Sterick Building Redevelopment

[MDC26]

6 hours ago, Memphisborn said:

Sterick is definitely on the city Radar to be repurposed it’s not that far in future 2024-2025 I believe we will start to see more interest and plans presented. 
 

https://wreg.com/news/could-the-90-year-old-sterick-building-be-memphis-next-big-thing/

Creme de Memph states that the lease ends in 2027, but I think that is incorrectly based off the application to the board of adjustment date in 1928.  Another article lists the date that the lease ends as April 30, 2025 based on when the lease was signed in 1926.  

So if it does get repurposed, would everyone want to see it stay the yellow/gold color, or go back to the original white/green?

Edited October 18, 2022 by MDC26

[James Owen]

4 hours ago, MDC26 said:

Creme de Memph states that the lease ends in 2027, but I think that is based off the application to the board of adjustment date in 2028.  Another article lists the date that the lease ends as April 30, 2025 based on when the lease was signed in 1926.  

So if it does get repurposed, would everyone want to see it stay the yellow/gold color, or go back to the original white/green?

I would restore the Sterick back to its original color scheme of white/grey with a green roof (preferably a metal one) at the top as I feel it stands out better that way.

As to how I would go about repurposing the entire building, here's what I would suggest:

- Make the first 12 floors into hotel space with retail/restaurant space on the ground level, meeting space on the second level and some rooftop amenities on the 14th floor (roof garden, event space, etc.)

- Make floors14-27 into mixed residential/single-family use

- Make floors 28 & 29 into penthouse space for 2-4 tenants

- If necessary, make floors 13, 18, 22, and the roof level into electrical/mechanical room space for HVAC

In regards to parking, they can always utilize the motor court next door as it was intended to be used (sharing with the existing Hotel Indigo), and if need be, the garage across the street on Madison could be used as well.

Edited October 19, 2022 by James Owen

[The Guardian of Memphis]

The original colors would be best. However, all of the tallest high rises downtown are different colors, which is great, so maybe it can be a little more gray than 100 N. Main since they’re close in color. 
 

Per the WREG article: “It could be a mini vertical village, like that is if somebody had the initiative to do that,” West said of the Sterick.

My idea would be to move MLGW to Sterick so they can have their own building (like Georgia Power) on the top floors, residential for the rest. Tear down the old hq and put an aquarium in its place or an African American museum. 

[Memphisborn]

3 hours ago, MDC26 said:

Creme de Memph states that the lease ends in 2027, but I think that is incorrectly based off the application to the board of adjustment date in 1928.  Another article lists the date that the lease ends as April 30, 2025 based on when the lease was signed in 1926.  

So if it does get repurposed, would everyone want to see it stay the yellow/gold color, or go back to the original white/green?

Go back to original colors. No doubt u want that authentic look and feel 

[James Owen]

2 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:

My idea would be to move MLGW to Sterick so they can have their own building (like Georgia Power) on the top floors, residential for the rest. Tear down the old hq and put an aquarium in its place or an African American museum. 

MLGW would be better off becoming the office tenant for a redeveloped 100 North Main as that puts them in close proximity to Civic Center Plaza.

[VSRJ]

1 hour ago, James Owen said:

MLGW would be better off becoming the office tenant for a redeveloped 100 North Main as that puts them in close proximity to Civic Center Plaza.

Whatever it takes to get them out of (and razes) their current building, which looks like it was plucked right out of East Memphis.

[The Guardian of Memphis]

20 hours ago, James Owen said:

MLGW would be better off becoming the office tenant for a redeveloped 100 North Main as that puts them in close proximity to Civic Center Plaza.

Or just build new on civic center. However, a hotel/residential would be better, so there won’t be such a gap between the convention center with no activity at night. That’s one of the reasons Kevin Kane wanted Loews to be on Main. Only thing about that is the parking. Loews was going to use the mud island parking lot, which is too far away. Although, a podium would work, and open that part of main st. to traffic. 

[Tony Randolph]

This is my favorite building in downtown Memphis, and I have been following developments ever since the late 1980's.  AXA took over the building on a mortgage default, and the original contract stipulated that the building and property must be maintained.  Obviously, this building has not been maintained.  I have been wondering if AXA will have to write the Grosvenor family a large check for decades of virtually no maintenance.    I can't prove it, but I have long suspected AXA has never had an interest in reverting the building to the family for this reason.

It doesn't take a real estate expert to realize the office space market is virtually dead in Memphis, especially in downtown.  Obviously, a successful development must focus on high end condos.   I think if the building is converted to condos, that it may be a good idea to have multi-story penthouses similar to those in New York City.   If I had input, I would repaint the building to the original colors, and remove the drywall covering the marble walls on the lower floors.  I would also seek a pharmacy to lease the old pharmacy, with the stipulation that a soda jerk be included.  I would also like to see a bank take over the old First Tennessee Bank space.

