By Jane Aldinger
– Memphis Business Journal –

After 72 years of real estate deals, Boyle is a familiar name in Memphis, but the development company is spreading its credit into Nashville and has purchased 40 acres for a mixed-use development in Franklin, Tenn.

Boyle’s current site plan for Meridian Cool Springs calls for 570,000 square feet of office space, 70,000 square feet of retail space and 200 hotel rooms. The land sits between two Boyle-owned office buildings and a corporate headquarters, along I-65 in the Cool Springs area of Franklin, a Nashville suburb. Site work on the project begins July 1.

Meridian Cool Springs will create a walkable community, with connectivity between the existing 280,000 square feet of office space that Boyle owns and the new development, “creating an integrated business community unique to Cool Springs,” says Phil Fawcett, executive manager of Boyle Nashville.

Boyle Nashville is also working a huge mixed-use development in Franklin, similar to Collierville’s Schilling Farms.

Berry Farms is a joint venture between Boyle and the Berry family, who have owned the land for 200 years. Boyle has developed a master plan for the entire property.

The first tract, or Phase I, which involves 225 acres and will be named Berry Farms Town Center, will be developed into a mixed-use concept similar to Schilling. Phase I will contain more than 600 households in a split between townhomes, live-work units, apartments, condominiums and single family homes. Town Center will also have more than 500,000 square feet of office space and more than 500,000 square feet of retail.

Boyle has completed one development project in the Nashville market. The company delivered a 14,000-square-foot retail center, called Cool Springs Collection, last year.

Boyle Nashville opened in 2001. Instead of jumping straight into development projects, the company began acquiring office and retail assets.

The company now owns about 400,000 square feet of real estate in the Nashville market and manages another 1 million square feet.

Staying away from traditional third-party competition was important to Boyle as it moved into the Nashville market. The company is maintaining its Memphis model in Nashville, purchasing and developing property for generational wealth creation.

“What we’re not good at is trying to time the markets to get in while it’s hot and get out when it’s not,” says Jeff Haynes, Boyle Nashville chief manager.

Predicting growth patterns in Nashville is more difficult than Memphis because of the cities’ different shapes, Haynes says. Memphis is an elongated city that naturally develops eastward, but Nashville is more concentric.

Development and acquisition is focused on counties in Middle Tennessee where Boyle feels there will be strong economic growth long term.

The primary county in Boyle’s plan is Williamson. All of the company’s development plans and most of its acquisitions are located in Franklin and Brentwood, but Haynes says the company recently purchased a small piece of land in Rutherford County.

Boyle Nashville had been in the works for a number of years. Company president Henry Morgan thought it would be a good market to diversify its assets. Nashville’s easy access to Memphis and dynamic growth patterns made expanding there a natural progression for Boyle.

Haynes spent eight of his 15 years in real estate with Trammell Crow Co. in Memphis, so he knew Boyle and Boyle knew him. Haynes and Fawcett are both “work horses,” according to Morgan, and the office has expanded to employ eight full-time people.

In the Cool Springs/Brentwood submarket, there is 6.7 million square feet of existing office space with a 8.5% vacancy rate, according to CB Richard Ellis MarketView. In the East Memphis submarket, there is about 7.65 million square feet of office space with a 13.6% vacancy rate.

“The best market here is East Memphis, and it’s not as strong as Cool Springs is right now,” Morgan says.

By Eric Smith
– The Daily News –

Boyle Investment Co. outbid the competition for 150 acres of commercial real estate in DeSoto County at an auction in November. And after delays related to surveying the property, the deal finally closed Feb. 1, said project manager Bill Caller of Roebuck Auctions.

This is the first time Caller was able to speak publicly about the deal.

Caller said the final purchase price was about $3.9 million, while Cary Whitehead III, senior vice president for Boyle, declined to confirm or comment on the amount his company spent for the property.

The auctioned land includes three of four retail corners of the proposed interchange of Craft Road and the future Interstate 269 in unincorporated DeSoto County.

Boyle, a longtime Memphis development and real estate company, was one of three bidders for the DeSoto property, which is along the frontage area of what will become Interstate 269 – a future beltway set to circle the Memphis metropolitan area concentric to the Interstate 240 loop.

“Boyle was obviously the most aggressive bidder,” Caller said. “They thought the time was right to go ahead and take down those three retail parcels for future development.”

