, then yellow in 1979. Was discussed going back to the original natural stone color.
- In 1945, after the building was sold for the 2nd time, it was streamlined and the 9 foot gothic spires were removed at the top of the building for safety reasons (can be seen in pic below, and I hope they bring these back)
- Had two underground levels with parking for 50 cars. (I never knew this and wonder where the entrance was.)
- The elevators moved at 900ft per minute and were the fastest in the country
- Tough to keep up, but looks like there's been around 13 different owners of the building. Equitable Life kept trying to get rid of it, but the Sterick kept falling back into their laps
-
1
-
1
-
-
30 minutes ago, JTM1 said:
This is an odd story.
“The bankruptcy came as a result of the conviction of the project's financier, James Zhong. In 2012, Zhong unlawfully obtained more than 50,000 Bitcoin from the black market site Silk Road while he was a student at the University of Georgia. Federal investigators sought the missing cryptocurrency for years, and their search eventually took them to Zhong.”
There may be hope for this yet if another investing partner can be found or someone that's willing to build upon his vision.
"Now, 15 parcels across 5.6 acres of prime land are being put up for sale. Cushman & Wakefield/Commercial Advisors has created a website for the property and has listed it on real estate websites such as LoopNet and Crexi."
"The sale may be the end of the Central Yards project in its proposed form. Kemker is trying to find partners and new investors to potentially buy up the project, but given the development environment and the project's history, he is facing challenges. He still believes in the project and hopes whomever buys the land will see his vision through."
"Everything that I talked about when we brought this project to light — about improving the community and being proud of building something in Memphis — is still 100% true," Kemker told MBJ. "It still means a lot to me. And that's why if I can find a way to get into an investment group, I'd love to do that and still see some semblance of that promise and that vision come to light."
If another developer step in, there are a few changes that I would like to see made and some things added.
Here’s more on the crime: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/us-attorney-announces-historic-336-billion-cryptocurrency-seizure-and-conviction#:~:text=U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said,an over %243.3 billion mystery.
https://decrypt.co/125081/us-government-dumps-seized-silk-road-bitcoin?amp=1
Too bad they didn’t get construction going sooner and get the project built before the feds caught up with Zhong. It’s not like all the recovered bitcoin is going to pay someone back. Silk Road got shut down and it’s owner is serving life in jail.
-
33 minutes ago, VSRJ said:
The former Malco theater in Bartlett being converted into an indoor pickleball complex was not on my 2023 bingo card.
Bluff City Pickleball coming to former Malco theater in Bartlett
Just curious, what IS on your 2023 Bingo card?
-
On 7/8/2023 at 12:01 PM, BnaBreaker said:
Memphis would be an ideal spot for a Hard Rock Hotel, although I wonder how much they are focusing on hotel projects that wouldn't have an added casino. Still irks me that casino gambling hasn't been legalized in Tennessee. The state is losing so much potential revenue to neighboring states it's crazy. But I suppose that's another issue altogether.
One more random tangent... it still blows my mind that they haven't put a House of Blues in the friggin' HOME OF THE BLUES. But I digress.
I think there are plenty that don’t have a casino. The new one in NYC does not have a casino. I believe the one that was being built in NOLA & collapsed did not have a casino.
Isaac Tigrett, founder of both Hard Rock Cafe & House of Blues was born & raised in Jackson, TN.
20 hours ago, James Owen said:There have been on and off conversations about Hard Rock building one of their City Hotels (non-casino) along Beale over the last couple of years, but with the Cafe ending its lease inside the Lansky Bros. building later this month, there's uncertainty about what their future plans might be.
I don't know too much about the House of Blues franchise, but I doubt the space HRC is vacating would be big enough for their needs.
That's what I said initially when plans for a boutique hotel on that end of Beale were coming together. If not a City Hotel, then a Reverb (like the one in Atlanta) would do well in that spot.
I believe Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos are separate entities.
-
Belz continues to sit on one of the best properties downtown (the entrance of Beale St at Main & Beale) because they didn't think there was a need for a hotel. Yet, 2 hotels have recently opened a block away, and another one is about to be built, also a block away. 5 years have passed since they agreed to conditional use as a parking lot for 15 years. They are also about to have a large parking structure next door. I still hope a hotel gets built here, ideally a Hard Rock Hotel. Then, I hope that MLGW will move (Thomas Building looks like a good spot to relocate), and open their property for redevelopment.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, JTM1 said:
How many floors is this supposed to be?
4
-
1
-
-
52 minutes ago, Nothingspectacular said:
Dream branded hotels are really nothing special or high style as the headline infers. They are middle tier at best, with pretty standard amenities. The established ones are not aging well. I’ve stayed at them in several cities and rate them as average.
