Boyle Investment Company announced the promotion of Marina Murphy to the newly created role of Director of Marketing for statewide business. Murphy has 10 years of business and marketing experience. She led marketing for Boyle’s Nashville office since joining the company in 2019. Murphy also takes over for Anne Brand, who is retiring after nearly 30 years of service with Boyle. Since joining Boyle in 1998, Brand oversaw the development and implementation of public relations campaigns and advertising for Boyle’s Memphis location.

The Boyle Investment Company announced that they have acquired the 100,000-square-foot Meridian Building. The building which is located at Meridian Cool Springs is set to feature both office and retail spaces.

Williamson County property records report the sale as $19.5 million.

“The purchase of 3000 Meridian allows us to strengthen our presence in Cool Springs, an area that continues to see tremendous growth and evolution,” said Director of Office Properties and Partner Thomas McDaniel.

Boyle Investment Company first opened their doors to its Nashville office in 2001. Since then, the Memphis-based company has rapidly expanded and now owns and manages almost four million square feet of office and retail space, as well as a projected 5 million square feet in the development and planning stages. The investment group currently owns or manages projects in communities such as Berry Farms, McEwen Northside, Meridian Cool Springs, CityPark Brentwood, and Capital View.

“As demand continues, we are proud to play a role in shaping the future of Williamson County’s dynamic business landscape,” McDaniel said.

Formerly known as the PICA Building, the building was developed by Boyle in 2009 as a build-to-suit, to be both owned and occupied by the Podiatry Insurance Company of America (PICA).

Additionally, the 60-acre mixed-use district plans to feature 70,000 square feet of specialty retail, fitness and dining options along with three onsite hotels.

The 3000 Meridian acquisition comes as Boyle invests more than $20 million into enhancements across Meridian Cool Springs, reinforcing its long-term vision for the district. Boyle recently unveiled two public green spaces within the district and welcomed a curated mix of businesses, including Little Hats Italian Market, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, Alloy Personal Training and First National Bank of Middle Tennessee.

This article originally ran in the Tennessean.

Boyle Investment Company has announced the promotion of Marina Murphy to the newly created role of director of Marketing for statewide business. The former marketing director for the firm’s Nashville office, Murphy brings 10 years of business and marketing experience to the position.

“Marketing Boyle across the entire state is a huge opportunity,” said Jeff Haynes, one of Boyle Nashville’s founding partners. “Marina understands our business so deeply. As we strive to plan and build mixed-use communities, placemaking, programming, and marketing will be integral to differentiating our developments. Marina’s marketing acumen and creativity provide a unique edge, and we are confident that her leadership will create more effective and impactful marketing efforts for Boyle Investment Company.”

Murphy played a pivotal role in rebranding Boyle and launching its statewide marketing efforts. She had led marketing for Boyle’s Nashville office since joining the company in 2019. Her leadership has helped the Boyle brand flourish, emphasizing the company’s mission as a community builder. The marketing team has grown to four people under her guidance. In this new role, she will now also oversee marketing for Boyle’s Memphis location and build on a comprehensive, statewide marketing strategy for the company as a whole.

An established developer providing premier locations and innovative design, Boyle is known in Nashville for its dynamic mixed-use developments, including Capitol View, CityPark, McEwen Northside, Meridian Cool Springs and Berry Farms. The firm also has significant developments in and around Memphis, where it first began operations in 1933. With extensive experience in all facets of real estate from development to property management, to site selection and sales and leasing, Boyle Investment Company creates well-planned community-oriented environments.

For more information about Boyle Investment Company, visit boyle.com.

This article originally ran in FranklinIs.

Collierville Magazine

By Catherine Eakin & David Tankersly

Family is the name of the game for three local developers and real estate professionals:  Allen Green of John Green Realtors, Karen and Reggie Garner, Jr. of Magnolia Homes, and Gary Thompson of Boyle Investment Company.  They all work for companies that see employees and clients as part of their extended family, and they understand that families are the fabric of strong communities. It’s what Collierville is all about.  From a best-in-class school system, notable public safety services, and a deep well of amenities like parks, a modern hospital, plentiful restaurants and shopping, families have always been an inherent part of the Collierville story.