I-269 will bisect DeSoto County – the fastest-growing community in the Mid-South and one of the fastest in the nation – as well as the eastern and northern suburbs of Shelby County, linking with I-69/I-55 in North Mississippi and also I-69 in Millington.

This raw land is in the middle of what should become a booming transportation corridor thanks to zoning for commercial and retail development alongside residential areas. That mixture is exactly what Boyle executives had in mind when bidding at the auction.

“The things we like about it are I-269 going through it, three brand new schools that have been constructed next door, all utilities extended to it and it’s just in a growth corridor in DeSoto County,” Whitehead said.

Boyle doesn’t have specific plans for the property because development can’t begin there until construction on the interstate begins. It is expected to happen in 2009, according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Regardless of the extended timeframe, this was an investment Boyle wanted to make as it keeps an eye on the future.

“We feel very good about the location for the long term since it won’t be ready for a number of years,” Whitehead said. “It’s clearly a long-term location, and we have no plans to do anything with it but just wait until the time is appropriate.”

Boyle’s 150-acre purchase was part of a larger, 236-acre auction that Roebuck held. The entire property is wrapped into the Village of Hawk’s Crossing, a 500-acre planned-unit development (PUD) near Craft and Byhalia roads.

Much of this mixed-use PUD is zoned for residential use, which also will play a role in what Boyle ultimately decides to do with the land, Whitehead said. In other words, future development hinges on how many people are living in or traveling through the forthcoming corridor.

Whitehead said he expects plenty of migration toward that part of the county, but obviously the housing market and residential trends, as well as highway progress, will all factor into what kind of developments eventually go in.

The entire 236-acre property was sold by an undisclosed Alabama investor, Caller said, adding that a fourth commercial parcel totaling roughly 80 acres did not sell at the auction. About half of that is zoned for church or retirement, while the remaining acreage will become a right-of-way for the interstate.

Caller said his company is working with sellers to secure a buyer for that last piece of the property. If a bidder isn’t found in the next month or two, it will go back up for auction.

By Amos Maki
– The Commercial Appeal –

Memphis-based Boyle Investment Co. is extending its roots in Northwest Mississippi by buying 145 acres at the intersection of Craft Road and Byhalia Road (Miss. 304) in DeSoto County from Hawks Crossing Investments LLC for about $4 million.

The site is the location of a proposed interchange of Interstate 269 and Craft Road. The property, located in unincorporated DeSoto County, includes three corners of that proposed interchange.

“We think this property is ideally located for a retail development in the fast-growing area of DeSoto County,” said Cary Whitehead, senior vice president of Boyle. “We plan to hold the property for future development when the timing is right.”

Boyle originally bid on the property at auction in November, when Roebuck Auctions officials said Boyle offered $4.4 million for 150 acres. But the deal was not finalized until Feb. 1.

The property is part of the larger Villages at Hawks Crossing mixed-use development where the new DeSoto County Elementary, Middle and High schools were built.

Boyle officials said the property was purchased because of its strategic location along the the future I-269, future residential growth and the location of the three new schools. The land can’t be developed until construction begins on I-269 in an estimated five to seven years.

As designed, I-269 will run east from the I-55/I-69 junction in north Hernando through central DeSoto. It will cross into Marshall County before swinging north, east of Collierville, to link with Tenn. 385. The highway is expected to have a major impact on development in booming DeSoto.

“As 269 fills in, that should be a strong location,” said Scott Barton of CB Richard Ellis Memphis. “As the road comes in and the rooftops are built, retail will certainly follow.”Whitehead said Boyle’s first project in DeSoto County, Southcrest Market at Goodman Road and I-55 in Southaven, has been successful and that the newly acquired property will provide the family-owned company “with yet another opportunity for the development of a strategically located retail center in DeSoto County.”

Boyle, one of the city’s oldest real estate development firms, entered the DeSoto County market in 2006 when it commenced development of Southcrest Market, an 80,000-square-foot regional retail center anchored by Best Buy in Southaven.

DeSoto County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. With the addition of so many new residents over the years, retail quickly followed.

“Goodman Road is as busy as almost any road in Shelby County,” Barton said.

