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What is up with the Pyramid?


tnse

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The BPS deal still seems like the best offer that the city will get that will be viable at this point. It pays off the debt, brings in sales tax revenue, and brings in a demographic to the city that otherwise would probably not go downtown. It would be a bigger attraction I would wager than the current BPS is to Nashville if done right, and if not, hey they still paid of the debt and the iconic structure was allowed to stay in the skyline.

Outside of that, jmduke may be right, out-right selling the property for any development (ie selling the land for its value) might be the only other sensible recourse for the city. It would be a shame if it came down, but if nobody wants has the funds and/or plans to redevelop the structure for an actual productive use, then at the end of the day all you have is a giant credit against the city's and county's books in the form of an empty building.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Here is the latest "Pyramid Adventure." Anyone else feel Bass Pro has been bad for Memphis and bad for the Pyramid? Havn't they left Buffalo in a lurch too? Is the Memphis area government not just incompetent and totally ineffective? Perhaps some people were promised some kickback if Bass Pro happened and this is causing people in the Memphis government to resist any other ideas than the Bass Pro one? Or is that too much of a conspiricy theory?

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/09/b9pyra/

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Here is the latest "Pyramid Adventure." Anyone else feel Bass Pro has been bad for Memphis and bad for the Pyramid? Havn't they left Buffalo in a lurch too? Is the Memphis area government not just incompetent and totally ineffective? Perhaps some people were promised some kickback if Bass Pro happened and this is causing people in the Memphis government to resist any other ideas than the Bass Pro one? Or is that too much of a conspiricy theory?

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/09/b9pyra/

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The latest proposal for the redevelopment of the pyramid is to turn it into an Elvis themed attraction and move Elvis' body there. That was posted in the Commercial Appeal yesterday. I think that the Pyramid Adventure is the best solution out there. And the renderings shown were impressive to an extent. Bass Pro Shop is a disaster waiting to happen. For one thing they aren't as committed in turning into a first class facility for their franchise store as they once were. They had originally planned to spend as much as $200 million for interior reconstruction and redevelopment. Now they are only planning a measly $45 million. This is why I feel that they are trying to back out of their deal and if the city is smart then they will look at Plan B and soon and not wait until January 2008.

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What makes you guys think Pyramid Adventure would do any better than Libertyland did? Since its enclosed, there won't be alot of room for expansion which has led to the downfall of all amusement parks in downtown. Plus, it would probably be open year-round which means that attendence will probably begin to fall when kids are going back to school. I also think at this point, we should abandon Bass Pro. It's taken them too long and they scaled back on their plans that weren't that impressive to begin with. I honestly think most people would've just entered the store out of curiousity on what the ceiling looked like at top point :P That being said, I think the best option for the Pyramid would be making it an expansion for the Convention Center because its the most iconic building in our city, and its huge. I think I've posted this before, but if we convert the Pyramid into a Convention Center, it'll make us have more convention space than many of the top convention cities, including San Diego and Toronto. Our city is soon going to be in competion with Tunica for conventions, so its time we got a step ahead and offered convention space and facilites that are unmatched anywhere else in the world!!! And, it won't cost much to convert since many of the neccessary convention amenities are already in place and it would also be relatively cheap to connect it to the existing convention center

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Here are the plans for Greg Ericsons proposed Pyramid Adventure.

http://ericsongroup.com/pyramid/main.htm

The city should really take a stronger look at this. 36 thrill rides 20 speciality shops, kiosks,an investor that lives here in the city & is very enthusiatic about this project, and has the financial backing. To me this spells success.

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The city may be reluctant to move away from the Bass Pro Shop idea because BPS is in a much better position of obtaining financing for their project relative to Ericson and some of the other proposals that have come along.

If you go back to the very beginning of the Pyramid, a vast array of attractions were proposed for the building (along with Mud Island) by the infamous Sidney Shlenker. Mr. Shlenker took almost complete control of the whole Pyramid project, talked big for a couple of years, but never came close to obtaining the capital necessary to do anything. That's why most of the Pyramid's underside and its pinnacle have remainded empty shells for its 16 year existence.