On the commercial side of development, the increased mixed-use construction in the Schilling Farms area is both impressive and encouraging.  For an expert perspective on this development, look no further than Gary Thompson of Boyle Investment Company.  After obtaining his degree in landscape architecture and a brief period of consulting roles, Thompson started full-time with Boyle in 1995.  It’s been a successful relationship ever since.

Boyle is proud of the reputation they’ve built as one of the premier commercial and residential development firms in the area.  They consistently look to construct long-lasting buildings for their clients and in the process establish sound business relationships.  Their motto, “Building Communities Since 1933” is fitting.

Thompson embraces the idea of building communities.  He and Boyle have been involved in the development of Schilling Farms since the early 1990s.  Thompson adds, “It was a period that saw Collierville become one of the fastest-growing communities in Tennessee.  The steady growth of the area has been great for Boyle and the diverse group of companies that are now located at Schilling Farms.  Mueller Industries has found a home there, as has IMC Logistics, who moved their world headquarters there in 2022.  SOB (South of Beale Restaurant), Rotolos, and Crumbl Cookies are all part of their new development at Poplar and Schilling Farms.  Boyle continues to pursue new home, dining and shopping sites within Schilling Farms.

“Mixed-use developments permit us to do some really cool stuff that is supported by this walkable community,” Thompson says.  “you can pick up your kid from daycare and run them across the street to the orthodontist, then return them to daycare or take them home.  It’s sort of a one-stop shop.  It functions really, really well.” It’s an ideal layout for families, having most amenities located within a quick drive or comfortable walk, and it’s a concept that will find an expanded use in Collierville.

Memphis Business Journal, October 4-10, 2024

Every year, MBJ honors the top female leaders in the Memphis area with Super Women in Business, presented by Independent Bank.  This marks the 13th Super Women in Business.  And it is indisputably one of the top events MBJ produces, year in and year out.  Ask anyone who has ever attended.  It cannot be missed.  Each year has its own flavor, driven by the personalities of the individual women being honored.  But over time, one also sees the universality of what makes each of them so successful and worthy of being honored:  their intellect, vision, resolve, bravery, creativity, empathy, passion, compassion, energy, and persistence — and, no less, a je ne sais quoi that beguiles attempts to delimit who they are.  And you can see for yourself all the ways those in the 2024 class of Super Women in Business break past convention in the following section.

Kathy Pampuro, Executive Vice President, Boyle Investment Company

Job role/responsibilities:  My primary role is leasing agent:  showing Boyle-owned properties office vacancies to prospective tenants and working with existing tenants on lease renewals.  There’s an array of tasks that go into securing a new tenant and a lease renewal, including working with our in-house space planning team to prepare plans for our prospect’s/tenant’s specific office space needs, working with our space planning team to competitively bid the leasehold improvement work to general contractors, underwriting the analytics of the transaction for proposal and lease preparation, negotiating the lease, and working with our property management team for tenant move in.

Superpowers that would best equip someone entering your profession:  The ability to make tenant reps show up on time for their scheduled appointments or at a minimum only 15 minutes late for a scheduled appointment.

Biggest mentor:  Mark Halperin, COO/EVP who has been with Boyle for more than 50 years.  Mark can sometimes come across like a lion, but he’s a real teddy bear.  He is so knowledgeable, practical in his thinking, honest, fair, objective and humble.  He always has his employees’ backs and gives us all the opportunity to excel in whatever it is that we want to do.

 

 

A real estate giant is ditching its suburban office and getting a new downtown address.

CoStar Group‘s STR has signed a 34,000-square-foot lease in a Capitol View office building, according to real estate sources.

CoStar Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP) entered the local market when it acquired Hendersonville-based STR for $450 million in 2019. STR has operated out of its Hendersonville headquarters, located at 735 East Main St., since 2002.