Retail absorption in DeSoto County, including Southaven, Horn Lake and Olive Branch, was a mixed bag in the fourth quarter. Olive Branch saw 10,837 square feet of absorption while Southaven and Horn Lake saw -14,305 square feet of absorption, according to CBRE.

Meanwhile, retail real estate development in the Memphis area will be a big story in 2008.

Several large projects are in the works or under construction, including the Ridgeway Trace project at Poplar and I-240 and the WSG Development Group project at Poplar and Cleveland in Midtown.

A group of investors is under contract to buy Belz’s Perimeter Place shopping center and the Malco Drive-In at Summer and I-240, and Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers is planning two major projects: one near the University of Memphis and one near Saddle Creek.

These projects, along with a handful of others, could add well over 1 million square feet of retail space to the market, according to CBRE.

By Andrew Ashby
– Memphis Business Journal –

Boyle Investment Co. is making it’s first foray into DeSoto County with the 80,000-square-foot Southcrest Market at the north-east corner of Goodman Road and Interstate 55.

“With all of the retail development going on at that intersection, we thought it was a good location,” says senior vice president Cary Whitehead. “It’s one of the last vacant parcels left. It’s a regional retail destination.”

The retail center will have a 30,000-square-foot Best Buy on the site. Longhorn Steakhouse has signed on take a 7,000-square-foot outparcel. There is another open outparcel adjacent to it.

The center also has 16,000 square feet of retail space and a 20,000-square-foot inline pad available next to Best Buy.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall and could have occupants by next summer.

Nashville-based MJM Architects will design Southcrest, while Memphis-based Mid-America Construction Co. will be the builder.

Boyle purchased the project’s 15 acres in 2005.

“We’re always excited about any new development going on down here,” says Ginger Adams, executive director of the Southaven Chamber of Commerce. “In that Goodman Road and Interstate 55 corridor, that’s the original shopping area in Southaven.”

Southcrest Market will be near a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, PetCo and Lowe’s.

It will also be just north of Southaven Towne Center, a 400,000-square-foot open-air shopping center which opened a year ago.

Southaven Towne Center’s tenants include Dillard’s, JC Penney, Circuit City and more than 40 other smaller retailers. It also has a Red Lobster, an Olive Garden and other restaurants.

“I think it will complement the retail area very, very much,” Adams says. “As more and more of these different stores all open, it really gives our residents in DeSoto County another reason to live, shop and visit.”

Boyle has planned or developed several retail projects over the years, including The Village Shops of Forest Hill, which consists of 360,000 square feet of retail space on 40 acres with tenants like Target, Schnucks Supermarket, Marshall’s and Old Navy.

Boyle also developed the Regalia at Ridgeway Center, a 92,000-square-foot specialty center anchored by Oak Hall men’s store, Owen Brennan’s and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. It is a 22-acre, mixed-use development which includes an Embassy Suites Hotel and Regions Bank headquarters.

Southcrest will be the company’s latest retail project.

“It’s a continuation of our retail development efforts,” Whitehead says. “We’re very high on DeSoto County and are looking at other sites in DeSoto County.”

By Kevin McKenzie
– The Commercial Appeal –

To the residents of Natchez Street in Collierville: Doug Dickens heard you, and he doesn’t want to connect a scaled-down, new planned development to your street.

That’s one of two central messages that Dickens, vice president of Boyle Investment Co., is sending with an application to the town for the proposed Washington Gates Planned Development.

During the summer, residents’ opposition to a connection to the historic Collierville street helped sink Dickens’ proposed Natchez Planned Development.

That plan for an in-fill subdivision included 27 lots between Poplar on the north and Washington on the south.

Dickens said he gleaned two major lessons after the town Board of Mayor and Aldermen in August turned down a rezoning request that the Natchez development needed.

“No. 1, we have no proposed ingress and egress on Natchez Street,” he said.

“The other issue was density along Washington Street. We have modified that as well, and gone from eight units on Washington to five.”Washington Gates drops about two acres that Natchez had included along Poplar, Dickens said. It is scaled back to less than 51/2 acres on the north side of Washington and east of Mt. Pleasant.

In a move sure to please tree-friendly Mayor Linda Kerley, Dickens said his new proposal preserves tree lines along Washington, the proposed development’s perimeter and a stream or creek on the property to create a feeling of age.

