Gill Properties is building on its East Memphis momentum with a new $10 million mixed-use project at South White Station Road and Wheelis Drive.

The development at 621 S. White Station Road will have 18,145 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 6,000 square feet of office space on the second floor.

Brown Gill, vice president of development, is optimistic about this project’s location and timing, building on its nearby White Oak Shopping Center.

“I think that inside the loop, inside East Memphis, there is still demand for well-located retail that’s experiential retail,” Gill said. “And I think that there’s still room in the market for retailers that want to be in East Memphis inside the loop. I think we proved those retailers are there with White Oak Phase 1.”

Gill Properties want to start construction in August or September and hope to have it completed by the end of 2027 or early 2028. The company plans on moving its offices into the second-story office space.

“It shows we’re doing more than just investing in the area,” Gill said. “When you move your office, you become a tenant right in your own building, and you manage the building better. You’re more on top of issues.”

Gill Properties began working on South White Station Road in 2017, consolidating five separate lots to develop the White Oak Phase 1 at 681 S. White Station Road.

That 27,000-square-foot property is fully leased with tenants such as Women’s Physician Group, Rotolo’s Craft and Crust, Artisan Nail Lounge, The Lash Lounge, IVX Health and Nothing Bundt Cakes.

Last year, Gill Properties acquired the new 1.4-acre site, which holds the now vacant Missio Dei Church, from RCM Devco for $1.5 million.

John Galbraith with Thoda and Associates is the architect, and Rockfield Engineering is providing engineering work on the new project. The contractor will be bid out.

Gill is considering this new project White Oak Phase 2. Gill sees both phases as one big shopping center with Orion Financial bank branch in the middle.

“I think it will get the same high-quality users that we got in White Oak Phase 1,” he said. “We’re so fortunate to have women-centric services, medical, and food vendors that are super high quality and that serve the East Memphis market. We feel like there’s still room and depth for more retailers.”

Gill and affiliate broker Emily Vanasek will be handling the leasing.

“This project is really a continuation of the momentum we’ve seen along (South) White Station (Road) over the past several years,” Vanasek said. “We’re taking a site that already has strong fundamentals and adding high-quality retail and office space that fits how the corridor is evolving.”

Balance is important when it comes to tenant mix, Gill said. For example, the existing White Oak property has an OBGYN group, Women’s Physician Group, that takes a third of the center.

“That means a third of that center leaves at 5 o’clock, and it opens up the parking lot to other retailers,” Gill said. “You don’t just want strong, credit-worthy tenants, you want a mix of tenants that work well together within the same center.”

Medical services, restaurants and fitness centers are big users of retail space these days, Gill said. Dry-goods retailers have gone either high or low end. These four categories are what the company is focusing on for potential tenants.

“With how successful Phase 1 was and the lack of available retail product in the area right now, I think they’ll be successful with this development,” said Carson Claybrook, senior vice president of retail brokerage services at Cushman Wakefield Commercial Advisors. “I think the two leading tenant types would be medical and restaurants.”

A good fitness concept for a mixed-use project could be something high end and less impact, such as the sauna and ice-plunge concept Sweathouz at 715 S. Mendenhall Road.

“That’s less noisy and less parking intensive,” Claybrook said. “I think you’re going to see more local and regional tenants based on a mixed-use product with office above it.”

Gill is hoping there continues to be a market for retail in the “superblock” bordered by Poplar Avenue, South Mendenhall Road, South White Station Road and Sanderlin Avenue.

“We think that it is, as a block, the most dynamic mixed-use parcel in all of our city,” Gill said. “We have millions of square feet of office on it, many restaurants, many different types of retailers, and hotels. I think we really have to focus on trying to add more users to the superblock in creative ways. Long term, we want to meet the market.”