I guess it just depends on the specific owner of each hotel, and what amenities they build out, and update over time.
Your name "nothingspectacular" goes along with your 6 posts, all of which are negative.
-
1
-
1
-
-
I like the design and glad they are keeping a good portion of the existing building.
-
33 minutes ago, JTM1 said:
The Cannon Center is on the same branch as the Orpheum, but it has a different use and function.
I know the Symphony plays there, and they've had concerts, Miss Tennessee Pageant, speakers, but I didn't know if it was made to be able to do plays/musicals with the elaborate sets and stuff.
-
Light rail transit will probably never come to fruition to any significance (connections between downtown, Liberty Park, UofM campus, airport). But there may be another (cheaper) option. Many US cities are discussing utilizing gondolas for transit.
The only existing public gondolas in the US are in Portland and NYC (connection Manhattan to Roosevelt island). Both are around 1km in length. Disney World has around 3 miles of gondola lines connecting Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and numerous hotels. I’ve ridden them many times, and they are pleasant to ride.
Bolivia & Colombia are two countries that have made good use of gondolas for public transit. Capacity isn’t as high as subways, but I think they would be more than enough for demand in Memphis. Could this be a realistic option for Memphis?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90725056/how-urban-gondolas-grew-from-a-tourist-attraction-to-a-viable-transit-option-
2
-
-
3 hours ago, JTM1 said:
I don't know what they were thinking, because this is shameful. So much has gone to the landfills in the name of progress and they left downtown with a glut of parking lots and open space. Thank goodness level heads intervened. This is why saving the Coliseum is important, because of its potential and usefulness. They can build the soccer stadium in another area of downtown and create another entertainment district around it.
I have some in-laws that are Orpheum season ticket holders and they would love to see another professional theater open downtown, because they feel Memphis is missing out on other good shows.
Is the Cannon Center not a professional theater capable of handling these other shows? I have no idea as I’ve never been inside it.
-
On 5/14/2023 at 10:04 AM, smeagolsfree said:
I think it is a pipedream as the state will spend no money on this and rail lobby is too strong. We have had a lot of discussions on the Nashville board about this over the years. At least you guys already have your Amtrak connection. They are talking of a connection for Nashville to Atlanta but that makes little sense as they have to do other connections from Atlanta further south to make it work for them to connect to Miami. If we connect to Memphis, it does little for a connection to Chicago which is what the majority of the people polled want. Yes, I realize you connect to Chicago, but a person would have to go west to go north. Big waste of time.
Most folks want a connection to Louisville then on to Chicago. The connections to Miami would take a lot of work as you have to go to Raleigh from Atlanta and then south, and for me personally I have no reason to go to Knoxville even though I am from NE TN. I don't think the demand would be very high except on UT game days and it would be easier to drive and probably faster at any rate. Getting back to Chicago it makes a lot of sense as there are a lot of transplants from Chicago here already. It is already easier to drive to Atlanta than it is to fly. I can drive to Atlanta faster than I can go to the airport, arrive 2 1/2 hours early, the 1-hour taxi and flight, get my luggage, rent a car, etc. I will beat the flyer to wherever they want to go in Atlanta by driving myself and still have my car.
I think the state will squash this simply because it is coming from the feds on principle only. Rail is too left wing for them. I am just being more pragmatic in my approach as we have seen this discussion for the last almost 20 years in Nashville. Again, consider yourself fortunate that you already have rial service in Memphis. I am sure if the state had a way to take it away, they would.
You arrive at the airport 2 1/2 hours early? I’m good if I arrive at the LR airport 1:15 early, but have shown up inside an hour and been fine. Of course it helps having TSA pre-check, and yes I know BNA has more passengers than LIT.
-
An article about how the Orpheum was almost torn down. Has an aerial before/after slider photo of the Urban renewal. Interesting to see how much was torn down.
https://storyboardmemphis.org/history/almost-forgotten-history-of-the-orpheum/
-
14 hours ago, Architect said:
I cannot believe how the city has completely abdicated their own Urban Use (UU) zoning requirements for Broadway. I mean, I get it farther south towards Broadway to an extent, but that Tropical Smoothie is just an absolute travesty. It looks like an outparcel in Maumelle. Entirely inappropriate, to ruin the long-term urban fabric of the center of the city in exchange for a few near-term tax revenue dollars. Ridiculous.
It was horrible to let Stephens tear down 4 buildings in the heart of downtown to put in a surface lot, then I thought it was bad to let Chick-fil-a tear down a whole block of store fronts.