On his previous try, the project tried to create that old-time feeling by massing eight houses along Washington sporting the architecture of a Southern railroad town of the 1850s to 1900s, like old Collierville.

The Washington Gates development proposes lots for 16 single-family residential homes, ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet for five houses along Washington and larger, about 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, in the interior, Dickens said.

He estimated that the cost of the houses, required to maintain historic architecture, could range from about $375,000 to $750,000.

He’ll be asking the town’s Planning Commission to rezone the property, owned by the Walter Owens family, to high-density from low-density residential. He’ll also be asking for approval of a planned development, all tentatively in January.

The proposal includes a private road with access from Washington. And its warm and fuzzy features would include a tiered fountain and an outdoor conversation fire pit.

Dickens said he’s been crafting in-fill developments in neighborhoods from Downtown Memphis to Collierville for 30 years.

He contends Washington Gates is the kind of residential development that will help supply Collierville’s historic Town Square area with people who can walk there. “It needs residential rooftops that can support it,” Dickens said.

Hampton Parr, one resident of Natchez Street, liked what he’d heard.

“I don’t know all of the details, but I think it would be great for downtown Collierville,” Parr said.

By Einat Paz-Frankel
– Memphis Business Journal –

Boyle Investment Co. is launching an $18 million gated community called Avilla in Eads, the latest in a series of subdivisions the company has developed in the area.

The entrance to the 45-acre community is located on Reid Hooker Road in unincorporated Shelby County, an area also known as Collierville Reserve, or Gray’s Creek.

It will comprise 15 lots ranging in size from 2-3.5 acres, says Gary Thompson, vice president at Boyle Investment Co. The houses, which will range in size from 3,500-5,500 square feet, are expected to cost $750,000-$1.3 million each including the lot, he says.

With nearby houses sitting on at least three or four acres, Thompson says lots at Avilla offer an alternative.

“They’re still estate-size lots, but smaller and more affordable,” he says.

Boyle is heavily vested in the Collierville Reserve district: its Spring Creek Ranch subdivision stretches across 1,000 acres and will ultimately include 450 homes. Spring Creek’s older sisters, Wickliffe and Notting Hill subdivisions, are located in the same area.

Thompson hopes to sell the Avilla lots to individual buyers, who will build custom homes. Yet, Boyle plans to enforce architectural control.

“We want to protect their investment,” he says. “They wouldn’t want a pink house next door.”

However, Avilla may encompass an eclectic range of architectural styles, including Greek Revival, Colonial, and French and Italian styles, he says.

Boyle bought the land in early 2006, and when the housing crisis broke last year, the developer decided not to start construction, Thompson says. Groundbreaking is slated for summer 2008 with completion of houses by early 2010.

Even though the upper-crust residential real estate market has traditionally been less amenable to fluctuations in the general housing market, Boyle took a wait-and-see approach before it launched Avilla.

The high-end market has been somewhat affected by “America’s herd mentality,” but there are “signs of life,” Thompson says, as lookers explore the market.

“Now is a much better time to buy,” he says. “Mortgage rates are historically low if you have good credit.”

Touring Avilla from Glen Birnham Lake in its far west to the wooded hills in its north, one can spot deer and other wildlife. Thompson speaks with enthusiasm when he shows off Avilla’s atypical topography: its rolling hills are a rare sight in the Mississippi River Delta, he says.

“We only work on projects we’re passionate about,” he says.

Engineer Michael Rogers, project manager with Fisher & Arnold, Inc., says the site’s uniqueness lies in its rolling terrain and wooded areas, which create a “pastoral setting.”

The community, which boasts more than five acres of common areas, presented a few engineering challenges.

“The challenge was to develop a workable layout which maximized preservation of the natural resources,” Rogers says.

Almost all of the trees were preserved at the site.

“With the exception of the construction of the streets, there is no impact to the existing site,” he says. “Even the streets have been graded to conform closely to the natural grade of the land.”

By Laure Johnson
– The Daily News –

Construction is set to begin this week on the first office building planned for Collierville’s Schilling Farms development.

Collierville Business Center, designed as a one-story, flexible-use facility, will contain 62,000 square feet of office and light industrial space, said Cary Whitehead, senior vice president of Boyle Investment Co., the project’s developer.

