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Snuff District in Uptown — $200 million mixed-use development


VSRJ

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I've split this into its own topic as it seems to be gaining traction. Hopefully we see dirt moving soon.

See the first renderings of proposed Uptown Snuff District

https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2019/06/17/exclusive-see-the-first-renderings-of-proposed.html

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The current master plan calls for 600 apartments, 75,000 square feet of office space, 50 single-family homes, and about 15,000 square feet of retail. A riverwalk along the Wolf River Harbor is also included.

“The core of Downtown is booming with development,” Orgel said in the June 6 interview. “South Main is booming with development. Everything from population to the amount of restaurants, amount of retail, to the new office tenants we have coming Downtown. The real estate prices are rising. We need to complete the full Downtown on the north side. … The Uptown area is ripe for development — and good development, mixed-use [that is] good for everybody.”

Benjamin and Billy Orgel and their development partners are seeking a separate Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for their planned American Snuff Co. redevelopment, a the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) official confirmed Thursday.

Andrew Murray, director of planning and community development for the CRA, said by email that the CRA intends to amend its Uptown Memphis TIF to exclude Orgel-owned land in Uptown so that the Memphis-based developers can apply for their own separate TIF district with the Downtown Memphis Commission. The news was first reported by The Daily Memphian.

According to a map provided to MBJ by the CRA, the new separate TIF district could stretch from Saffarans Avenue on the south and would abut the Grind City Brewing property on the north end of the TIF. In July 2018, MBJ reported the Orgels planned to redevelop part of the area into multifamily housing. Much of the proposed TIF and Orgel-owned land is waterfront property directly across the harbor from Harbor Town.

 

 

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Edited by VSRJ
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Some new information and a site map:

https://dailymemphian.com/section/businessreal-estate/article/10362/wolf-harbor-homes-revealed-for-snuff-district-memphis-and-overton-park

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The developers plan to convert the 260,000-square-foot complex into more than 600 apartments, 80,000 square feet of office space for Varsity Spirit, 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of retail, parking spaces for 850 vehicles, the single-family houses, and harbor-side park and walk.

The developers plan to preserve, repair and clean as much of the existing masonry exterior as possible, according to the DRB application.

New windows will be installed, but only after the design team studies old photographs so it can match the historic window configurations.

 

Overview of the development:

image.thumb.png.5eaf4daacbc33039ea9c713515ee69ff.png

Edited by VSRJ
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  • 4 months later...

Orgel presses ahead with $32M Snuff District permit, but no office space yet

By Tom Bailey/Daily Memphian Updated: June 25, 2020 9:32 AM CT | Published: June 25, 2020 9:28 AM CT

 

"Developers of the planned, $200 million Snuff District in Uptown just applied for a building permit to spend an estimated $32.6 million for the first 107 apartments, community room and fitness center.

The adaptive reuse of the complex of six historic buildings at 46 Keel is planned as the first phase of a 55-acre, mixed-use development of apartments, office space, event space, single-family homes, and green space to make the Wolf River Harbor accessible to Uptown."

But this first building permit does not include about 80,000 square feet of office space for Varsity Spirit, the company that in fall 2019 announced plans to move its headquarters from the suburbs into the old converted snuff factory.

“At the moment will include office space but plans not complete so that part of the building being drawn still,” lead developer Billy Orgel responded to The Daily Memphian by text Thursday morning, June 25.

“This is a multi-phase project,” Orgel said. “The building is 260,000 square feet, so a large undertaking.”

 

https://dailymemphian.com/section/business/article/15081/orgel-pressed-ahead-with-32m-snuff-district-permit

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Varsity Spirit signs lease for HQ 

From the Daily Memphian-  https://dailymemphian.com/section/neighborhoodsdowntown/article/16762/varsity-spirit-sign-lease-moving-headquarters-to

 

"Varsity Spirit has signed a lease to move its headquarters from the suburbs to the historic American Snuff Factory despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, company officials announced Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The company that owns and runs cheerleading and band camps and competitions across the U.S. will move 250 employees into 65,000 square feet of office space at 46 Keel in fall 2021."

 

 

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Good to see this project building momentum:

https://dailymemphian.com/section/business/article/20536/downtown-board-approves-purchase-100-north-main

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The payment in lieu of taxes will save Snuff District developer Billy Orgel and his partners $19.2 million in local property taxes over 20 years. In return, they will build a six story, $62 million building at 47 Keel, with 292 apartments on the top four floors, and 420 parking spaces and 11,000 square feet of commercial space on the bottom two floors.

Despite the tax reductions, the development is still projected to generate $6.3 million more in local property taxes with the incentive than without it.

The CCRFC also approved making a long-term loan of $3.5 million to help the Snuff District developers build the parking garage. The loan represents 37 percent of the garage’s cost.

 

 

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https://dailymemphian.com/subscriber/section/neighborhoods/article/33788/memphis-real-estate-conwood-flats-50m-renovation

The group plans to redevelop the surrounding properties along with the former Snuff District site serving as the development’s 65-acre centerpiece.

The first portion of that redevelopment — the 136-unit Conwood Flats and 67,000-square-foot Varsity Spirit headquarters — is now open. 

“It’s huge to put that many people living and working up here,” Slovis said. 