STR, now CoStar’s analytics group, is moving into one of Boyle Investment Co.’s Capitol View buildings, located at 500 11th Ave. N., sources said. Other tenants in the building include the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, HealthStream and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.

Jenna Muller, Kelly Sullivan and John Benziger of Cushman & Wakefield represented CoStar in the transaction.

STR, founded in 1985 as Smith Travel Research, aggregates data from more than 85,000 hotels worldwide, offering hotel brands and owners performance benchmark data. The company, led by Amanda Hite, has regional offices in Nashville, London and Singapore, according to its website.

---

Directions

---

Press

• Nashville Business Journal
• nexmetro

The Daily Memphian

By Jane Roberts

 

Across the city, rent is either nearly flat or dropping as much as 10% as occupancy rates, close to 100% in early 2022, now hover around 92%.

There are bubbles of exception everywhere, but in Midtown, Collierville and Downtown, new apartment complexes are adding competition.

In Downtown, the 210-unit The Oliver will open in September. The building is well into the leasing phase now.

In some cases, occupancies in the core of the Downtown district are as low as 85%, although those tend to be on Main Street and not at South Junction, for instance, which Henry Turley Co. developed, starting in 2014. It now has a pandemic-level occupancy of 97%.

But in July, a one-bedroom at 628 Stratton Circle, off Florida Street, rented for $1,390. In August, a new tenant got it for more than 10% less.

“For us, our goal is to make sure we do everything we can to bring more people Downtown,” said Alex Turley, CEO. “To continue to promote Downtown, to live, work, play, stay — everything. That’s our goal as a company.”

Benjamin Orgel is more direct. His company, Tower Ventures, redeveloped the massive Tennessee Brewery and, this summer, began leasing the 292-unit Harbor Side, opening in December, part of the 65-acre Snuff District on Downtown’s north side.

“Obviously, we have a lot of units Downtown, and we can’t always be at the top of the market,” Orgel said. “The stock market doesn’t set a new record every day.

“Are we at our all-time high of rents and occupancy today? No.”

But, as a company, Tower has outperformed both its seven- and two-year projections on rents in the Snuff District, the mixed-use development it started in 2016, he said.

“Do I wish our occupancy was at 100% today? I do,” Orgel said. “But you can’t be at the top every day and every year.”

The Memphis metro area is set to complete 1,267 rental units in 2024, a record year for apartment construction across the country, according to RentCafe blog’s Apartment Construction Report, released Aug. 29. In the next five years, it projects 5,161 new units will be delivered here, 21% fewer than the 6,552 that opened from 2019-2023.

Higher borrowing costs are taking a toll, prompting developers to adjust their strategy, which means they may focus on lower-risk projects or shift to markets with strong demand and job growth, said Doug Ressler, senior analyst at Yardi Matrix.

“In places like Texas, for instance, the demand for apartments remains robust due to factors like corporate migration and high home prices,” he said.

Rent is pure economics, but it’s personal

The rental market has always reflected a mix of economic factors, including interest rates, high enough now at 6.55% to keep many people from buying a home. For younger renters, many of whom are paying college loans, buying a house means having enough extra for a down payment.

“Those are hard things to crack when you don’t have a lot of income, and you’re just getting on your feet wet out of college,” said Les Binkley, vice president at Boyle Investment Co.

But the market is also awash in new social patterns, including empty-nesters and people, young and older, renting by choice because they don’t want their nest eggs tied up in housing.

“Not everybody wants to have a quarter-acre lot and do the lawn and have a house and do the upkeep,” Binkley said. “There’s a certain aspect of apartment living that has become a luxury because you can avoid all that.”

Beginning in 2020, rents rose 3% to 5% a year for people in a current lease. But for those who were looking for new places, sometimes in the same complex, prices on similarly sized units often were $300 or $400 more expensive, a direct result of the demand the pandemic created.

