Ted Evanoff: Hotel spurs hope along Madison in Memphis
Seamus Loftus stepped outside his restaurant, the Brass Door, and saw the workers down the block.
Construction crews finally were renovating one of the dozens of empty buildings in his corner of Downtown.
It happened a year ago and Loftus remembered his relief.
“I was simply delighted,” Loftus recalled Wednesday. “This is a beautiful corridor. Bringing it back to life is important.”
Today the Hotel Napoleon, a 58-room boutique hotel at 179 Madison Avenue, is open for business, although Loftus remembers his thought when the construction began in his empty quarter of the city.
He sensed an upscale hotel would bring travelers and energy – restaurant customers, too – and make good on his decision to invest in 2011 on the worn block. It thrived decades ago as the heart of the financial district when Memphis was home to four major banks.
“One of our favorite lines here is 'wrong and early look the same,'” he said.
Wrong and early? You can be a pioneer. But if no one invests after you – if you’re the only bright spot on the block – you feel like you’re in a leaky boat on the wide sea.
A renaissance is under way in the city. Just the other day, Memphis real estate investor Marty Mathews, a Little Caesars franchisee, peeled back the aluminum panels covering the 106-year-building at 1482 Madison and discovered an elegant architectural gem. Mathews is one of the investors pouring renovation money into elderly buildings – including the stately Broadmoor Apartments in Midtown, the colossal Sears Crosstown, Broad Avenue's business district, the old hotel in Midtown at McLean and Union, Overton Square, the Highland Strip.
Regal Broadmoor apartments being renovated
Yet, blocks of Downtown remain barren of new money. Building owners maintain empty buildings as cheaply as possible in hopes a big developer will come along and buy them out.
Five years ago, Loftus and Scott and Meg Crosby of Memphis opened the Brass Door for fine dining, thinking the resurgence under way on South Main Street would spill over to their part of the center city.
More than $200 million has been invested nearby on Madison by developers in recent years, estimated Scott Crosby, a lawyer at Burch Porter Johnson.
But the big developers never showed up. The street never really came to life, even after Visible Music College, First Tennessee Bank, the University of Memphis law school and other renovations graced Madison.
Renovation uncovers beauty of old architecture
“There has just got to be more density,” said Crosby, referring to people walking the street and living in nearby buildings.
One first step: Crosby recommends the city install graceful lighting on Madison. With its trolley wires and brick facades, Madison has an early 20th Century appeal. But step out at night from the law school, which went into the former federal building, and Madison looks dark, Crosby said, although it has Cuban and Italian restaurants, Loftus from Ireland, the 110-room Madison boutique hotel and now the new hotel at 179 Madison, once an office for Sovran Bank.
Hotel Napoleon’s debut led the Brass Door owners to refit next-door space into the Irish Pub, which will open next month and serve breakfast seven days a week. They’re also heartened by Californian Chris Pardo. He plans to turn the empty Leader Federal Savings and Loan headquarters next door into a 70-room boutique hotel. Its upscale restaurant will be named Tellers.
Loftus doesn’t mind the competition. Hotel Napoleon houses a modern lobby bar looking on Madison at the First Tennessee Bank tower. Guests of each hotel will likely check out the Brass Door and the Irish Pub, he said.
“There’s an easier way to make a living than in a restaurant in Downtown Memphis,” Loftus said. “But we’re committed to this city.”
Ted Evanoff, business editor of The Commercial Appeal, can be reached at evanoff@commercialappeal.com and (901) 529-2292.