Local investors are planning a $25 million development at the site of the former Houston’s restaurant and the First Horizon building in East Memphis.

The project, scheduled to open in late 2027, will include two buildings and a plaza spanning more than two acres at Poplar Avenue and South Mendenhall Road.

The development will include office and retail space as well as an upscale restaurant, said investors Darrell Horn and Brown Gill.

“The corner is such a legacy corner for Memphis, probably one of the most important corners in the city, especially for people in East Memphis,” Horn said. “This corner deserves a plan worthy of its location.”

The 61,144-square-foot First Horizon building at 4990 Poplar will be demolished to make way for a two-story, 50,000-square-foot building with 25,000 square feet of Class A office space and 25,000 square feet of retail. The 60-space underground parking garage will remain.

The 6,300-square-foot, 170-seat restaurant, The Tradition, will be built on the 1.02-acre property that housed Houston’s at 5000 Poplar Ave.

Gill and Emily Vanasek of Gill Properties will lease the commercial space. Victor Buchholz and Jason Weeks of LRK are the architects designing the project. The civil engineers are Taylor Webb and Morgan Falls of Rockfield Engineering. Landscape design will be handled by Mark Levy.

“Memphis money, Memphis experience and a Memphis timeline,” Gill said. “This is all about local decision makers.”

Gill said it will be “thoughtfully designed.”

“This is a truly transformative development for East Memphis,” Gill said. “I really want it to be beautiful. I want to look back on it in 20 years, and Darrell and I be very proud of (it all).”

Horn said the restaurant is named after one of his family’s traditions. His father would call him the day or so before a Sunday, when all his family was in town, and say, “The tradition.”

“That meant for me to get a one o’clock reservation for after church lunch for six of us,” Horn said. “We did that for years.”

The Tradition is the second concept of the restaurant group that created the Briza restaurant. The group includes Horn, his wife Betsy, former Houston’s executive chef Moises Hernandez and his wife Maggie Murphy-Hernandez.

With the Tradition, Darrell Horn said the group will be able to design the space as they want, without the constraints of the already built-out space Briza had, which is half the size.

The corner at Poplar and Mendenall has been the center of attention since Phoenix-based Hillstone Restaurant Group Inc. closed Houston’s in December 2024 after more than 40 years.

It listed the property for sale on Feb. 3, 2025.

Gill’s brother-in-law, Walker Huey, worked with Gill and Darrell Horn to buy the 7,500-square-foot building for $2.1 million.

A new $25 million development in East Memphis is planned to include approximately 25,000 square feet of Class A office space and 25,000 square feet of retail. (LRK/Gill Properties)

The deed listed Huey as the acting manager of the 5100 Poplar LLC, the entity that bought the property, according to the Memphis and Shelby County Register of Deeds.

The property had gone through several rounds of bidding, including offers from Darrell Horn’s group that were ultimately rejected. Huey’s involvement helped pave the way for the deal.

“Walker really drove it,” Gill said. “He worked hard to get it under contract. I remember calling (Darrell), saying, ‘I think we’re about to have Houston’s under contract.’ He said, ‘What?’ We honestly thought there was no way.”

As part of the contract, Hillstone required that the 45-year-old building be demolished.

“Them tearing the building down saved us a lot of money and created a path to rebuild a state-of-the-art, brand new development,” Darrell Horn said.

Darrell Horn and Gill didn’t stop there. They bought the First Horizon building for $1 million, which was instrumental for the project to move forward.

“We only had 30 days to get this enormous institution to agree to sell us this building and for them to understand the complexities of the site, and so that was the hard part,” Gill said. “It was extremely stressful.”

Gill credits First Horizon with working quickly to get the deal finalized.

“Once the entire corner came together, the right answer became obvious,” Darrell Horn said. “The First Tennessee building is an older building; it’s not as leasable as a modern commercial office space.”

As word has spread about the new development, Gill said he and Darrell Horn both “have been overwhelmed by the demand.”

“They want to be there to attract young people,” Gill said. “They want to be able to walk downstairs to his beautiful restaurant to have a meeting and walk over to Whole Foods and pick up food before they go home.”