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:
It’s a good concept. Would this be near the cobblestones or on MI? I was thinking a canal-like plan because there’s land between one body of water.
It could be both. Don’t know if the canal concept would work. It’s much wider. The Mississippi River bank is more like a beach. It slopes down and the water level rises and falls. It also has waves if a boat goes by.
-
1
-
-
On 6/16/2023 at 11:53 AM, Architect said:
I totally agree with all of that...the Bank OZK location was a complete missed opportunity to contribute something meaningful to downtown rather than just another suburban office building in an area that did NOT need it, and of course Boyle and Donaghey are cued up to be something special when the right developer comes along. Those are really the only two major properties left of scale for redevelopment (and both will REALLY help Main Street when they happen).
The TOTAL head scratcher was the state deciding to take the Alltel building "off line" for future economic development pursuits when the Raytheon deal fell through after the merger with United Technologies. So not only does the state now NOT have a huge building that could have been a lure, but they drained downtown of valuable lease space. Lose-lose situation...typical for this state. Ugh.
Yeah, does seem like a poor decision to deal a negative blow to the capital city downtown by it's own government. I'm sure someone complained loud enough about having to walk too far to park, or something about crime, or whoever made the decision did it was closer to their house.
-
2 hours ago, bigbank10x said:
DYNE Hospitality Group is opening a new Tropical Smoothie Cafe on 322 Broadway St. on June 23, 2023
Broadway has turned into a total drive-thru centric street in the middle of downtown. There's Sonic, Simmons Bank, Starbucks, Popeye's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Rally's, Centennial Bank, Jimmy John's, Chick-fil-a, McDonalds, and Tropical Smoothie.
The gas station actually has a decent urban design.
-
1
-
-
On 6/16/2023 at 12:01 PM, Memphis4ever said:
The zoo i believe is going to add an aquarium within the zoo on the older side.
It's too bad that these have the same name. There's an aquarium like AQUARIUM! - with sharks and giant sea turtles. And then there's the zoo aquarium, like on the level of some fish tanks at the pet store.
-
1
-
-
On 6/15/2023 at 1:25 AM, theman said:
Arkansas Money and Politics has a great article on the redevelopment of Bank of America Plaza and the Regions Center.
https://armoneyandpolitics.com/iconic-building-makeovers-a-key-to-downtown-lrs-next-chapter/
Nice article. Sad that that all those workers bolted for Riverdale and West Little Rock. Now they have the difficult task of refilling all the space. The new OZK HQ is very nice, but imagine if they would have built a new tower downtown. I think the next things that need to be done as soon as possible is to renovate the Boyle and Donaghey buildings for residential.
-
4 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:
It’s amazing to see all this going on: the Oliver, Vance 7, mobility center, st. Jude expansion, brooks museum, sterick and 100 n. Main on the way. Good times!!
Yes. Orleans Station, and lots of other things here and there. 100N Main and Sterrick haven’t started yet, so crossing fingers on those. And we were so close with the Grand Hyatt.
-
4 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:
True. I think there was a plan to have floating restaurants in wolf river harbor on the cobblestones - would create even more foot traffic. Really need to make Mud Island like the Riverwalk in SA, the canal walk in Indy or Baltimore inner harbor.
I think what would be more accurate in possibilities is Seaport Village in San Diego.
-
1
-
-
13 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:
Agreed. The parking is already there next to the Bass Pro. My concern is the same for Mud Island. Access. Why not put it where MLGW is now (as an alternative)?
As far as the MLGW site, this land could be sold to private entities for development. It is in a prime area with high property values. The city would get a nice check for selling the land, then would also get yearly property tax payments. If an aquarium goes there, they will get neither.
The empty lot next to the welcome center is now considered a "green space." It's completely barren, and there's no escaping the sun during a hot day, and I have no idea if anyone uses it at all. It should be named AC's Park. They could have spent less money by not cutting down any of the trees along the lagoon or the Lone Star site, and kept the concrete towers with the Memphis sign, and it would have looked nicer. Anyways, this site will probably never go back into private hands, as that would not adhere to the city's use plan. Also, I don't know if any of the property falls within the city's founders original public promenade. An aquarium could go there.
An aquarium could also go on Mud Island. Whether it be on the Southern point, where the current Mud Island Museum is, or where the Memphis Belle was displayed. If it was on the Southern point, I think there would have to be a pedestrian bridge from Cobblestone or Beale Street landing to make it more accessible.
-
2
-
Sterick Building Redevelopment
in Memphis
Posted
Yeah the article said pieces were chipping off, and they were worried the whole thing would break off and fall. If they did re-do them, I'd figure it would be some other martial other than concrete.