For construction of the project, Schilling Business Center LLC financed $4.9 million through First American National Bank, securing the loan with 6.5 acres of Schilling Boulevard East, according to a trust deed filed May 26 in the Shelby County Register’s Office.

The building is scheduled for completion in early 2000, Whitehead said, and will be expandable to 84,000 square feet.

Increased demand in the area for this type of project prompted its construction, Whitehead said.

“We think that, with the FedEx technology campus and the substantial growth that Collierville has experienced in the last 10 years, there is demand for high-finish office space,” he said. “We think it ought to be a big success.”

Located at 1125 Schilling Boulevard, the Business Center is the first office project planned for the Schilling Farms development, and it will serve as a transitional building between the development’s office and light industrial sections, said Gary Thompson, director of planning for Boyle.

Most of the business center’s office space will be concentrated in the front of the building, which will have a high-finish, brick and glass exterior.

Its warehouse-type space, which will have truck access and docking, will be toward the back.

“As you go around the boulevard, the topography rises up to a kind of ridgeline on the east side,” Thompson said. “What we’re trying to do is keep that appearance very ‘officey’ from the street.”

Over the crest of the hill is the Carrier facility, which marks the beginning of the development’s industrial sector.

“So, we’re trying to kind of use that building as an endcap to set the stage so that, toward the heart of the project, it’s very high-finish, and as you get around towards the back it’s more industrial, with truck access.”

The flex-style building can accommodate several different types of users, Thompson said.

“It will really depend on the user,” Thompson said. “If you have some type of user who has some kind of expensive equipment they keep in their service vehicles, they can have a garage and park that vehicle inside at night.

“Or, they could have warehouse type space with a truck dock.”

The center’s office space will be ideal for general office users, such as medical, technical or sales enterprises, Whitehead said.

No leases have yet been signed for space in the he building, he said.

Tenants must lease a minimum of 3,600 square feet. No lease rates have been set for the building, which was designed by The Crump Firm.

The general contractor for the project is Mid-America Construction Co., Inc.

The Collierville Business Center is the first of several office buildings planned for Schilling Farms, Whitehead said.

“There will be other office buildings in the development, but right now we don’t know when they will be built or how big they will be,” he said.

Schilling Farms, located on 443 acres of former farmland, is being transformed into a $350 million mixed-use development.

The development, located on the south side of West Poplar Avenue on the western edge of Collierville, eventually will include 1.5 million square feet of office space, as well as a significant amount of retail space, 90 acres of distribution space, 700 homes and 700 apartment units.

Work on the development will be completed in phases, and it is estimated the project will take 20 years to finish.

Office space will be located in the northwest quadrant of the development, with the distribution and light industrial in the northeast quadrant. Most of the residential areas will be south of Winchester Road.

A number of projects are under construction or in the planning stages, Thompson said.

“There is a ton of activity out there right now,” he said.

Projects underway in Schilling Farms include:

• Schilling Farms Middle School, which will accommodate up to 1,000 students in grades six, seven and eight, will be completed this summer. • Homes in The Neighborhood, located between the new middle school and Winchester Road, are now under construction. The subdivision has been chosen as the site for this year’s Vesta Home Show. • South of Winchester, construction of Sterling Square, Patton, Taylor & Ryan’s 75-lot residential subdivision of single-family detached homes and townhouses is expected to start later this month. • The Collierville YMCA, located just north of Winchester near the business center site, opened Saturday. • The Kid Tech Child Care Center, located southeast of the new YMCA, is now under construction. • Patton, Taylor & Ryan has started construction on a 324-unit apartment complex located just south of the YMCA.

Methodist Hospital recently purchased a 7.5 acre site for a new primary care facility, Thompson said. Two banks, the BankTennessee and National Bank of Commerce, also have plans to build in the development.

By K. Denise Jennings
– Memphis Business Journal –

Rolling land with mature trees and streams are not features you often see in urban infill developments, but a new development in the heart of Germantown is hoping to turn the tide.

The Pinnacle of Germantown, a new residential project for Boyle Investment Co., is striving to be a signature infill development which respects the natural elements of this one time family farm.

At the intersection of Dogwood and Poplar, the 18.5-acre Taylor property had a main home, a barn, two to three other outhouses and horse pastures. Mature trees and streams that ran along with interspersed clearings where the original structures and pastures had been were a perfect fit for what Boyle had in mind, says Doug Dickens, vice president of special residential projects.

