Commercial Appeal
Originally published 03:00 p.m., October 8, 2010
Updated 09:14 p.m., October 8, 2010
Ruby "Queen of Beale Street" Wilson belted out "Stand by Me." Five hundred Pinnacle Airlines Corp. employees filed out of buses onto Main Street and into One Commerce Square to see the "before" picture of their future workplace. About 200 Downtowners welcomed Pinnacle to the neighborhood.
It was Pinnacle's homecoming Friday morning, organized by the Center City Commission to celebrate one of Downtown's biggest economic successes of the decade.
Pinnacle, an up-and-coming regional airline company, will base 600-plus workers at 40 S. Main starting next fall, after the 70 percent vacant building gets a total facelift. Downtown won out over an airport-area office park and a build-to-suit offer in Olive Branch.
That was cause for Wilder Hubbard and John Strawn of Oden Marketing to hoist a sign proclaiming "Oden Welcomes Pinnacles Airlines to the neighborhood."
Overhead, a plane pulled a banner conveying the same sentiment: "Doug Carpenter & Assoc. Welcomes Pinnacle."
"Real exciting. I think it's awesome," said Hubbard. "I think it's a huge benefit for Downtown. I was a little nervous about this building when SunTrust moved out."
SunTrust, the last bank to occupy the 30-story tower, is reduced to a storefront location in Brinkley Plaza, cater-corner from One Commerce Square. The building opened in 1972 as home of National Bank of Commerce.
Pinnacle announced this week it intends to occupy 155,000 square feet on 12 floors of the tower. The move is contingent on negotiation of a lease with a locally led investor group that's buying the building from US Bank in Minneapolis.
Karl Schledwitz, part of the new ownership group with wife Gail Schledwitz, business partner Terry Lynch and hotel developer Gary Prosterman, credited Worthington Hyde Partners with the foresight to take "about 10 seconds" to agree to invest in Downtown's effort to land Pinnacle. The investment group includes AutoZone founder J.R. "Pitt" Hyde III, Robert W. Worthington and John Pontius.
Schledwitz told Pinnacle employees that investors have hired Looney Ricks Kiss architects to design a space "that is intended to wow you."
Plans include a solar farm and a Pinnacle fuselage, for training purposes, atop a parking garage overlooking Union and Second. The investors are committed to environmental friendliness and diversity in hiring in the $28 million to $30 million purchase and renovation, Schledwitz said.
Matt Kisber, Tennessee Commissioner of Economic and Community Development, said two-thirds of 190,000 jobs created during Gov. Phil Bredesen's eight-year run have come from expansion of existing businesses, like Pinnacle. "That's why we're so proud to have companies like Pinnacle, companies that have been in Tennessee, that say they want to stay in Tennessee."
Pinnacle board member Jim McGehee, chairman emeritus of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, said Pinnacle's final choice boiled down to Downtown and Corporate Plaza, former FedEx offices near Pinnacle's current airport-area location on Nonconnah Boulevard.
"For a Memphis airline to go to Mississippi didn't make any sense," McGehee said. "We are convinced for our customers and our employees we have made the correct decision to come Downtown."
Michael Matheny, who works in flight standards for Pinnacle, said there was initially some pushback from employees who didn't like longer commuting times to Downtown. They have warmed up to the idea now, he said.
Debra Bobo, an accounts payable employee, said, "I'm happy. I worked Downtown years ago and I feel like I've come full circle. I crossed my fingers that they would move Downtown. I thought this would be the best choice for us and Downtown."
-- Wayne Risher: 529-2874
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