Owner’s Representative Appointed at the Start of a $60 Million Entertainment Development in Tennessee

An entertainment development company is constructing a 100,000-square-foot complex on a 15-acre site in Collierville, Tennessee. It is a Mars-themed destination combining an immersive museum, conference and event facilities, a career training center, and commercial office headquarters, funded at $60 million with a projected opening in 2029. There is no equivalent in scale on the far east side of the Memphis metropolitan area. 

The CEO was looking for a senior executive to sit in the owner’s chair through the building program, managing the architect and consultant teams, holding the contractor hierarchy accountable, steering the permitting process through the Town of Collierville, and carrying the project schedule and budget from first approvals through to handover.

VP of Building Operations was a new position. There was no legacy, no team to take over, no vendor relationships to build upon. The new executive would be charged with managing the entire construction program from pre-permitting and design coordination to contractor procurement, schedule management and budget control, then proceed to operating the facility once it opened.

Shelby County permitting, working relationships with MEP and general construction vendors in the local market, and a knowledge of the regional subcontractor network were operational requirements, not background preferences. The brief was for someone who was ready to build a function from the ground up within a start-up structure, with a four-year commitment horizon from the first day on site.

The brief was created to address the specific requirements needed for a ground-up commercial project of this scale: experience as an owner’s representative or senior project manager, a proven track record on projects over $25 million, ground-up new construction in the candidate’s direct history, and a demonstrated presence in the Shelby County construction market. Each candidate was evaluated on the technical requirements and the demands of joining a company on day one of a long program.

The position was filled by a construction professional based in Memphis with almost 20 years of commercial project experience. His background runs across warehousing, education, healthcare, and retail, including a $170 million warehouse delivered over three and a half years and a $65 million school completed in 18 months, as well as more than 100 multi-site retail builds for a national healthcare brand. He has hands-on experience with Shelby County permitting, developed MEP and commercial construction vendor relationships in the Memphis market, and had recently transitioned from a general contractor role to the owner’s representative side of a major commercial project.