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Print Article"We are on an aggressive pace to come up with a good set of recommendations for the Center City Commission board," task force chairman and CCC member Stuart McGehee said. "We want to get this thing wrapped up in the spring."
Sanford said 2008 highlights also included the Bass Pro Shops deal, University of Memphis law school, Peabody Place and Barboro Alley Flats.
City and county officials gave Springfield, Mo.-based Bass Pro Shops one year to plan conversion of the mothballed Pyramid arena into an outdoor-sports superstore.
Sanford said, "This may be surprising to some, but I would say that the final approval for Bass Pro was very important to Downtown because if the store gets built, it could have a huge impact, starting with the fact it would be projected to bring millions of visitors to the Downtown area annually and provide hundreds of new jobs as well."
Other highlights: The University of Memphis began a $42 million renovation of the former Post Office at Front and Court to house its law school. U of M officials hope to move into the 140,000-square-foot building in the fall and start holding classes there in January 2010.
Developers and Center City officials completed a financing package through SunTrust Bank for Barboro Alley Flats, a 92-unit apartment building that will be built on top of a 205-space public parking garage.
The building will fill a vacancy left at 100 S. Main when the Lawrence Building was razed.
The 155-unit first phase of The Horizon condo tower took shape on Riverside Drive, while next door, developers of River Tower at South Bluffs, an apartment-to-condo conversion of the former Rivermark, stepped up efforts to sell out the building's 152 units.
Belz Enterprises launched a conversion of Peabody Place into a luxury hotel, Peabody Suites. Belz pulled the plug on a multiscreen Muvico cinema while retaining several stores in the 7-year-old retail and entertainment center. The reconfigured property is slated for completion in early 2010.
"When the project is completed, in addition to adding some luxury suites to the Downtown hotel market, approximately 40 percent of that center will remain retail," Sanford said. "I see it as a positive."