Over the past 20 years or so, I have been granted occasional access while crews were doing basic maintenance.  This building is truly a time capsule.  Finally, if the first floor can be reopened, or at least restored to the look like it has been reopened I think this would go a long way to ending the blight in Memphis.  It is embarrassing to have two largest buildings in Memphis boarded up.

[MDC26]

2 hours ago, Tony Randolph said:

This is my favorite building in downtown Memphis, and I have been following developments ever since the late 1980's.  AXA took over the building on a mortgage default, and the original contract stipulated that the building and property must be maintained.  Obviously, this building has not been maintained.  I have been wondering if AXA will have to write the Grosvenor family a large check for decades of virtually no maintenance.    I can't prove it, but I have long suspected AXA has never had an interest in reverting the building to the family for this reason.

It doesn't take a real estate expert to realize the office space market is virtually dead in Memphis, especially in downtown.  Obviously, a successful development must focus on high end condos.   I think if the building is converted to condos, that it may be a good idea to have multi-story penthouses similar to those in New York City.   If I had input, I would repaint the building to the original colors, and remove the drywall covering the marble walls on the lower floors.  I would also seek a pharmacy to lease the old pharmacy, with the stipulation that a soda jerk be included.  I would also like to see a bank take over the old First Tennessee Bank space.

Over the past 20 years or so, I have been granted occasional access while crews were doing basic maintenance.  This building is truly a time capsule.  Finally, if the first floor can be reopened, or at least restored to the look like it has been reopened I think this would go a long way to ending the blight in Memphis.  It is embarrassing to have two largest buildings in Memphis boarded up.

I don't think AXA has any choice about reverting the building back.  The building is not owned by AXA, the lease on the building is owned by AXA.  The land and the building is owned by the Grosvenor family.  The lease is almost up.  Now whether they have to pay any money for not maintaining the property is a different question.  I'm sure AXA has no intentions in handing over any money once the lease ends, so if that is indeed in the lease agreement, and if that is still applicable after a foreclosure,  it would be a question decided by the courts if the Grosvernors choose to pursue it.  

[dxfret]

“It doesn't take a real estate expert to realize the office space market is virtually dead in Memphis, especially in downtown. “

This earlier poster’s quote is spot on.  Downtown Memphis has lost thousands of jobs and businesses in recent years.    

The Sterick Building  and 100 North Main have become massive monuments to urban blight and are a huge embarrassment for all of Memphis.  The astronomical expenses that would be required to even begin years of work to renovate and repurpose them is beyond anything a corporation, developer or government could stomach. The tricky lease situation with Sterick presents even more complications.  With the global recession, the weak Memphis economy, and several failed and delayed projects downtown, absolutely nothing is going to happen with these buildings anytime soon. 

[VSRJ]

21 hours ago, dxfret said:

The Sterick Building  and 100 North Main have become massive monuments to urban blight and are a huge embarrassment for all of Memphis.  The astronomical expenses that would be required to even begin years of work to renovate and repurpose them is beyond anything a corporation, developer or government could stomach. The tricky lease situation with Sterick presents even more complications.  With the global recession, the weak Memphis economy, and several failed and delayed projects downtown, absolutely nothing is going to happen with these buildings anytime soon. 

I'm sure you (and people like you) said the same thing about Crosstown, the Pyramid, the Tennessee Brewery and a myriad of other adaptive reuse projects that have been successfully completed in Memphis in recent years. Sterick might be more complex, but if there is a will, there is a way — especially in Memphis.

Your relentless pessimism and soul-draining contributions to this forum are truly mind-boggling.

[BnaBreaker]

On 12/1/2022 at 10:42 AM, VSRJ said:

I'm sure you (and people like you) said the same thing about Crosstown, the Pyramid, the Tennessee Brewery and a myriad of other adaptive reuse projects that have been successfully completed in Memphis in recent years. Sterick might be more complex, but if there is a will, there is a way — especially in Memphis.

Your relentless pessimism and soul-draining contributions to this forum are truly mind-boggling.

yup!  if it were up to ppl like dxfret the city of Memphis, and most cities like it, would more or less just be seas of asphalt right about now.  Memphis, EMBRACE your history.  EMBRACE who you are.  You are one of a kind.  Don't EVER think you should try to be like some other place.

[Tony Randolph]

No way AXA wants to hand the money over to the Grosvenor family.  I wouldn't either.  But it is my understanding that just because the building was repossessed doesn't mean that AXA is not liable for the original agreement.  I get the idea that the previous tenants leasing the Sterick were passing the buck regarding the agreement to maintain the building.  AXA is not going to have a place in sit in 2025 when the music stops.  Obviously, the previous management before AXA could not afford to maintain the building, although they probably wanted to, since downtown started declining since the 1950's, which rapidly accelerated in the 1960's.   I don't know much about AXA in general, but I do know about corporate mentality.  No executive would commit career suicide by upholding the agreement to maintain the building which would probably be in the millions per year and said executive would plan on being retired by 2025 with a fat corporate pension.