“COVID actually ended up being a boost for both the apartment industry and the for-sale housing industry because people basically weren’t moving,” said Mark Fogelman, president of Fogelman, a multi-family real estate company with properties in 13 states.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve definitely seen a drop off in occupancies, down approximately 2%. And rental pricing is anywhere from flat to down 5%, based upon location,” he said.

Fogelman manages 23 properties, close to 5,000 units across nearly every market in Shelby County. Rents now range from $700 for a studio to more than $4,000 for a high-end, three-bedroom unit.

“But, we can’t really say we suddenly have a surplus because occupancy rates are still quite high,” Fogelman said.

The market, he said, is finding its balance after the pandemic. Tennessee, a red state, had a measurable uptick in the number of people migrating from states with more restrictive COVID policies.

“We operate apartments throughout the Sun Belt, which really is everything from the Carolinas all the way around to Texas,” Fogelman said. “We saw double the typical number of out-of-state transfers.”

And, based on what Fogelman sees in the company’s turnover rate, many of those new residents stayed.

“I’d say, 55% to 60% of our tenants are renewing today, and it was probably in the low 50s up until a couple of years ago,” he said.

Rents did increase, and substantially, from the start of the pandemic, for people who did not have leases.

It happened for a variety of reasons, including that some local landlords sold their properties to national companies when the COVID rent moratorium forbade them from evicting tenants who didn’t pay.

That restriction lasted a year.

“Those companies came in and applied their national rates here,” said Mary Hamlett, vice president of family programs at MIFA. “Whether Memphis can perform at that level or not, that is their model.”

A WalletHub study released in July ranked Memphis dead last for best cities to rent on a list of 182 cities. The largest reason was cost, said Cassandra Happe, a consumer finance expert on its staff.

“Memphis ranked 168th for affordability,” she said. “That’s in the bottom 25% of the nation.”

WalletHub uses fair-market rent rates to measure affordability, the same rates housing assistance programs use to determine standard payments.

HUD sets the fair market rate on properties that are 10% below the median rate and reflect stays of more than two years, as a way of showing what the conditions are in any market at one time.

From 2022 to 2024, fair-market rent in Memphis for a two-bedroom, plus utilities, rose more than 19% a year, according to WalletHub’s analysis. Nationally, the annual average increase was 12.33%.

“Pre-COVID, we saw rental rates for two-bedroom apartments go from $950 to $1,300 and above for modest to nice rentals,” Hamlett said.

That, she points out, is nearly a 37% increase. The same rates for one bedroom increased by nearly 45%.

“People’s incomes didn’t go up like that,” she said.

“Job layoffs and workplace closings are a big part of it,” Hamlett said. “The other part is the price of everything is increasing all at once, but especially rent.

“We used to have almost no applicants from the suburbs, and now Cordova, Arlington and Millington are taking up a big slice of people getting assistance,” she said.

“So, it’s hitting that lower middle and the working upper.”

And for the first six months of this year, for the first time anyone at MIFA can remember, the agency began receiving more requests for rental assistance than it did for utilities. When the fiscal year ended June 30, rent requests had eclipsed utility requests, 9,810 to 6,750.

She can think of 12 local landlords who sold to national firms like DIWY homes and Progressive Rentals.

“We used to be able to rehouse people with a lower amount than what the fair market rate allowed us to do because we had rental rates that were low,” Hamlett said. “Now, we’re more on par with national averages.”

Rents in Memphis are still “much, much lower” than Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte on an absolute basis and per-foot basis, said Jimmy Ringel, a partner in Makowsky, Ringel Greenberg Multi-family and Commercial Real Estate.

Wouldn’t happen without incentives

In the City of Memphis, which has the highest tax rate of any city in the state, not one of the apartment complexes that has sprung up in the last three decades would have happened without tax incentives, he said.

In 2016, the Center City Revenue Finance Corp., an arm of the Downtown Memphis Commission, modified its PILOT policy to include smaller projects outside the Central Business Improvement District.

