Kemmons Wilson

Kemmons Wilson Companies continues to experiment
GoMemphis.com
July 7, 2002
By Jerome Obermark

True to its entrepreneurial roots, Kemmons Wilson Companies is tinkering with real estate concepts it hasn't tried previously.

One experiment is The Oaks at Schilling Farms in Collierville — a residential condominium development of 88 moderately priced units expected to appeal mostly to empty nesters.

Another venture is called Memorial Cove Lofts, a nine-story "soft lofts" development in an upscale urban Houston neighborhood. It, too, is a condo form of ownership, but an entirely different product targeted for high-end buyers looking for eclectic interior decor.

Company executives have high hopes for both undertakings.

"We are looking at smaller-scale projects that are profitable market niches that can be replicated in other markets," said Charles Martin, senior vice president of Kemmons Wilson Companies.

"Our primary geographic focus is Memphis. We would like to do more here. We also are looking for opportunities in the Mid-South area and the region," Martin said.

The Memphis-based Kemmons Wilson Companies also is developing an upscale office campus called Tournament Trails on Winchester east of FedEx's world headquarters complex at Southwind.

Tournament Trails will have four mid-rise buildings with a total of 400,000 square feet in the developing high-tech corridor in southeast Shelby County.

Weston Companies is developing and marketing the office park for Kemmons Wilson Companies.

Kemmons Wilson Companies will relocate its headquarters into the entire third floor of the first office building in Tournament Trails before the end of this year, said Ron Hickman, senior vice president.

"We used to develop office parks in the late 1960s and 1970s," said Spence Wilson, president of Kemmons Wilson Companies. "We built office parks in Louisville, Cincinnati and Kansas City. But we haven't done one in 20 years."

Wilson is the oldest of three sons of the company founder. The others are Bob Wilson and Kemmons Wilson Jr. All three are involved in the company's enterprises.

Kemmons Wilson Companies is like an "umbrella that covers various enterprises," Spence Wilson said.

The enterprises include hotel management and development, home building and subdivision development, fixed-base airport operations, private investment activities and timeshare resort development and sales.

The company's Orange Lake Resort & Country Club timeshare development in the Orlando area has about 70,000 owners who have bought a week or more in the approximate 1,800 two- or three-bedroom villas.

"We've been in the timeshare business for 20 years," Spence Wilson said. He estimates it will take another 15 years to fully develop the company's Orlando timeshare property.

"Our anchor business is timesharing," he said.

Timeshare management and development and sales is the company's largest generator of revenues and profits, Wilson said. "It allows us to try these other opportunities."

He was referring to ventures like The Oaks at Schilling Farms and Memorial Cove Lofts in Houston.

Memorial Cove Lofts has 20 two-level units priced from $300,000 to $700,000 per unit. Seven units have sold. The building was completed in May, Hickman said.

Unit sizes range from 1,600 to 3,600 square feet. The nine-story building has two parking spaces for each unit. Parking is on the first level.

"They are called soft lofts," said Steve Fielder, vice president.

"They have a blend of traditional high-end condo features with industrial-feeling features," he said.

Concrete walls, ceilings and mechanical systems are exposed for an industrial look and feel; just as walls, beams and mechanical equipment are frequently left exposed in old warehouses that have been converted to loft apartments.

However, kitchens and bathrooms are finished with high-end features such as furniture-grade cabinets, granite counter tops, marble floors, Fielder said.

The company is not a pioneer developer of soft lofts in Houston. Other developers have built them in Houston, Atlanta, Denver and other cities and they have been well received by people wanting a more carefree lifestyle, Hickman said.

Kemmons Wilson Companies is looking at another Houston site for a similar upscale soft lofts development. It also is looking at opportunities to develop them in other cities including Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Washington, Hickman said.

Because of the high prices of new soft lofts properties and the mixed reception condominiums have gotten in Memphis in the past, Hickman doesn't expect to build soft loft condos in Memphis in the near future.

However, the company executives are enthusiastic about The Oaks at Schilling Farms in Collierville.

It is a moderately priced condo development taking shape on Winchester just east of Bailey Station in Collierville.

The concept combines maintenance-free condominium aspects with the look and feel of single-family homes.

Unit prices range from about $139,000 to $180,000.

The first four units should be finished in August. More will be started this month. "We have had a lot of interest (in The Oaks). We have sold 10," Hickman said.

The Oaks will have 88 units in 22 buildings.

Each building looks like a large home. It is really four homes connected and separated by garages. Each homeowner will have a two-car garage and a glass-enclosed porch.

Streets curve and loop. Lots are wide but not deep. No one will have a rear yard. Everyone will have a small, landscaped front yard and most will have a side yard.

"A big attraction is maintenance-free exteriors and attractive price-points," Hickman said. "No one (who buys there) should have to worry about roofing, landscaping, mowing or repainting."

A monthly fee of about $160 will establish reserves for that and for maintenance of a community clubhouse with fitness facility and swimming pool.

Copyright, 2002, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN. Used here with permission. No additional reproduction or distribution of this article in any form is permitted without the written approval of The Commercial Appeal (http://www.gomemphis.com).