Ericson Group has a nice vision in Pyramid Adventure, but I suspect that arranging financing for this would involve a very protracted process of up to 2 years, if ever. In reviewing the list of Ericson's partners, I see lots of marketing and entertainment types, plus apart from one CPA I don't see very much financial muscle. They are going to have to convince multiple investors and/or banks that the project would make enough money to provide a positive cash flow for a long enough duration to earn the investors profits and assure the banks they won't default on their loans. It's a tough hill to climb when you are developing a speculative, one-of-a-kind tourist attraction.

By contrast, Bass Pro is a $2.0 billion company. They could finance some, if not all, of this project with their own cash - meaning that they only have to convince themselves that the project is feasible. In that sense, what we've been waiting on is probably same justification process (internal to BPS) that Ericson will have to go through with outside venture capitalists. Obtaining debt financing (if necessary) is less problematic for BPS because its has sources already financing its overall operation, not just a single project, and BPS already has a proven business model with 43 operating stores. You can see how the financial markets would view BPS as a far less risky proposition than Ericson, a group with no operating history and a very unproven business model.

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The city may be reluctant to move away from the Bass Pro Shop idea because BPS is in a much better position of obtaining financing for their project relative to Ericson and some of the other proposals that have come along.

If you go back to the very beginning of the Pyramid, an vast array of attractions were proposed for the building (along with Mud Island) by the infamous Sidney Shlenker. Mr. Shlenker took almost complete control of the whole Pyramid project, talked big for a couple of years, but never came close to obtaining the capital necessary to do anything. That's why most of the Pyramid's underside and its pinnacle have remainded empty shells for its 16 year existence.

Ericson Group has a nice vision in Pyramid Adventure, but I suspect that arranging financing for this would involve a very protracted process of up to 2 years, if ever. In reviewing the list of Ericson's partners, I see lots of marketing and entertainment types, plus apart from one CPA I don't see very much financial muscle. They are going to have to convince multiple investors and/or banks that the project would make enough money to provide a positive cash flow for a long enough duration to earn the investors profits and assure the banks they won't default on their loans. It's a tough hill to climb when you are developing a speculative, one-of-a-kind tourist attraction.

By contrast, Bass Pro is a $2.0 billion company. They could finance some, if not all, of this project with their own cash - meaning that they only have to convince themselves that the project is feasible. In that sense, what we've been waiting on is probably same justification process (internal to BPS) that Ericson will have to go through with outside venture capitalists. Obtaining debt financing (if necessary) is less problematic for BPS because its has sources already financing its overall operation, not just a single project, and BPS already has a proven business model with 43 operating stores. You can see how the financial markets would view BPS as a far less risky proposition than Ericson, a group with no operating history and a very unproven business model.

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Given the way the idea that BPS has screwed Buffalo has become urban legend, I decided to do a simple Google search and find out the truth. This is what I found from the Buffalo News:

Rep. Brian Higgins Thursday confirmed planners have scrapped plans to build a 100,000-square-foot store on the historic Central Wharf site
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  • 3 weeks later...

BassPro appears to be moving forward with the Pyramid reuse project:

"Everybody will draw their own conclusions, but what I would say is that we're deadly serious," company president Jim Hagale said by telephone in a rare interview on the project.

"There have been lots of conversations, lots of rumors -- some of them, I think, fueled maybe by people or groups who have some kind of an agenda. But we have tried to stay consistent in what we have said and what we have done."

Hagale predicted that Bass Pro "absolutely" would meet the Jan. 31, 2008, target date to complete due diligence. The company's letter of intent with the city and county calls for a binding contract to be executed at that time.

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  • 1 month later...

...its design are limited, because of fire codes you can't have rooms on the very inside of it because of no windows...So here is my idea...Use it for only a monument. Count your losses Memphis. Gut the inside of it, use the seats, the goals, the court, the scoreboard and anything else that can be used for a b'ball stadium and donate them to the U of M for years and years of loyalty to this city. Then the U of M can build a nice on campus b'ball stadium and pack it half full of students, thus creating a home court advantage like we've never seen.

Then, once the Pyramid is gutted, seal off the inside of the pyramid, finally create that elevator going to the top of the Pyramid, make a big deck for people to look out over the city and the River, and in the blue part on top have a souvenier shop and resturant and starbucks. Why do I know this would work? The space needle in Seattle, the Arch in St. Louis...I'm telling you, the City of Memphis would make more money off of this than they could shake a stick at. Charge $10 a person to go up top, build a Corky's up there that is owned by the City and you will have a cash cow for years to come...Just like the space needle in Seattle.

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