June 20, 1999

Hotel in Works for Schilling Farms


By Jerome Obermark
– The Commercial Appeal –

A Memphis-based hotel developer plans to build a $6.5 million, 93-suite SpringHill Suites by Marriott Hotel later this year in Schilling Farms in Collierville.

Schilling Farms is a 443-acre, mixed-use community of office, residential, retail and institutional uses taking shape on the south side of Poplar near the west end of Collierville.

Tom Ricketts, president of MASTER Hospitality Services Inc., said the new hotel features larger suites with a defined sitting area, small kitchen and separate sleeping room.

It is a prototype hotel design being franchised by the Marriott hotel chain, which is targeting value-conscious travelers who want more than a normal hotel sleeping room, Ricketts said.

"We plan to break ground on the new Marriott SpringHill Suites in late 1999," he said.

Opening is targeted for late next year.

Bounds & Gillespie Architects is the design firm for the new hotel.

Ricketts also plans to develop a two-story office building on the same 3.9 -acre site next to the new hotel and likely will relocate his company’s office there.

However, most of the 16,000-square-foot, two-story office building will be available for office tenants; Ricketts said.

The site for the hotel and office building is on the southeast corner of Schilling Farms Boulevard and Schilling Farms East.

MASTER Hospitality Services, founded seven years ago, has developed Courtyard Hotels by Marriott in Memphis, Germantown, Tupelo and Jackson, Miss.

The company is building a Residence Inn with 78 suites and a Fairfield Inn with 80 rooms, both at the Village Commons development of Boyle Investment Company in Germantown at Johnson Road and Poplar Pike.

The new SpringHill Suites site is near the newly opened Collierville YMCA in Schilling Farms.

It is also near the site where Patton & Taylor Construction Company is building a 324-acre garden apartment community called The Madison at Schilling Farms.

Boyle Investment Company broke ground late last week on a 62,000-square-foot, one-story, Class A office building on a 6.5-acre site at 1125 Schilling Farms East.

The Crump Firm is architect for the flex office building, which should be ready for tenants in the first quarter of next year, said Cary Whitehead, senior vice president for Boyle.

The flex office building with 14-foot-high ceilings will accommodate a broad range of office users, some of whom may want to use part of their space for storing parts and equipment, Whitehead said.

Schilling Farms Middle School, designed for 1,000 students, is under construction and scheduled to open this fall.

Also taking shape near the school are six new single-family houses priced from about $275,000 to $400,000.

Trammell Crow Company is expected to begin construction soon on a 368-unit apartment community called Legacy Farm Apartments at Schilling Farms.

Boyle Investment Company, lead developer of Schilling Farms, is partner in the master planned community with Harry Smith, president of Schilling Inc.