Tom Bailey

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Pinnacle Bank wants to build a Midtown branch on part of the old Union Avenue shopping center site that once housed Sean's Cafe, Happy Day Laundry and Wiles-Smith Drugstore.

A zoning application has been filed with the Board of Adjustment seeking variances to some rules, including one that would prohibit a bank drive-thru adjacent to the backyards of five houses on Central Garden's Eastmoreland Avenue.

Pinnacle Bank proposes a one-story, 4,172-square-foot branch at the southwest corner of Union and Rozelle, 1615 Union.

That's where a fire in August 2016 destroyed Sean's Cafe and Happy Day Laundry. The old-fashioned Wiles-Smith Drugstore, regionally famous for its traditional soda fountain, closed nearly three years ago and its space remains vacant.

Historic preservationists and others had been questioning the future of the 97-year-old strip center, in part because the areas destroyed by fire were not rebuilt and many of the existing bays have remained vacant.

One set of property owners controls the eastern two-thirds of the center, 33,340 square feet, including the proposed bank site, and a different owner has the western one-third, or 9,892 square feet.

The Board of Adjustment will consider the application when it meets at 2 p.m. Sept. 27 at City Hall.

The bank building would be 102 feet wide and 51 feet deep. The site plan shows the redevelopment comprising about the eastern half of the entire strip center which fronts Union from Rozelle to Avalon.

The bank seeks several variances to the rules, including one to allow a drive-thru adjacent to the houses. The application contends that the shape and small size of the property and the location of utility easements justify the request to put the drive-thru near the houses.

The bank would erect a six-foot-tall privacy fence and plant 18 under-story trees to buffer the residential backyards from the drive-thru.

The application also states that the banking hours won't be as hard on nearby residences as some fast food restaurants on Union. The bank drive-thru will operate 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 8:30 to 5 pm. Fridays.

The bank also seeks a variance to build a five-foot-wide sidewalk along Union, and a 10-foot wide grassy strip behind that to separate the street from the bank. The existing streetscape templates don't include that combination, but the application states it will be aesthetically pleasing.

The branch would be Pinnacle's first in Midtown, and sixth in the Memphis area, according to locations marked on the bank website.

Pinnacle started operations in downtown Nashville in 2000 and had grown to about $20.9 billion in assets by June 30. It's the second-largest bank holding company headquartered in Tennessee, and has a presence in 11 primarily urban markets in Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia.