Hilton Garden Inn coming to Downtown Memphis

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...-to-union.html

140 rooms would be like what, 8 or 9 floors maybe?

That sounds about right. The one that just broke ground in Nashville is 200 rooms and around 140' at 11 floors.

Anyways, this is good news. Out of town developers as well.

This is great news!

i don't understand the connection of st. jude, a baseball diamond, and the ranking of the hospital and delivery of top notch medical care? i don't see the new proton beam in the numbered photo.

i am glad to hear another announcement concerning the ever elusive hilton hotel. again, some information given, but it seems impossible for the developers to furnish information re: ht, shape, materials to be used, etc. i hope it won't appear to be the cousin or brother or sister of a motel 8. any news about the mysterious project behind the sign across from the pyramid.? any news about the proposed third addition to the now different hotel?

i hope the graceland project goes well, as well as the fairgrounds project. the lakeland project??? outlet malls at 2 entrances two a large city! at least they have an opportunity to make it look like something in this decade. we will see.
btw, many of those living in b'ham gripe over the "high" prices @ publix. so, you can't please everyone.

i was looking at various architectural drawings of greensboro and baton rouge.imo, most were, to say the least, were barely able to keep up in the race. to me, they are absolutely horrible. what is even more depressing is the widespread use of the few same designs. everywhere you look---flat-top buildings, 5,6,7 or 8 floors. occasionally you might see a 10 or 11 story drawing, but not many. in addition to the floor plate designs, there seems to be the proverbial tiny, tiny hip roof on the corner of the structure. to me, this adds to the building's seemingly inexpensive building materials. the building materials used and the way they seem to be thrown together seems to me to say that the builder will see about a 20 year use out of the structure. those extended sharp angled jut outs remind me of the russian state housing, or the late 60-70 developmental buildings used for housing those patients, which were wards of the state.

That was from a 2007 satirical blog post: http://gatesofmemphis.blogspot.com/2...s-stadium.html

This is not the elusive Hilton that you're thinking of. That was supposed to be a full-fledged Hilton near the Forum: http://www.commercialappeal.com/phot...sep/14/186738/

Add about 2-3 floors to it. According to a follow-up article in the MBJ, the new Hilton Garden Inn downtown is supposed to include a new parking garage as well. There's also a mention of a second hotel going on the site too, possibly a Holiday Inn Express.

New Hilton Garden Inn may not be alone
By Michael Sheffield
Memphis Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...-be-alone.html
Now we just need some movement on the former Benchmark Hotel property on Third and Union, as well as the ever-stalled Royal Phoenix development near FedExForum.

How would that work? There's already a Holiday Inn Express right across the street and a few lots down...:???:

This is probably similar (at least as far as materials) to what we'll get here in Memphis. This is the Hilton Garden that's currently under construction in Nashville right now.

http://nashvillepost.com/sites/defau...nGardenInn.jpg

The one you're talking about is the full-service Holiday Inn right across from The Peabody and One Commerce Square, right?

I don't really see it being a problem, as these are two limited-service hotels being constructed on what is currently a surface parking lot next to the old Greyhound terminal.

They might have plans to close that one if and when the new one is completed. It's probably fairly outdated and might be more economical to develop a new one rather than renovate and get the new old up to code.

Edit: Listen to what James said.

james, you know their time allotment for the money they were gathering from private investors was officially over 12/14. again, i bring up the subject about funding. since it has been said that the project was to be an opportunity for the minority groups, and now we see it is well over time, as the project has been in the work for three + years. yet, there still surfaces this apparent grudge about the canadian plants that were on the ball to get their projects started. even now, their are grumblings about giving minority groups more work on incoming work for various contracts. if they can't get the work completed, they should be put on the back burner, until they can clean their own houses.

is their a time frame for the hyatt or hilton in the highrise in the medical center. i haven't heard anything, and heaven only knows how to figure out the drawings.

More info on the development:

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/n...uccessful.html

Seven stories? And the HEADQUARTERS is here in our city? Yet Nashville gets a bigger hotel? How is this possible? We need the FULL SCALE HILTON that was propopsed. We need bigger buildings than just 7 stories :(

Nashville has the demand for that downtown. We unfortunately don't.

I'll take any new building downtown at this point.

Correction: The HGI brand is based here (along with Homewood Suites, DoubleTree, and Home2 Suites). The main HQ is located near D.C. in Virginia.

As arkitekte said, the demand isn't there for a developer to do a large-scale hotel project in downtown Memphis at the moment, so the least we can get are projects that are in the 100-150 room range until such a demand improves. Seven stories isn't bad, and at least we're getting a nice mid-rise out of it. I'm just anxious to see the final product, and if they can start the project earlier than 2015, I'm all for it.

I wasn't aware that time had already lapsed on Royal Phoenix getting its financing together. Is it safe to call this project dead at this point?

I'm not sure what the latest is on the redevelopment of the old office building/hotel on Madison and Pauline. At last check, there was talk about putting apartments in the tower along with a hotel. And then there are questions about when the next phase of the UT-Baptist Research Park will happen after the vivarium building was completed earlier this year.

james, the reporting and the changes concerning the bioworks and ut school construction has been about as clear as a mud fence. i have closely followed the plans for the downtown 11 story structure, in addition to the car garage. their first announcement showed no plans---indicative of most memphis and cleveland building announcements. the first year went by with a lot being cleared w/ a garden hose (which, obviously, employed one black construction worker.) the funds from the stimulus plan were in place (miracle), but the minority investors or stakeholders (constructive building lingo) were unable to get their required monetary %, therefore, they asked for a year extension, and the money went to the other announced projects that were ready to begin. included in that first delay was also the approved money for the revamp for the midtown highrise, formerly a holiday inn and a parking garage, 21 stories as a whole.

consequently, every source that had to approve it did so, and they were given another year, which was designated 12/24/13. prior to these two years, the intended project had been on the listing for demolition, until someone thought that it was both silly and unnecessary to raze it. nevertheless, we're out about 31/2 years when this will ever happen. from the time baptist central was razed, and officials began a countdown of 10 years in which to finish the baptist research campus. i'm not sure what the gov is intending on knocking down, prior to the construction of an actual physical building. i have a friend who is in a position to know about the inner workings of this and other projects. his comments centered around the old saying, "...just like pulling teeth...bottom of the list...because it is memphis. etc., etc., etc."

And this is worth stating because???

Southbrook Mall may become ... night court?
http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/b...ice-court.html


I don't think this is necessarily a bad idea at all. A police precinct, night court, and possibly some other community oriented services: a convenient care clinic, night classes of some sort, family planning classes, etc. I think that most developers and city officials nation wide have learned that it's somewhat impossible to replace retail at a dead mall like this one with more retail, so if they want to continue to use the building, I think community oriented services are the way to go.

Definitely the way to go. Same with MPD ditching their free-standing traffic bureau on the former Seesel's (Austin Peay Hwy) site to build into, onto or next to the Raleigh Springs Mall. What that mega-church did with the Hickory Ridge Mall was pretty incredible too.