3277 Macon Road
Memphis, TN 38122
Permit Cost: $2.4 million

     Project Cost:     $2.4 million

     Permit Date:     Applied March 2008

     Completion:     December 2009

     Owner:     Brinkley Heights Ministries Inc.

     Tenant:     Brinkley Heights Ministries Inc.

     Architect:     McGehee Nicholson & Burke Architects

     Contractor:     Rose Construction Inc.

     Details:     Brinkley Heights Ministries Inc., which is affiliated with Brinkley Heights Baptist Church, applied for a $2.4 million permit in March to expand its school for at-risk children, Brinkley Heights Urban Academy.
The 20,000-square-foot project has an estimated cost of $2.4 million, said Tim Cox, pastor of Brinkley Heights Baptist Church and the principal of Brinkley Heights Urban Academy. The estimated completion date for the expansion is December 2009.
"We've been here for several years doing community outreach projects; we decided to open up a school for the neighborhood children here, and it's an interventionist type of school," Cox said.
The school currently goes through the third grade and has been in operation since 2004. The plan is to add a grade every year up to the 12th grade.
The school is on Rosamond Avenue. The expansion into the vacant land behind it will take the school back to Macon Road.
Once the expansion is complete, the current school building will become the pre-kindergarten building, and the new addition will house the rest of the grades.
Carpenters for Christ International, a nonprofit organization comprised of volunteers who help other organizations with construction of new buildings, will come in June to help build the main part of the new building.

4100-4200 Ross Road
Memphis, TN 38115
Loan Amount: $ 2.9 million

     Loan Date:     Feb. 21, 2008

     Maturity Date:     n/a

     Borrower:     Solid Rock Christian Church

     Lender:     Evangelical Christian Credit Union

     Details:     Solid Rock Christian Church has taken out a $2.9 million construction loan from Evangelical Christian Credit Union for a new two-story, 34,000-square-foot building. The building will sit on what is currently vacant land at the corner of Raines and Ross roads. Solid Rock Christian Center Inc. quitclaimed, or transferred, the property to Solid Rock Christian Church Inc. in November 2006. The new building will house classrooms and a 2,000-seat sanctuary, said Bill Anderson, pastor of Solid Rock and general contractor of the project. "It happens to be a very unique situation," he said. "I get a chance to be thoroughly involved in the facility that's going up." Anderson said the slab will be poured in about a week. Although it is a 12-month construction project, Anderson said he expects the building to be complete in August or September. The contractor for the project is Jabez Builders Inc. The architect is Roy Scobey of Professional Design Resources.

915 E. McLemore Ave.
Memphis, TN 38106
Permit Cost: $501,000

     Project Cost:     $11 million

     Permit Date:     Applied March 2008

     Completion:     May 2009

     Owner:     Jeffrey Higgs - LeMoyne Owen CDC

     Tenant:     Soulsville USA

     Architect:     Self Tucker Architects

     Contractor:     n/a

     Details:     LeMoyne-Owen College Community Development Corp. (LOC-CDC) has applied for a $501,000 permit for a lifestyle center and subdivision at 915 E. McLemore Ave.
The lifestyle center, called Soulsville USA, will include 77,000 square feet of office, retail and commercial space, including a 27,000-square-foot grocery store, William's Apple Market. "We are about 75 percent leased up," said Jeffrey Higgs, executive director of LOC-CDC. Soulsville USA will include women's shoes, men's clothing, a health center, a food court, a beauty and barber shop and various other tenants. The office space will be partially occupied by LOC-CDC, which will relocate there. In addition, Judge Larry Potter will have an environmental court in the building, and a city-county Code Enforcement office also will relocate to the Soulsville USA office space. Behind the lifestyle center will sit a 13-lot, market-rate subdivision called The Villas at Soulsville. "What's happening now is we're getting a lot of calls from people who could live anywhere in the county, but they want to come back to the neighborhood, but want something a little more than affordable housing," Higgs said. The houses in the subdivision will start at 2,000 square feet. The project is slated for completion in May 2009. Self Tucker Architects Inc. will work on the project; the contractor has not yet been chosen.

Summers Road and Interstate 40
Memphis, TN
Sale Amount: $2.3 million

     Sale Date:     March 17, 2008

     Buyer:     R.A. Spell Family LP

     Seller:     Commercial Ventures Inc.

     Loan Amount:     $2 million

     Loan Date:     March 21, 2008

     Maturity Date:     n/a

     Lender:     Triumph Bank

     Details:     Rick Spell has bought 77 acres at Summers Road and Interstate 40 in Arlington for $2.3 million, adding to the land he already owns there. Operating as R.A. Spell Family LP, he bought property from Commercial Ventures Inc., financing it with a $2 million loan from Triumph Bank. The sale closed March 17, two years after Spell - operating as LandVest Partners with Glen Bascom Sr. - bought 49 acres of land near Airline Road and Interstate 40 from Bond Enterprises Inc. for $1.5 million. Spell's real estate acquisitions are near the 85 acres Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. bought in Arlington in 2006, which he said was a "pleasant surprise." "This parcel on I-40 I have a personal affinity for," said Spell, who is an executive at Morgan Keegan. "I love this site, and I'm in it for the long haul to see this site be what it can be, whether it's five years or 20 years. My plans are to own property that I think can conceivably be one of the best retail/hotel sites in Shelby County sometime in the future." What that is exactly, Spell said he doesn't know yet. But he does want to be involved in the development of the land, which is at the crossroads of I-40 and the future Interstate 269, the highway that will circle Memphis and make outlying suburbs more accessible.

Source: The Daily News Online (www.memphisdailynews.com) and Chandler Reports (www.chandlerreports.com).­