Pinnacle Financial Partners New Building’s First Tenant

The Commercial Appeal

By Tom Bailey

Pinnacle Financial Partners will be the first tenant in the $40 million offfice building Boyle Investment Co. will soon start building at 949 Shady Grove in East Memphis, Boyle announced Wednesday.

The Nasvhille-based bank Pinnacle also has signage rights and is the construction lender for the six-story building of 155,000 square feet.

The structure at the southwest corner of Shady Grove and Briarcrest will serve as the bank’s Memphis headquarters starting in the fall of 2017.

Construction will begin immediately, according to a Boyle release.

Pinnacle will lease 35,000 square feet of the 155,000-square-foot building. The remaining 120,000 square feet remain available to lease.

Historically in Memphis, Boyle only builds such office buildings after locking down an anchor tenant to occupy at least half the building.

But Boyle is making an exception because of the high demand for — and shortage of — amenity-filled Class A office space in the East Memphis submarket, said Kathy

“Because the market is so tight in the East Memphis business district, and we’ve had a lot of interest for space,”  Kathy Pampuro, a Boyle senior vice president, told The Commercial Appeal.

“We’ve shown space to different folks we’ve talked to who are in the market. We thought the timing is good so we are moving forward with it,” she said.

Pinnacle also plans two remote drive-through banking lanes and a drive-up automated teller machine.

Inside, Pinnacle will have a full-service banking office, conference rooms and a “Learning Center” for meetings, workshops and use by community groups.

“As we continue to hire the best bankers and grow our operations in Memphis, we need more space to serve clients and the community,” Kirk P. Bailey, Pinnacle’s Memphis chairman, said in a prepared statement.  “We are excited to put our mark on a first-class building in a highly desirable location.”

Last September, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc. of Nashville expanded in Memphis, acquiring Magna Bank for $83 million. Magna was the fourth-largest bank based in the city with loans and assets totaling $587.8 million, including $382 million in real estate loans, making it the No. 3 Memphis bank for real estate loans.  The purchase made Pinnacle the state’s second-largest homegrown bank after Memphis-based First Tennessee Bank.

According to Boyle Investment,  its 949 Shady Grove building will be the first new multi-tenant “Class A” office building to be developed in Memphis since 2008.

It will be on an undeveloped seven acres across from the FedEx corporate headquarters building and near Boyle’s upscale Regalia shopping center.

“We’re thrilled to move forward with this new building and to welcome Pinnacle as the first tenant,” Mark Halperin, Boyle’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a release.

Boyle Investment,  founded in 1933, develops, manages and leases real estate. It specializes in office, retail, industrial and high-end residential properties.

The new office building at the southwest corner of Shady Grove and Briarcrest will take up the last lot that can be developed in Boyle’s Ridgeway Center at Poplar and I-240.

“We will look at shifting gears to redevelop existing buildings in the future,” Pampuro said.

Boyle began developing the 206-acre Ridgeway Center in the early 1970s. The developer acquired the land from Ridgeway Country Club, which moved farther east.

Including the new building, Boyle will own, lease and manage 15 office buildings totaling more than 1.5 million square feet in the Ridgeway Center.

Hnedak Bobo Group is the architect for 949 Shady Grove; Linkous Construction is the general contractor.

The new building will offer flexible space for tenants, Danny Valle, principal with Hnedak Bobo Group, said in a statement.

“This level of flexibility is rarely seen in a Memphis office building,” he said. “The column-free space, large floor plates of more than 25,500 square feet, and ample core-to-exterior glass dimension all work together to create unparalleled space planning options.”

The exterior will have precast concrete and high-performance glass, and the public spaces will be upscale with “first class” finishes, according to Boyle.

One floor of underground parking will provide 80 spaces.

The new building will also feature a courtyard to accommodate corporate events and be a daily amenity for tenants.