I don't know the Grosvenor family but would bet my bottom dollar that they would not be happy just to get the keys back from AXA and let bygones be bygones.   I am hoping that after 2025, that there will not be endless litigation regarding a lease settlement.   It appears that AXA screwed up bankrolling the last management company of the Sterick, and I think when the dust, and asbestos, settles, AXA will be writing a large check.  I hope negotiations are going on now so who ever or whatever takes over the Sterick, they can hit the ground running.  Geez, we have way too many large empty buildings in Memphis.

[MDC26]

12 hours ago, Tony Randolph said:

No way AXA wants to hand the money over to the Grosvenor family.  I wouldn't either.  But it is my understanding that just because the building was repossessed doesn't mean that AXA is not liable for the original agreement.  I get the idea that the previous tenants leasing the Sterick were passing the buck regarding the agreement to maintain the building.  AXA is not going to have a place in sit in 2025 when the music stops.  Obviously, the previous management before AXA could not afford to maintain the building, although they probably wanted to, since downtown started declining since the 1950's, which rapidly accelerated in the 1960's.   I don't know much about AXA in general, but I do know about corporate mentality.  No executive would commit career suicide by upholding the agreement to maintain the building which would probably be in the millions per year and said executive would plan on being retired by 2025 with a fat corporate pension.

I don't know the Grosvenor family but would bet my bottom dollar that they would not be happy just to get the keys back from AXA and let bygones be bygones.   I am hoping that after 2025, that there will not be endless litigation regarding a lease settlement.   It appears that AXA screwed up bankrolling the last management company of the Sterick, and I think when the dust, and asbestos, settles, AXA will be writing a large check.  I hope negotiations are going on now so who ever or whatever takes over the Sterick, they can hit the ground running.  Geez, we have way too many large empty buildings in Memphis.

Yeah, why would they want to spend money on something they can't use unless they invest major capital, can't sell, and can't keep?  I have no idea of the enforceability of a lease agreement in which they were not the original lessee and only acquired it through bankruptcy.  There may be litigation, or the Grosvenor family may think they are unlikely to get anything, and it won't be worth it because of court costs/lawyer fees.  They may just be happy to now own the building and be in complete control of the land.  

[Memphisborn]

1 hour ago, MDC26 said:

Yeah, why would they want to spend money on something they can't use unless they invest major capital, can't sell, and can't keep?  I have no idea of the enforceability of a lease agreement in which they were not the original lessee and only acquired it through bankruptcy.  There may be litigation, or the Grosvenor family may think they are unlikely to get anything, and it won't be worth it because of court costs/lawyer fees.  They may just be happy to now own the building and be in complete control of the land.  

I see your point but I think it’s inevitable something will get done with redevelopment of the building. A mixed use concept Hotel/ condo/ restaurant/ bar other uses. 2025 is not that far away so we may hear about movement in 2024 on a redevelopment plan.

[MDC26]

13 minutes ago, Memphisborn said:

I see your point but I think it’s inevitable something will get done with redevelopment of the building. A mixed use concept Hotel/ condo/ restaurant/ bar other uses. 2025 is not that far away so we may hear about movement in 2024 on a redevelopment plan.

Yeah, I think its really important to develop the building.  I hope the Grosvenor family is already working on plans, whether they develop it themselves, or plan on selling it to someone to develop it. 

[dxfret]

Nothing is likely to change with this unfortunate large scale urban blight. The costs for rehabbing Sterick or 100 North Main would be astronomical and no  investor in the current market will risk big scale development in a tepid, smaller city market like Memphis. This is why these two building, plus other planned downtown projects, have never happened.  That’s the situation here. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by dxfret
Edit

[BnaBreaker]

On 1/3/2023 at 5:30 PM, dxfret said:

Nothing is likely to change with this unfortunate large scale urban blight. The costs for rehabbing Sterick or 100 North Main would be astronomical and no  investor in the current market will risk big scale development in a tepid, smaller city market like Memphis. This is why these two building, plus other planned downtown projects, have never happened.  That’s the situation here. 

go away.

[Memphisborn]

10 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

go away.

Lol he does need to post in another forum maybe the Nashville forum would like to hear why many of there projects have stalled recently in the fastest growing metro that’s hugely becoming overcrowded and major traffic congestion issues. He should read the Nashville paper and see how many projects have been proposed but not able to break ground because of financial shortfalls. 

