July 22, 2015

Boyle to Build Office Center with Morgan Keegan


By Jerome Obermark
– The Commercial Appeal –

Boyle Investment Co. said it plans to build a six-story office building in Ridgeway Center near Poplar and Interstate 240 in East Memphis.

The $15 million-plus project is a joint venture with Morgan Keegan & Co., which will be the building’s anchor tenant.

Construction is expected to start in June. Completion is targeted for January 2001, said Mark Halperin, senior vice president for Boyle.

Morgan Keegan will relocate and consolidate departments and divisions now located in East Memphis and Chattanooga into the new building.

Morgan Keegan’s headquarter offices and most of its operations will remain at the 23-story Morgan Keegan Tower in downtown Memphis, where the company has about 650 employees.

It occupies about 150,000 square feet, including 10 full floors and parts of two other floors in the downtown building which it sold in September 1997 to Parkway Properties after agreeing to keep its headquarters there for at least 10 years.

Initially, Morgan Keegan will occupy two floors, or 50,000 square feet, of the 150,000-square-foot building, said Jim Dieck, director of facilities for Morgan Keegan.

“The new building will give us room to expand,” Dieck said. Morgan Keegan’s East Memphis retail branch, athletic resource management operation, and fixed-income trading operations now in the Crescent Center building at Poplar and Ridgeway will relocate into the new building.

It also will house Morgan Trust Co., which now is based in Chattanooga, Dieck said.

About 85 Morgan Keegan employees are expected to move there when the building is completed in January 2001.

Construction is expected to start in June, assuming approval of a payment-in-lieu-of taxes request from the Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Development Board, Halperin said.

Allen Morgan Jr., chairman of Morgan Keegan, said:

“We are pleased to be partners with Boyle Investment Co. on this project. Morgan Keegan has had an office in East Memphis for nearly 23 years, but the phenomenal growth of both our firm and the city has enabled us to expand our facilities in this area.

The new building will go on part of an 8-acre site located immediately south of the six-story Sedgwick building at Ridgeway.

Like the Sedgwick building, the exterior of the new building will be a combination of precast concrete and glass.

There will be one level of parking in the basement level and six office levels above ground, Halperin said.

The basement parking will accommodate about 80 cars, he said.

Hnedak Bobo Group is the building architect. The firm also designed the Sedgwick building.

Mid-America Construction Co. will handle construction. Boyle Investment Co. will handle leasing and management.

Morgan Keegan will be joining more than 10 companies already located in about 1.1 million square feet in office buildings at Ridgeway Center.

Among the larger tenants are ServiceMaster Consumer Services Co., Sedgwick James Inc., Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Office occupancy exceeds 95 percent in the mixed-use business center, which also has hotels, restaurants and a movie theater, Halperin said.