A stone knee was along the property line and neighborhood entrance. A narrow road on the existing grade winds through the natural topography. Stone bridges built over existing streams and expanded ponds hold rainwater, and the drainage plan uses the natural property grade without disturbing the terrain or mature trees. These aesthetic elements took months of meticulous planning on the part of Boyle, the developer; landscape designers Dalhoff Thomas Daws; Davis Engineering, the engineering design firm; and the city of Germantown.

All of that doesn’t come cheap. “I would say we spent two to three times more doing it the way we did it,” Dickens says.

When complete, The Pinnacle will have 16 houses, each on 1 1/2-acre lots which are selling in the $400,000 range. Lot owners have an approved list of architects and builders to choose from, and homes are required to be at least 4,000 heated square feet, but not over 6,500 square feet. Dickens expects the homes to be worth an average of $1.6 million-$2 million.

“Timeless, traditional architecture that will stand the test of time,” is how Dickens describes the expected style of the homes. “These are houses that people will want to spend the rest of their lives in,” he says.

Even though Boyle was willing to spend the money to ensure its vision, engineering that vision was challenging and time-consuming. The most challenging aspect was attempting to build an environmentally sensitive project and save trees while working around current town regulations and building guidelines, says Blair Parker, landscape architect with Dalhoff Thomas Daws.

In the effort to save mature trees and preserve the original topography, issues like drainage, fire department regulations and curb and gutter requirements had to be hammered out between the developer and Germantown.

“(This project) doesn’t fit the mold for design guidelines that are out there and it took some flexibility on (Germantown’s) part,” says Mark Davis of Davis Engineering.

Boring deep to create an underground sewer system and avoid trenching helped save trees and avoid grading. Details such as required road width had to be agreed upon. The developers wanted a narrow, rural type road running through the property, but settled on a 24-foot width, down from the normally required 30-foot road.

Germantown is catching on that regulations for infill development need more flexibility, says Josh Whitehead, Germantown’s planning director.

“If we want to continue to grow our tax base and population, we need to be a little more innovative,” he says.

Whitehead believes The Pinnacle could become the next Shady Grove or Cherry Circle and thus says the project is “aptly named.”

As for the high-end Pinnacle prices, Dickens and Whitehead both say business is brisk.

“Less than half of American neighborhoods are built to last and I think it’s all in the design,” Whitehead says. “If you spend that extra time in design, you’re already ahead of the game.”

By Andy Meek
– The Daily News –

Boyle Investment Co. is moving ahead with plans to develop an upscale residential community north of Collierville near the 320-acre Spring Creek Ranch Golf Course, in a wooded and natural setting that will ultimately include 500 homes, Boyle officials said.

Boyle vice president Gary Thompson said the company hopes to receive approval for the first phase of the development from the town of Collierville and from Shelby County by the end of this month.

Unique attraction. The company entered into an agreement with the owners of Spring Creek Ranch in 2002 to develop the project on more than 500 acres surrounding the golf course, all owned by the family of renowned surgeon Dr. David Meyer. And when it’s finished, Thompson said the upscale development will be a unique attraction in the Metro Memphis area.

“It will truly be a very special place,” he said. “It’s the only area in eastern Shelby County and Collierville that will have proximity to the only premier series Jack Nicklaus golf course in our region.”

Robb Meyer, general manager for the Spring Creek Golf Club, agreed.

“I don’t think Memphis has had anything like this before, as far as a full golf course community mixed with so many different things we’re going to try to be doing,” he said. Meyer also said that club officials will be planning to bring a charity golf tournament to the area in the next two years.

Thompson said the development project had been slowed, however, partly because the company had to work to get sewer aspects of the project approved. Russell Bloodworth, Jr. executive vice president at Boyle said the company has been in the planning stages for a while and that he believes the sewer issues that had been delaying the project are close to being resolved.

He characterized the project as extremely large.

“It’s in the 500-acre range exclusive of the golf course, which is quite large itself,” Bloodworth said.

Thompson did not have a completion date for the project, which he estimated would require a 10 year buildout. “It really just depends on the market,” he said.

