Once-blighted Tennessee Brewery reaches full occupancy in record time

Wayne Risher | Memphis Commercial Appeal

Show Caption Hide Caption The Tennessee Brewery lives again Renovation of 1890 brewery building is centerpiece of $42 million, mixed-use development in South Bluffs neighborhood of Downtown Memphis.

The Tennessee Brewery has hit full occupancy in less than five months.

Property manager Fogelman Properties said this week it has leased the initial 148 units in the historic brewery and an attached new apartment building.

Residents began moving into the Romanesque Revival brewery in December, capping a three-year push to rescue the 1890 structure from the throes of demolition.

It’s part of a more than $40 million investment by 495 TN Partners and lead developer Billy Orgel, who will ultimately build 275 apartments plus commercial and office space on Tennessee Street in the South Bluffs warehouse district.

Mark Fogelman, president of Fogelman Properties, called the Brewery “a proven success story of adaptive reuse in Memphis” and one of his company’s fastest projects from opening to full occupancy.

“Billy and his team took an old, dilapidated building and radically transformed it into an incredibly vibrant development with marketable rents and exceptional features,” Fogelman said in a news release.

Rents range from $760 for a studio apartment to $3,215 for a two-bedroom.

More: Tennessee Brewery's final phase — Tap Room apartments — slated for summer ground-breaking

“We’re thrilled to see the response to the Tennessee Brewery and remain quite impressed with our team’s ability to quickly activate the space and execute on the strategic marketing plan," Orgel said.

“We look forward to continued excitement and demand around the project as we improve the retail mix of the neighborhood and transform a key area in downtown Memphis.”

Orgel’s Tower Ventures, a communication tower development company, will move into offices in the historic building this summer.

The initial leasing closes out as the investment group gears up to begin construction on a second phase in early July. It’s forecasting a summer 2019 delivery of 121 apartments at 496 Tennessee, a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Butler and Tennessee.

Reach Wayne Risher at wayne.risher@commercialappeal.com or (901) 529-2874.