The locally owned Belly Acres farm-to-table burger joint is officially not coming to the Union Depot mixed-use project in Bartlett, a not-surprising step given the restaurant’s recent financial issues.

Gill Properties, which is handling commercial leasing at developer Keith Grant’s and Blue Sky Communities’ project, recently began the search for a new tenant to occupy the space where Belly Acres was planned.

“They signed the lease but couldn’t come through at Union Depot,” said Barry Maynard, Gill Properties senior vice president.

In August, B&B Ventures of Memphis — the operating entity behind the Belly Acres brand — was evicted from its location at 6130 Poplar Ave. in the Regalia Shopping Center in East Memphis.

They had recently signed a new lease there as well as a lease for a new location in Nashville.

“They’ve gone belly-up on that,” said Maynard, who was especially perplexed by the Nashville lease-signing because it was in a more expensive area known as The Gulch. “So (the owner) had three new leases signed and only one store open, and his cash ran out.”

Belly Acres opened its first location in Overton Square in 2014. That closed in 2023.

The restaurant’s only remaining location in Collierville at 3660 S. Houston Levee Road opened this past May.

A new Belly Acres is opening at Silo Square in Southaven by the end of the year.

“There’s been some ownership changes, which has been part of the delay just getting everything nailed out right before they open up here,” said Lexi Grisanti, Silo Square director of marketing and development. “Construction is done. It looks great in there.”

An attempt to reach someone at Belly Acres for comment was unsuccessful.

Gill is recruiting other commercial tenants for Union Depot, the development at U.S. 70 and Stage Road.

“We’ve got several restaurants that are very interested in taking the former Belly Acres space,” Maynard said. “We’ve just got to pick the right one.”

His team is also talking with a medical group interested in building a new facility on one of the outparcels.

“We’re getting so many calls, and we just don’t have that much commercial (space available yet) in the actual Union Depot,” Maynard said.

Union Depot developer eyes vacant U.S. 70 tract

Overall, the master plan for the 74-acre site of the former Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home includes 336 flats, 70 townhomes and 161 single-family homes. There are 55 lofts above retail planned and an additional 6 acres of retail for a total of 85,000 square feet of commercial space.

Leasing of flats at the project’s already-built The Westerly is going well, Grant said, and construction is also underway on the townhomes and single-family homes.

“That’s why we went ahead and started two more (townhome) buildings. So we have about 16 units and probably five or six homes under construction right now,” Grant said.

Construction of the project’s Station Lofts, where Belly Acres was part of the ground-floor retail plans, should get underway early next year. Plans there call for 82 one-bedroom and studios above the commercial space.

Across U.S. 70 from Union Depot, Grant received approval for a special-use permit covering a 34-acre addition to the project that would include a mix of housing and commercial space, including a potential grocery store.

“We’re just waiting at this point,” Grant said Tuesday.

TIF financing would help the developer cover the costs of installing infrastructure needed to get a project rolling.