The public Sheraton investment demands public transparency with nonprofit involvement wholly unnecessary. Will the Council repeat the same Red Flagged mistakes of the past and embrace nonprofit non-transparency of City owned assets ?

Besides, involving a nonprofit seems clunky, inefficient, and expensive while being non-transparent. With a nonprofit, taxpayers will be unable to see what is going on, on a current basis, with their $30M public investment that is likely to grow higher over time. Also, nonprofits are exempt from public information requests. That’s a big problem.

The recent MATA forensic audit raises a RED FLAG regarding nonprofit involvement with City owned assets in the Central Station Collaborative nonprofit (See pgs. 20, 21 and 35). Here is what the audit says:

“The [Nonprofit Central Station Collaborative] redevelopment project involved several entities, most notably, Henry Turley Company and Community Capital. There are potential risks with this complex arrangement as the current City administration and current MATA personnel are largely unfamiliar with or unaware of the ongoing arrangement. Further, the documentation analyzed is vague in regards to how MATA benefits from the arrangement.”

Is the Central Station Collaborative another Twat Boy playbook public rip off template for the Sheraton? Appears that it is...

Based on several sources, which I have captured in Check the Facts below, Central Station business operations appear to generate an estimated $15M per year in top line revenue, if not more. Yet, per the MATA audit, only $24,933 comes back to taxpayers (MATA) through the Central Station Collaborative.

Meanwhile, within the nonprofit Collaborative, Henry Turley took down $192,278 and Archie Willis’ ComCap $39,528. The former earnings don’t include tenant operational earnings derived from an estimated $15M annual business which includes the Turley and Wilson Boyzzz. Black minority partner Willis may also participate additionally in tenant operational profits.

I would love to see the capital stack for the Central Station project. A 2015 Memphis Flyer article stated, “Much of the funding for the project would come from federal government grants. MATA president Ron Garrison said local entities would only need to come up with about $600,000 to draw the remaining money to fund the $55 million project (Memphis Flyer).”

Further, Central Station, being City owned, exempts operators from approximately $900K per year in real property taxes. In addition to the City (MATA) owned tax benefit of the Central Station Collaborative operational lease, the Central Station capital stack benefitted locally with $325K in local DMC grants, which does not include other Federal and State public funding sources.

But again, after all the above, City taxpayers only directly benefited in 2024 with $24,933 from the Central Station project, while others profited much more from an estimated $15M in revenue.

Given apparent conflicts of interest and all the downtown economic development carnage that has materialized during Chase Carlise’s Council tenure, some may have a problem with the Carlise Corp operating and renovating the Sheraton.

At this point, I am less concerned about Carlisle Corp’s Sheraton operation than nonprofit non-transparency on what may turn out to be a massive public investment, well beyond the current $30M invested.

Taxpayers have a right to know what is going on with their public investments. Seems the Sheraton building should be owned by the City and publicly managed by the already existing Renasant Convention Center Board.

And C’mon Man, please, ignore the “Memphis Tomorrow” like payout promise of a future Sheraton building sale benefitting taxpayers…..

No need for clunky, inefficient, vague, and potentially expense nonprofit involvement. And to the extent that the Sheraton becomes fully operational, there should be rent proceeds coming back to taxpayers from Sheraton operations.

Why rent proceeds? Keep in mind Sheraton operations will benefit from not having to pay commercial real property taxes, which at $30M is annual savings of around $720K and could be much more with additional investment.

Publicly owned Sheraton facility management should be transparent to taxpayers. That’s all…

Check the Facts

Commercial Appeal https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/development/2017/05/05/central-station-hotel-offer-authentic-memphis-experience/100925572/

Memphis Business Journal - https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2020/02/21/past-meets-present-at-central-station-hotel.html

Memphis Flyer - https://www.memphisflyer.com/central-station-plan-makes-it-central-again

Taxpayer Justice Institute - https://taxpayerjustice.net/mata-forensic-audit/

https://downtownmemphis.com/projects/central-station-2015