“The policy change made smaller projects eligible for CCRFC PILOTs, and was helpful for Midtown, providing support for projects that would not have happened otherwise,” said Brett Roler, chief operating officer at the DMC.

It paved the way for The Citizen, Orleans Station, the Lofts @ Overton and the other multi-family projects that sprung up between Downtown and the Parkways.

“The point we made to the administration, eight to nine to 10 years ago was, the same situation applied to Midtown that applied to Downtown,” Ringel said.

“You couldn’t afford to build anything Midtown either. And the point we made to the city was that while Downtown needed to be vibrant, and we understood that, you want an economically thriving Midtown area too.”

At Orleans Station, built to provide student housing for University of Tennessee students, rents for one- and two-bedroom units are $1,250 and $1,875. The Citizen ranges from $1,475-$2,260.

Paying for peace, privacy

Sumi Montgomery has a master’s degree, a job she loves and a frightening rental history. Three times in one weekend, an intruder got into the duplex she was renting off Union Avenue and Hollywood Street, the first time breaking in and stealing her spare key.

He then came back, letting himself in until management changed the lock.

It took her three months to find safer housing she could afford. And in her case, the word afford may be relative.

Montgomery pays more than 52% of her income to live at The Arbors Harbor Town — a 30-plus-year-old property tucked in on the island’s south side. Her one-bedroom is $1,357 a month, plus about $100 in utilities.

At 31, she had to have a family friend co-sign her 15-month lease because The Arbors — like nearly every modern apartment complex in the city — requires tenants’ income be at least three times the cost of rent.

For Montgomery, the cost of paying half her salary for housing is the price of feeling safe and not having to have a roommate.

For spending money, she hustles a side gig, taking care of pets.

“I want to stay here as long as I can,” she said. “But, I was just talking to another pet sitter who has been at The Arbors for two years. She is getting ready to move because they keep upping the price.”

It took her three months to find safer housing she could afford. And in her case, the word afford may be relative.

Montgomery pays more than 52% of her income to live at The Arbors Harbor Town — a 30-plus-year-old property tucked in on the island’s south side. Her one-bedroom is $1,357 a month, plus about $100 in utilities.

At 31, she had to have a family friend co-sign her 15-month lease because The Arbors — like nearly every modern apartment complex in the city — requires tenants’ income be at least three times the cost of rent.

For Montgomery, the cost of paying half her salary for housing is the price of feeling safe and not having to have a roommate.

For spending money, she hustles a side gig, taking care of pets.

“I want to stay here as long as I can,” she said. “But, I was just talking to another pet sitter who has been at The Arbors for two years. She is getting ready to move because they keep upping the price.”

When Velma Zahirovic-Herbert, the Martha and Robert Fogelman Chair in Sustainable Real Estate at the University of Memphis, moved to Memphis in 2021, there was little residential property for sale.

She and her husband decided to temporarily rent a condo.

They’ve upgraded several times and now rarely think about buying a home.

“We quite enjoy being the renters,” she said.

“Home prices have been going up ever since we came to Memphis, and the interest rates were high. … To be honest, after selling our home where we lived before, we thought it was just fine to keep those dollars available for other investments, rather than turn them into housing.”

That means for the first time in 30 years, everyone in her family is renting, including her children in San Francisco.

“I’m not surprised this is a trend,” she said. “I think it’s provided my husband and me a lifestyle flexibility we did not think would be achievable if we were homeowners. The development is amenity-rich. We don’t have to worry about gym access, pool access, trash, valet or anything else. It’s 24-hour concierge service. It’s really what we call easy living.”

Singles now prefer to live alone

Families still want two- and three-bedroom units, and there are plenty of them available, Binkley said, but at the Water Tower District in Collierville, Boyle is building an array of one-bedroom-plus floor plans — with a den or half bath or a space to work from home — to cater to surging market of renters who want to live alone.

“People who are single are less likely now to roommate up with others,” Binkley said.

