Commercial Real Estate Broker Memphis -10 Story Hotel
More details are emerging about a planned hotel which, at 10 stories, will become a landmark in the East Memphis skyline. Businessman Anwar Aman and hotel developer Yogesh Purohit are building a 110,000-square-foot hotel with up to 210 rooms near the southwest corner of Poplar and Interstate 240. The structure at 5625 Poplar would be the tallest building along the 1.5-mile section of Poplar between the 34-story Clark Tower and the expressway. The tallest there now, Trustmark Centre, is nine stories. Aman and his real estate broker, Barry Maynard of Loeb Realty Group, provided new project details to The Daily Memphian. The hotel will be a dual-brand hotel. Aman and Purohit’s AP Hospitality Group Partnership is negotiating with both Marriott and Hilton. No matter which hotel company becomes part of the deal, the guest rooms will be split between two branded hotels, Aman said. The project will cost from $18 million to $28 million to build, Maynard said. There are plans for an attached, 180-space parking garage behind the hotel, which will be pulled up close to the south side of Poplar.
The roof will likely feature a bar or restaurant. The perch will allow views “all the way to Shelby Farms,’’ Aman said. A restaurant as well as retail and medical-office space will be offered for lease on the 15,000- to 20,000-square-foot ground floor. Aman’s Collierville-based Radiant Group of Properties owns a large, varied portfolio of properties, including gas stations, convenience stores, hotels, shopping centers, apartments and mobile home communities. Purohit is president of Southaven-based PGC Management, which develops, owns and manages suburban hotels. They will seek tax incentives through the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) board. The property is within the new Poplar Corridor Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. That means a portion of the sales taxes generated by new development are made available for infrastructure and improvements to make the area more pedestrian friendly.
The future hotel site is on the south side of Poplar, across from Memorial Park Funeral Home, where eastbound Poplar traffic can take the ramp to I-240. More land may be added, but for now the site comprises property where an ear, nose and throat doctors' office once operated and where a massage parlor continues to operate.
If plans and approvals go smoothly, construction should start before the end of the year, Aman said. “I think the area needs some really good restaurants and a good bar over there,” he said. “We are talking to a couple of national brands willing to go there,” Aman said. The real estate along Poplar is a prime area for a hotel, he said. “That area is all businesses, everything there from Kirby (on the east) to Mendenhall … It’s right there by (I-240), easy to get to the airport, and all the top restaurants like Capitol Grill, Flemings, Ruth’s Chris and Seasons 52. "Starbucks is walking distance across the road. It’s going to be a good choice for travelers.
Anybody looking for a hotel will look for all the stuff around this hotel,” Aman said. Maynard said the site has such a strong potential for hotel development that industry companies described it as being about as good as it gets. “We’ve been told by four leading hotel-development companies which weren’t trying to sell us anything that the site, in proximity to the interstate, other hotels, is the X-site for the perfect hotel site,” Maynard said. “That the site is like THE site.”“Thedemandis there,” Aman said of the stretch between Mendenhall and Kirby. “Theoccupancyrates (at other hotels) are about 70 percent. In contrast, developinga hotel inDowntown Memphis has become more difficult because so many have justopened orare in the development pipeline, Aman said. Developing a dual-brandedhotel sitemeans that two different hotels will occupy the same building. Theidea is tocapture a wider range of demand by offering two differentaccommodations withdifferent rates and different finishes. But the hotels wouldshare one check-inarea, swimming pool and exercise room. Maynard has beenrepresenting Anwarexclusively for several years for a variety of real estatedeals, including gasstations, hotels, shopping centers, apartments, restaurantsand mobile homecommunities.