Two trust deeds for the 320 acres of the golf course were each filed in July for $6.8 million, according to the Daily News Public Records Database, www.memphisdailynews.com. Jim Gardner, who handles accounting for Spring Creek Ranch, said the filings were due to Dr. Meyer moving ownership of the property from one of his companies to another in anticipation of the future real estate sales there.

Gardner added that Boyle is currently designing part of the residential development and that the company has a few lots already for sale.

Farm land to golf course. The Spring Creek Ranch Golf Course, which opened in 1999 on property that was once farm land owned by Dr. Meyer, is situated about five miles north of Collierville, at 380 South Collierville-Arlington Road, and was designed by golf veteran Jack Nicklaus. Recently, Nicklaus attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the course’s golf house, scheduled to open in 2005, which is being designed by nationally known architect James Cutler.

Thompson said that Boyle was likely approached to develop the project because the Meyer family wanted the company to put as much care into the development as the family had in developing the golf course, maintaining the aesthetic, natural qualities of the area. He said that it has taken a lot of time for the company to get this far.

Capitalizing on the area. Thompson added that the completed development will be poised to capitalize on a number of important factors in Collierville.

“In terms of what makes it valuable, if you think long-term, this will be inside the 385 loop,” he said. “Private schools are moving out to this area, and in terms of property values, Raleigh-LaGrange is becoming a very high area out there. People are spending a lot of money to be out along that corridor.”

Bloodworth said that Boyle is in the process of putting a portion of the property that fronts the golf course on the market, and he added that the entire timetable of the project will be determined by sales and the economic “pace of absorption.”

“We’ve really been dealing inside of the (golf course) membership at this point, “Bloodworth said, “I do think we will be going out and broadening that at the point when we’re confident we’ve given everybody an opportunity that’s a club member.”

Coming soon. Thompson mentioned two projects that would be available soon with the development. The Retreat at Spring Creek Ranch will include about 10 relatively small lots situated near the entrance of the property he said.

“The main drive that will come in (to The Retreat) will also be the main drive that gets you into the golf course and golf house,” he said.

The Estates at Spring Creek Ranch, which will initially have five lots, will be south of the current location of the temporary golf house.

“Those will be large lots and have access to Collierville-Arlington Road,” he said. “Really these first areas of about 10 to 20 lots are just kind of the first small area. We have plans for the east side of the golf course.”

By the end of the month, Thompson said Boyle hopes to have received approval for the Retreat at Spring Creek Ranch and the overall sewer layout for the project.

By Courtney Watson
– The Tennessean –

With the approval of two hotels and another three-story office building, mixed-use project Meridian Cool Springs is coming into focus.

The 40-acre development, near Primus’ headquarters off Carothers Parkway, will mix retail spaces, upscale dining options and hotels with office space to create a multipurpose business hub in Cool Springs.

“What we really have focused on is a place where the business community and the nearby residential communities’ needs can be met in one place,” said Phil Fawcett, executive manager of developer Boyle Investment’s Brentwood office.

Work is already in progress on the seven-story office building that will house the headquarters of Community Health Systems, with completion scheduled for December.

The newest additions to the plan – The Courtyard by Marriott at Meridian and Residence Inn at Meridian – were approved by the Franklin Planning Commission last month and will provide 250 hotel rooms to the project. The hotels will begin construction late this summer, along with a 66,210-square-foot, three-story office building.

While the Community Health Services building moves toward completion, phase two of the project is set to begin next, bringing a 15,283-square-foot specialty retail building, another office building and a 19,200-square-foot mixed-use building with retail on the first floor and office space on the second floor.

“We’re trying to have something that appeals to every kind of company in Cool Springs,” Fawcett said. “The combination retail/office building is designed more for smaller tenants, and there are also buildings intended for other corporate headquarters.”

What all the offices will have in common is access to the interconnected, walkable network that will unite the project.

Fawcett said Boyle plans to announce a set of high-end restaurants later in the summer that will act as anchors within the development.

“The whole retail concept is centered around that restaurant experience,” he said. “You can go for coffee or breakfast, or have a casual lunch, all the way to a white-tablecloth, fine-dining experience in the evening.”

With three more phases left to be approved (a specialty retail segment and two more office building), Fawcett said response to Meridian has been positive.

“We’ve seen a real market acceptance of our mixed-use concept,” he said. “We’re real happy with the schedule, and happy with the demand that’s in the market.”