On the younger end, they’re often recent college graduates used to living in the amenity-rich complexes on campus.

“They have already been conditioned to want resort-style amenities and programming and the type of products they leased in college,” Binkley said.

“The whole arms race has changed,” he said with a chuckle. “Their parents were paying for it in college, but there are a lot of parents still supporting their children when they get out into the workforce. That’s not uncommon.”

But there also are people whose incomes dropped in the pandemic or due to unforeseen life changes. That has forced them to live with family or in rental housing later in life.

Kevin Davidson was coaching at Bartlett High after the pandemic. He now drives routes for Pepsi and, for four years, has had a year-to-year lease on North Parkway near St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He currently pays $900 to live alone, $200 more than he was paying to live with a roommate in the South Main District several years ago.

“I’m 35,” he said, while waiting for a pickup food order at Huey’s in Midtown. “I don’t feel like I should have to have a roommate.”

He expects living closer to his job in Collierville would cost $500-$600 more a month, which would mean finding a better-paying job and starting over in some ways.

“I’m probably going to move somewhere else. My lease is up in December,” he said. “I plan to start looking in September.”

Cole Johnson from WTVF’s Talk of the Town checks out our McEwen Northside development in Franklin, TN. McEwen Northside is an inviting urban experience in the vibrant Cool Springs area of Franklin, Tennessee. The unique 45-acre mixed-use environment will include approximately 745,000 square feet of Class A office space, 113,000 square feet of restaurants and specialty retail, a 310-room business-class hotel, 770 luxury apartments, and upwards of 10 acres of beautifully designed green spaces to seamlessly connect the community.

 

 

---

Directions

---

ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT

McEwen Northside

McEwen Northside is an inviting urban experience in the vibrant Cool Springs area of Franklin, Tennessee. The unique 45-acre mixed-use environment will include approximately 750,000 square feet of Class A office space, 113,000 square feet of restaurants and specialty retail, a 150-room business-class hotel, 770 luxury apartments, and upwards of 10 acres of beautifully designed green spaces to seamlessly connect the community.

---

Press

• News Channel 5

The McEwen Northside community is celebrating a construction milestone with the topping out of the district’s latest addition, Block E, a 300,000-square-foot, $125 million project at the popular mixed-use district.

A community celebration was held on Thursday, July 18, 2024, marking the completion of the structural phase of the nine-story building. Those who live, work, and play at the 45-acre urban district in the heart of Cool Springs celebrated the building’s tremendous progress alongside Boyle Investment Company, Northwood Investors, Northwood Ravin and their construction partners. Community members were invited to sign the building’s final construction beam before enjoying an ice cream and toppings bar.

“This new building plays a crucial role in our vision to cement McEwen Northside’s position as the leading mixed-use district in Williamson County,” said Phil Fawcett, Boyle Managing Partner. “With Block E, the district will reach 80% completion, and we’re thrilled to introduce the community to the diverse office tenants and exciting dining and retail additions that will call this state-of-the-art structure home.”

Adjacent to McEwen Northside’s iconic Central Park, Block E features dynamic office spaces above sought-after retail storefronts and eateries on the ground floor. Popular upscale clothier Oak Hall, nationally recognized architects TMPartners and leading supply chain company Designed Conveyor Systems have previously been announced as tenants. A multi-level parking garage connected to the amenity-rich building via a covered walkway will provide more than 900 free parking spaces for visitors and employees.

Boyle Investment Company, Northwood Investors, and Northwood Ravin are partnering with Northwestern Mutual, TMPartners, Kimley-Horn and Hoar Construction to make the large-scale project a reality.

“We’re committed to providing the premier office experience in Williamson County,” said Thomas McDaniel, Director of Office Properties for Boyle. “Block E helps us accomplish just that, while adding amenities and services that enhance this one-of-kind destination in Cool Springs for all community members.”

