1215 E. Shelby Drive
Memphis, TN 38116
Sale Amount: $4.3 million

Sale Date: March 31, 2016
Buyer: 1215 East Shelby Drive Holdings LLC
Seller: Southland Mall Shopping Center LLC
Details: Southland Mall, Memphis’ first enclosed mall when it opened 50 years ago, has sold for $4.3 million in foreclosure.

The Whitehaven mainstay was bought in a March 31 substitute trustee’s sale by an entity called 1215 East Shelby Drive Holdings LLC. The sale did not include the mall’s two anchor spaces – the Sears store on the west end and the shuttered Macy’s on the east end.
The property went into foreclosure when previous owner Southland Mall Shopping Center LLC defaulted on a $17 million loan taken out in 2007 when the company bought the mall. The loan, originally through Wachovia Bank, was last assigned to U.S. Bank National Association.
The sale comes about a year after Macy’s closed its 150,000-square-foot Southland store – one of 14 locations the retailer shuttered nationwide as part of a restructuring process. Southland was at 85 percent occupancy when Macy’s closed.
Located on 19.1 acres at the southwest corner of East Shelby Drive and Elvis Presley Boulevard, the Class C mall was appraised at $9.9 million in 2015, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property’s website.
The appraisal has varied considerably over the past several years, starting with a jump from $8.3 million in 2008 to more than $15 million in 2009. Southland’s owners appealed, and the assessor’s staff dropped the 2009 appraisal to $13 million. By 2011, it had edged down to $12.6 million; over the next four years, the appraised amount dropped nearly $3 million more.

45 E. G.E. Patterson Ave.
Memphis, TN 38103
Permit Amount: $6.5 million
Tenant: Malco Theatres Inc.
Owner: Memphis Area Transit Authority
Architect: TK Architects International
Details: Downtown’s new movie theater is moving forward. Malco Theatres recently filed a $6.5 million building permit application for a seven-screen movie theater as part of the greater Central Station development spearheaded by Henry Turley Co. and Community Capital. The permit also lists a rooftop seating area and a new box office and bar in the existing Power House building as part of the project.
The Malco theater will be at 45 E. G.E. Patterson Ave., at the southeast corner of Front Street. The theater would incorporate the historic Power House structure with new construction. Vertical marquee signs are planned to light up the sides of the new building and the Power House column.
The theater is part of the greater $55 million redevelopment of Central Station, which includes a boutique hotel, apartments, restaurants, retail and significant infrastructure and landscaping improvements to the surrounding South Main area.
The project is expected to be completed in time for Elvis Week 2017.

535 S. Highland St.
Memphis, TN 38111
Square Feet: 5,952
Tenant: The Bluff
Landlord: Loeb Properties
Landlord’s Agent: Aaron Petree
Details: The Bluff, a new music venue and restaurant, is headed to the Highland Strip.
The 5,952-square-foot space will include two downstairs bars, a large stage and green room, a 1,300-square-foot mezzanine with an additional bar, outdoor patio seating area adjacent to the stage and a second patio on the Highland Strip.
Construction on 535 S. Highland St. will begin within the month. The space most recently was occupied by Newby’s, which opened its new, renovated location at 539 S. Highland in January.
Hudson Chadwick, who is behind Rafters Music and Food and The Corner Bar in Oxford, Miss., is one of the new owners. The menu will be “Cajun-inspired” and will source from local ingredients and suppliers “whenever possible,” according to a release from landlord Loeb Properties.

2525 Central Ave.
Memphis, TN 38104
Project Cost: $5 million
Completion: 2017
Owner: Children’s Museum of Memphis
Architect: Design Shop
Contractor: Montgomery Martin Contractors
Details: The historic Memphis Grand Carousel is headed to the next stage in its move from the Memphis Fairgrounds to the Children’s Museum of Memphis.
Plans recently posted by the Memphis-Shelby County Office of Planning and Development depict a 100,000-square-foot single-story building at the northwest corner of the CMOM campus.
The semi-circle shaped building will house the more-than-century-old Grand Carousel, which was shipped to Ohio in 2015 for a two-year, $1 million renovation.
The new building will connect the existing CMOM building, 2525 Central Ave., and the adjacent administration building. The perimeter of the semicircle carousel lobby will have landscaping and sidewalks.
With origins of the carousel dating back to 1909, the new building for the restored carousel will be a museum in itself. The carousel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 but lost the status when it was dismantled in 2009, four years after Libertyland closed.
Hours of operation for the carousel will match with the museum, and it will be available for special event rentals.
Plans for the additional building go before the Board of Adjustment on April 27. Plans need to be approved by the BOA because the site of the existing CMOM campus is zoned for urban residential. Any other uses require a zone variance.
Private museum donors raised $4 million for the addition. Design Shop is the architect and Montgomery Martin Contractors will construct the new building.