Developers plan to flip a three-story warehouse into 24 apartment units and 1,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. The 40,000-square-foot warehouse at 80 Virginia Ave. was formerly home to the Rose Bedding Co. and McMillan Imports. (Submitted)

As drivers come across the old bridge and pedestrians and cyclists come across Big River Crossing, they soon could see an adaptive reuse of an old warehouse.

Mike Kennedy of Parachute Investment Co. has teamed up with development consultant Amelia Carkuff and York Construction to flip a three-story warehouse into 24 apartment units and 1,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor.

The 40,000-square-foot warehouse was formerly home to the Rose Bedding Co. and McMillan Imports at 80 Virginia Ave.

The redevelopment will include an outdoor space, including a walking path and dog park, on a piece of adjacent land through a lease with the BNSF Railway.

“This building is significantly visible to the thousands of cars entering Memphis via the old bridge. Improvement to this southern part of Downtown will be a first step towards encouraging redevelopment of the area,” the development team stated in an application to the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC).

The developers are applying for an 11.5-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) incentive from the DMC affiliate Center City Revenue Finance Corp. board. The project will be considered at the Sept. 11 meeting.

The PILOT would save the developers about $476,500 in city and county taxes over the 11.5 years, but result in a cumulative tax increase of about $160,000 for local governments.

Total development cost is estimated to be $3.8 million. Construction is anticipated to begin in October with a 10-month timeline to completion.

The project architect is Archimania with HNA Engineering and Tony Bologna also consulting on the project. The general contractor has not been selected.