Block E’s topping out comes at a time of continued growth for McEwen Northside. Blue Sushi Sake Grill and leading laser facial destination Skin Laundry opened locations in the district this spring. Fine jewelry store Finks, designer eyewear brand Warby Parker and group fitness gym Rumble Boxing joined the district at the end of 2023.

Block E is expected to be complete by Spring 2025. To be the first to know about the multi-use building’s grand opening date and exciting things happening at McEwen Northside, follow us on Instagram or visit mcewennorthside.com.

---

Directions

---

ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT

McEwen Northside

McEwen Northside is an inviting urban experience in the vibrant Cool Springs area of Franklin, Tennessee. The unique 45-acre mixed-use environment will include approximately 750,000 square feet of Class A office space, 113,000 square feet of restaurants and specialty retail, a 150-room business-class hotel, 770 luxury apartments, and upwards of 10 acres of beautifully designed green spaces to seamlessly connect the community.

---

Press

• FranklinIs

First National Bank of Middle Tennessee has announced that it will soon be opening its first full-service location in Williamson County. This expansion will add another vibrant community to the list of counties served by the Bank.

“We are looking forward to being part of the Williamson County market and serve the community the same way we have served our other markets and communities since 1874,” Pieter Van Vuuren, the Bank’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Our board of directors believes that we have the right people to be successful in this expansion.

“We know that we have to prove ourselves in any new market; however, our Bank has been serving communities for 149 years and we believe strongly that what our Bank has to offer will be very well accepted by the Williamson County community.”

The Bank started its expansion in 2011 into Murfreesboro and then opened offices in Shelbyville and Nashville thereafter.

“Our board of directors and employees are squarely focused on helping our customers and serving our markets,” Van Vuuren said. “We believe in investing in our communities and that these investments will pay off exponentially if we stay true to being community bankers.

“Our goal is always to have experienced and professional staff that are the difference makers when competing for business. Our Bank has the same service to offer as other banks and we must ensure that our service level is beyond comparison.”

First National Bank of Middle Tennessee was established in 1874 in McMinnville and has witnessed many turbulent economic conditions, including the Great Depression, two World Wars, and the Great Recession while steadily growing its asset to $856 million as of Sept. 30, 2023. The Bank is currently the third oldest bank in Tennessee and currently has offices in McMinnville, Murfreesboro, Nashville and Shelbyville.

The Bank’s first full-service location in Williamson County will be located at 1175 Meridian Blvd., Suite 114, in Franklin and has an estimated opening date of 3rd quarter 2024. Meanwhile, the Bank will continue to serve the county from its Nashville office. Additional information about First National Bank of Middle Tennessee and services offered can be found at www.fnbmt.com.

---

Directions

---

ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT

MERIDIAN COOL SPRINGS

Meridian Cool Springs is a vibrant, 60-acre mixed-use development located in the Cool Springs area of Franklin, TN. Meridian is a truly unique development in that it delivers the conveniences of an urban mixed-use atmosphere to a traditionally suburban area with 900,000 SF of office space and over 70,000 SF of retail & restaurant space, including three on-site hotels. The project’s pedestrian friendly design allows for a very productive workday, with the convenience of offices, retail, restaurants, and hotels all within walking distance via attractive tree-lined streets.

---

Press

• Williamson Herald

The Daily Memphian

By Sophia Surrett

Five years after receiving a tax increment financing incentive, the project to upgrade the Poplar Avenue corridor is being launched.

The first phase of the project is a facelift along Ridgeway Road and Shady Grove Road between Park Place Centre and Briarcrest.

The project is being directed by the not-for-profit Poplar Corridor Business District Association of Owners using tax increment financing the group was awarded in 2018 from the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis & Shelby County.

“The association is really excited about kicking off the first project and the TIF and the impact it is going to have on the neighborhood,” said Les Binkley, president of the association and a senior vice president at Boyle Investment Co.

The TIF, which takes future property taxes to finance and build infrastructure, will finance the project to enhance and continue to develop the Poplar Corridor Business District.