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MATA needs to extend the trolley line 4 blocks north to access the Snuff District including the Conwood development, Varsity Spirit, Soul and Spirits Brewery, and the many new apartment developments. I would love to see a second Top Golf location placed between the Snuff District and the Grind City Brewing Company. The Trolley Extension might make this possible by allowing a safe transit corridor between the area and the many Downtown Hotels.

D8CCBA3C-B9E8-45E0-ACEA-801C043EB7E7.jpeg

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Let’s Get BRT going first. However I do agree with an extension of Trolley line it’s needed in that corridor and beyond. Kamala Harris Vp states that memphis definitely needs infrastructure federal money let’s see if they can obtain those funds and leverage them to not only pave roads but also extend light rail service. We need our next mayor to be serious about developing and connecting our infrastructure from downtown/ Midtown to Airport and all the way ( commuter rail) to blue oval city 

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2 hours ago, Memphisborn said:

Let’s Get BRT going first. However I do agree with an extension of Trolley line it’s needed in that corridor and beyond. Kamala Harris Vp states that memphis definitely needs infrastructure federal money let’s see if they can obtain those funds and leverage them to not only pave roads but also extend light rail service. We need our next mayor to be serious about developing and connecting our infrastructure from downtown/ Midtown to Airport and all the way ( commuter rail) to blue oval city 

It wouldn’t hurt to have this trolley extension. It cost 14mil per mile, so how far is it? I agree with your BRT/light rail comment. I’d also like to have the second street extension though. Been on the wish list since the 60s. 

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19 hours ago, The Guardian of Memphis said:

It wouldn’t hurt to have this trolley extension. It cost 14mil per mile, so how far is it? I agree with your BRT/light rail comment. I’d also like to have the second street extension though. Been on the wish list since the 60s. 

It's not even a kilometer.  You could even have it loop over to the existing 2nd track that the Riverside loop runs on, and extend it to there, so that there'd be a North loop too.  

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On 2/12/2023 at 11:40 AM, DowntownUrbanite said:

MATA needs to extend the trolley line 4 blocks north to access the Snuff District including the Conwood development, Varsity Spirit, Soul and Spirits Brewery, and the many new apartment developments. I would love to see a second Top Golf location placed between the Snuff District and the Grind City Brewing Company. The Trolley Extension might make this possible by allowing a safe transit corridor between the area and the many Downtown Hotels.

D8CCBA3C-B9E8-45E0-ACEA-801C043EB7E7.jpeg

I agree.  That parcel is going to  be prime lake front property. 

https://www.memphisflyer.com/details-emerge-on-snuff-district-lake-floating-dock-at-cobblestone-landing

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On 2/12/2023 at 3:20 PM, The Guardian of Memphis said:

It wouldn’t hurt to have this trolley extension. It cost 14mil per mile, so how far is it? I agree with your BRT/light rail comment. I’d also like to have the second street extension though. Been on the wish list since the 60s. 

An extension down madison to overton square would make more sense first

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51 minutes ago, Memphisborn said:

Yes down Madison to square and past liberty park. 

Ok I know this route was always the chosen one, but how in the world will it fit on east parkway with all the trees? I’ve always questioned that. Not that I’m not for it. Just curious as to where it would go. I’ve always thought it would be NOLAesque and go on the median which would be awesome. That would upset our environmental friends tho. 
 

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Edited by The Guardian of Memphis
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On 2/12/2023 at 12:40 PM, DowntownUrbanite said:

MATA needs to extend the trolley line 4 blocks north to access the Snuff District including the Conwood development, Varsity Spirit, Soul and Spirits Brewery, and the many new apartment developments. I would love to see a second Top Golf location placed between the Snuff District and the Grind City Brewing Company. The Trolley Extension might make this possible by allowing a safe transit corridor between the area and the many Downtown Hotels.

D8CCBA3C-B9E8-45E0-ACEA-801C043EB7E7.jpeg

This is such an exciting area to develop, for Memphis. 

It would be phenomenal, and add much needed density to that area, if a trolley line were extended up there.

The line would allow everything to pour into that region faster.

As for a Top Golf,  that would be a good idea. But Top Golf barely has 2nd locations in major metro areas, so a 2nd location for a metro of  Memphis' size is probably 99.9% not gonna happen. (Philadelphia is just now getting a 2nd top golf and they have 6 million in their metro)

But another cool destination type of attraction would be good to see for that region.

Why not put in an Urban Target after a trolley line goes in? That would be an amenity that Memphis needs, in general.

Edited by jjbradleyBrooklyn
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3 hours ago, jjbradleyBrooklyn said:

This is such an exciting area to develop, for Memphis. 

It would be phenomenal, and add much needed density to that area, if a trolley line were extended up there.

The line would allow everything to pour into that region faster.

As for a Top Golf,  that would be a good idea. But Top Golf barely has 2nd locations in major metro areas, so a 2nd location for a metro of  Memphis' size is probably 99.9% not gonna happen. (Philadelphia is just now getting a 2nd top golf and they have 6 million in their metro)

But another cool destination type of attraction would be good to see for that region.

Why not put in an Urban Target after a trolley line goes in? That would be an amenity that Memphis needs, in general.

I agree with just about everything you said. Snuff District is a really great and unique opportunity. 2nd Top Golf isn’t happening. Trolley line needs to be extended. But, I think you overestimate the trolley. I don’t think it would make things “pour” into the area. It would help, but I think it would minimally help. 

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