[BnaBreaker]

18 minutes ago, Memphisborn said:

Lol he does need to post in another forum maybe the Nashville forum would like to hear why many of there projects have stalled recently in the fastest growing metro that’s hugely becoming overcrowded and major traffic congestion issues. He should read the Nashville paper and see how many projects have been proposed but not able to break ground because of financial shortfalls. 

lol not exactly what I had in mind!  

[The Guardian of Memphis]

On 1/3/2023 at 4:30 PM, dxfret said:

Nothing is likely to change with this unfortunate large scale urban blight. The costs for rehabbing Sterick or 100 North Main would be astronomical and no  investor in the current market will risk big scale development in a tepid, smaller city market like Memphis. This is why these two building, plus other planned downtown projects, have never happened.  That’s the situation here. 

Something is happening with 100 N. Main. While people always love to harp on the lack of leadership in Memphis, at least someone was proactive in getting this done.  Sterick is a different animal due to it's legal issues. Not to compare, but other river cities, such as NOLA and STL have the same issues and challenges with rehabbing large buildings. It's not new. If the market was so tepid, there would be no South Bluffs, Tennessee Brewery, Crosstown, Chisca Hotel, Nylon Net, etc. Shall I go on? Of course this never gets the press because of aligning Memphis with the same tired trope of high crime, negative race relations, etc. No one reports on the resilience or the rehabbing of these historic structures. If it isn't covered in glass and 7000 ft. tall then it isn't news. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by The Guardian of Memphis

[Memphisborn]

3 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:

Something is happening with 100 N. Main. While people always love to harp on the lack of leadership in Memphis, at least someone was proactive in getting this done.  Sterick is a different animal due to it's legal issues. Not to compare, but other river cities, such as NOLA and STL have the same issues and challenges with rehabbing large buildings. It's not new. If the market was so tepid, there would be no South Bluffs, Tennessee Brewery, Crosstown, Chisca Hotel, Nylon Net, etc. Shall I go on? Of course this never gets the press because of aligning Memphis with the same tired trope of high crime, negative race relations, etc. No one reports on the resilience or the rehabbing of these historic structures. If it isn't covered in glass and 7000 ft. tall then it isn't news. 

Agreed and we continue to see developments going forward mobility center, Orleans station, liberty Park etc all broke ground and completed or almost completed even in our small “tepid “ market 2023 will see more ground breaking.

[DowntownUrbanite]

The Sterick should become predominantly a luxury hotel mixed with several floors of luxury residences near the top, the relocation of the Visible Music School on several levels above the ground floor, and hotel lobby, restaurants, lobby bars, and gift shops on the ground level. The current Visible Music School would be demolished, and along with the surface parking lots and Avis Rental Center, be transformed into an 8-10 level parking garage, with an apartment liner building overlooking Autozone Park, a new performing arts center and theater to be shared by the visible Music School and hotel, and a new vehicle rental center to serve Downtown.

[Tony Randolph]

I know AXA has no option to not return the building back to the Grosvenor family in 2025.  The question is how much liability AXA will have to the Grosvenor family.   The original contract stated what maintenance was to be done, and that the building must be properly maintained.  It has not been.  Granted, AXA did not sign the contract, but by repossessing the building from the last management company, I believe AXA will be liable for some of the repairs and rehabilitation of the building.  I have frequently walked by the building, and I noticed there is always one lightbulb working, and I remember the building has at least one elevator that is operational.  (The Memphis Fire Department was told this after they ran up over 20 stories to rescue a window washer a few years ago).  Basically, AXA is doing the bare minimum, and I think this will come back to bite them.

Based on what I know, if I was AXA, I would be in negotiation with the Grosvenor family and be trying to return the building to them ASAP.   Costs for rehab, etc., will likely go up over the next two years.

[smeagolsfree]

Crime or bad neighborhoods did not hold Nashville back and Memphis can overcome those challenges as well. Points in case. Downtown Nashville in the 80s was adult bookstores and no one would come there. It was dead as a doornail to quote Dickens. 

Also, in the early 2000's Germantown and the 12 S neighborhoods were crime ridden with drive by shootings. I remember a 10-year-old, or he may have been 8 go shot and killed at the market on the corner of Garfield & 7th around 2004. Now you can't touch a house there for under a million. Don't give me any race issues either because African American Communities hate this crap as much as anyone else and will be standing at the front of the line in order to clean the neighborhood up and better it. Thise communities are far better organized and sometimes just need the mayor's office and funding from the city to get the ball rolling.  Nashville and I will bet Memphis tends to neglect the poorer neighborhoods.

The problem we have here is opportunistic and predator developers taking advantage of the minority and poor communities to bilk folks out of their homes. Be on top of this and nip it in the bud ahead of time.

I am somewhat familiar with the Sterick building and if it is in a less than desirable neighborhood, then whatever developer gets the project the folks in the neighborhood can always insist on a CBA community benefits agreement. I am not a big fan of these but if used correctly they can help an area out a lot.