The five-year gap between the TIF’s approval and the project’s start was due to the association wanting the TIF to accrue money before starting construction.

“We are doing more of a pay-as-you-go model instead of an upfront financing event that then uses all the future TIF revenues,” Binkley said. “Waiting a period allowed us to see what was actually being produced so we could better plan.”

The TIF district encompasses the Poplar corridor from I-240 to Kirby Parkway. The association has several projects they want to see developed in the area over the course of the TIF:

• A mixed-use development consisting of office, retail and hotel on Briarcrest Avenue;
• An office development on International Place;
• An office development at 860 Ridge Lake Blvd;
• A senior living apartment development at 6300 Briarcrest Ave.;
• And a mixed-use development consisting of office, retail and hotel space at 5900 Poplar Ave.

EDGE vice president of operations Joann Massey said the TIF is one example of how EDGE supports “a solutions-oriented strategy” for economic development.

“EDGE’s use of this type of financing tool not only will result in infrastructure improvements within the 400-parcel TIF area but an increase in tax revenue that will ultimately flow back into our community’s general fund to help create a stronger Memphis,” Massey said.

Binkley said the association decided to do a streetscape for the first project because “the Shady Grove enhancement was an impetus for creating the whole TIF.”

“We had some concreted over medians, so we’re tearing those up and adding landscaping and aeration and doing some pedestrian crosswalks to really enhance that corridor around a lot of nice office buildings in our district,” Binkley said.

Once the streetscape enhancement project is completed in about 10 months, Binkley said the second phase will begin, depending on the cash available, interest rates and the city and county’s reappraisal of properties.

The association was formed in 2018 as an association of property owners of about 400 parcels in the Poplar Corridor Business District.

The Daily Memphian

By Rob Moore

In 1973, Mark Halperin was hired by Boyle Investment Co. right out of college.

During that decade, Halperin was part of the team that started Ridgeway Center, the 204-acre mixed-use development that today serves as East Memphis’ premier business park and is home to more than 150 companies.

In the 1980s, Halperin oversaw the development of the Shops of Humphreys Center on Wolf River Boulevard, and in the 1990s he turned his attention to the Schilling Farms Community in Collierville. In all, Halperin has played a large part in developing and leasing approximately 12 million square feet of commercial and office space.

“I don’t think our company would be as successful if we hadn’t had Mark with us over this long period of time,” said Henry Morgan, co-chair emeritus with Boyle. “I have been blessed to develop a close friendship with Mark over the years. He delivers consistently in his ability to do the right thing for programs in our company.”

Today, Halperin is Boyle’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, moving up the ranks over the years and all the while staying with Boyle.

In September, Halperin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Memphis chapter of Lambda Alpha International, a professional organization consisting of people in the various disciplines related to the use and re-use of land. Previous winners of the group’s lifetime achievement award include Henry Turley, Mike Rose and Halperin’s colleague and friend Russell Bloodworth.

“I couldn’t believe I was on the same list of winners with names like Jack Belz,” Halperin said of the real estate developer credited with revitalizing Downtown. “Kemmons Wilson, Bayard Boyle Sr., those were just two other names on the list.”

Wilson and Boyle, the founders of Holiday Inn and Boyle Investment Company, respectively, are themselves juggernauts in Memphis business history, and Halperin was overwhelmed to find himself among their ranks.

“I was speechless,” he said, “and that doesn’t happen often.”

“In hindsight, it’s been wonderful,” Halperin said, “spending my career at Boyle. They want us to think like owners, and they empower us to make a lot of decisions on our own. I could have gone somewhere else at times, but I was always happy I stayed here, working on these relationships I’ve had since I first got started.”

In addition to his long-standing career with Boyle, Halperin has remained one of the longest-serving trustees for Memphis University School, the school he attended after moving to Memphis from Chicago.

Halperin is also the past president of the Memphis Jewish Home & Rehab as well as the past president of Temple Israel Memphis.

Currently, Halperin sits on the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis and Shelby County.

---