Loeb Properties wants to build on the revival of Overton Square by adding a $24 million, 100-room hotel in the district.

The Memphis-based company and its partners – boutique hotel developer LRC2 Properties and hospitality management company MMI Hotel Group – are seeking a 15-year tax abatement to construct a 100-room boutique hotel at the southwest corner of Cooper Street and Trimble Place, south of Madison Avenue in Midtown Memphis.

According to Overton Square LLC’s application filed with the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County, the project’s owners are seeking a 15-year Community Builder payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) incentive to build a $24.2 million hotel on the 1.3-acre lot that is currently home to a parking lot situated between the Hattiloo Theatre and Bar Louie.

(EDGE/Loeb Properties)

“Since our company’s involvement in the revitalization of Overton Square, we have heard repeatedly from theatre operators that if there were a hotel at Overton Square, that they could develop a regional theatre district that would attract visitors to the city from a 250-mile radius,” Loeb Properties president Bob Loeb said in his PILOT application. “We have also heard from Rhodes College, CBU and a number of other Midtown instruction that a hotel in Overton Square would be a welcome resource to them.”

Plans also call for a rooftop restaurant and structured parking. Once operational, the hotel plans on employing 65 people, including 35 hotel workers, 25 food and beverage workers, and five management positions.

EDGE staff projects this particular development will generate $5.4 million in local total tax revenues during the term of its PILOT while saving the applicant $6.1 million.

Loeb said he tapped hotel consultant Pinkowski & Co. in December 2016 to bring a qualified hotel developer to Overton Square, before choosing to partner with LRC2 Properties and MMI Hotel Group.

Hospitality and real estate firm LRC2’s portfolio includes several notable Mississippi projects including The Graduate in Oxford, Hotel Indigo in Hattiesburg, and Holiday Inn and Candlewood Suites hotels in Flowood,

Meanwhile, MMI Hotel Group, which was founded in 1956, owns and manages more than 100 locations in the Southeast United States.

Loeb said that the new hotel would most likely soft brand under the Hilton to Marriott banner.  

Overton Square LLC’s application included letters of support from Kevin Kane, president and CEO of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau; Sam Goff, president of the Midtown Memphis Development Corp.; and Ryan Watt, executive director of Indie Memphis.

"I wholeheartedly support the development of a boutique hotel property in the Overton Square area," Kane's letter reads. "For decades the Midtown area was served with three hotel properties within approximately a two square mile area, but now there are no hotel properties in that area."

Additionally, Jackie Nichols, executive director of Playhouse on the Square said that it has long been their organization’s desire to create a regional marketing package to art patrons living in a 250-mile radius.

“We already know that we have patrons that table and have to scramble to find a hotel close to the theatre,” Nichols said in a letter of support. “This would enable us to greatly expand our efforts to bring more folks to Memphis.”

The EDGE board will consider the application at its Wednesday, Sept. 20, meeting.