Michael Dale likes what he's seen so far of McCord Square, the mixed-use development expected to redefine McCordsville.

"It's a well-thought-out proposal that has already received some preliminary nods from the town of McCordsville," said Dale, executive director of Hancock County Area Plan Commission.  "We've gone through this proposal with a fine toothed comb and think it's a good proposal."

Preliminary plans for McCord Square call for 538,000 square feet of civic, retail and commercial office buildings on an 80-acre site.  The project will include a town square area and a merchant's square area.

McCord Square's concept is similar to that of Clay Terrace in Carmel, where people can park their vehicles and walk around.

Kurt Mathewson, a broker for developer Tower Investments, expects McCord Square to be a $40 million project.

"We definitely look at it as a plus for the whole area in general, the town and the county," said Mathewson, senior vice president at Coldwell Banker Commercial Realty Services in Indianapolis.

At the end of this month, Tower will take preliminary plans for McCord Square to county zoning officials.

Tower will request a rezoning from r1.0 and Commercial Neighborhood to Commercial Regional at the county plan commission's meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 in the courthouse annex.

Representing both the seller, Bekaert Corporation, and the buyer, Tower Investments, Binswanger is pleased to announce the sale of a 639,000 sq. ft., one-story building on 63 acres located at One Bekaert Road in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Tower Investments of Woodland, California is a real estate investment and development company specializing in adaptive reuse development, planning and design, construction management, leasing and property management.

After purchasing the property, Tower Investments relisted the facility with Binswanger for sale or lease.

"From an adaptive reuse perspective, this property is a gem due to its prime location and solid infrastructure," said David Marks, Senior Vice President of Tower Investments, who negotiated the deal on Tower's behalf. "The more we researched the facility and the area, the clearer the decision became."

An old farm house rots away at the main intersection in town, council members meet in a trailer and dining choices come down to Joe's Grille and the Wagon Wheel Eatery.

Not the description you would expect for one of the Indianapolis area's growth hot spots: the crossroads town of McCordsville, long seen as too rural and distant for developers to bother with.

Not so now.

"I wonder on a daily basis what's going on around us," said Jenny Adams, waitress-turned-owner of the Wagon Wheel. "We try to keep up (on new projects) with construction workers who come in here."

Suburban sprawl not only is lapping up against McCordsville's farmland, but turning it into tract subdivisions, three newly opened retail centers, a coming Meijer department store, and one of the largest mixed-use developments ever planned in Hancock County.

Tower Investments LLC is targeting what it sees as a growing market - abandoned or aging factories ripe to be converter to distribution centers.

The investment and development firm, based in Woodland, Calif., with an office in Nashville, owns more than 9 million square feet of industrial property throughout the United States.

The properties are mainly in secondary and tertiary markets and generally range from 300,000 to 1 million square feet.

Tower officials say there is a national shift from manufacturing to distribution operations and identified a new use for older facilities in the current market.

"With the shift toward overseas manufacturing, large-scale industrial facilities are no longer in great demand in the United States, and many have gone into disrepair," says Matt Marks, a senior vice president with Tower. "At the same time, there is a rising need for warehouse and distribution space for smaller businesses that do not have the resources to build out their own facilities."

Williamson County Impact Awards - Development

Alex Marks

Alex Marks believes so much in Williamson County, he moved there even though his company headquarters stayed in California.

Marks is senior vice president of Tower Investments, LLC, based in Woodland, CA.

Marks, a Franklin resident, has helped his family business leave a noticeable mark on Williamson County by developing three equestrian communities in Leipers Fork, a total of 75 homes on 1,021 acres.

Since moving to Williamson County in 2006 from Woodland, Marks says the quality of life and the friends he made inspired him to establish his home in Franklin.

"It's about friendship versus social status," says Marks, a graduate of the University of Southern California.

A metals processing site with a complicated ownership structure and a California family bullish on Middle Tennessee are just two players in a riverfront development puzzle

Talk to anyone involved in Nashville city planning efforts about the city's future, and chances are they'll mention redeveloping the downtown Cumberland Riverfront. Former mayor Bill Purcell allocated $8 million in the 2007-2008 fiscal year budget for Metro to begin a $40 million, five-year project that will create 120 acres of parkland and about 20 public riverfront features along both sides of the river between the Woodland Street Bridge and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge. A longer term, 15- to 20-year plan includes the bolder prospect of carving a channel along the interstate loop in the Cumberland's East bank to create an island encompassing LP Field.

It's a project that generates a great deal of excitement for the city, and with it comes that oft-discussed matter of the PSC Metals site-a metal recycling facility on the East bank of the Cumberland that's a coveted piece in the riverfront development puzzle.

"Many people agree that's not the highest and best use of that property, and as we build out the public and recreational features downtown [in phase one of the project], we'll be building right up to the metals site," says Chris Koster, the city's special project manager for the riverfront redevelopment project. "That transformation will increase opportunities available on that site."

MILTON -- Tower Investments, a multi-state real estate investment and development company, has purchased a nearly 250,000-square-foot industrial facility at 386 James River Turnpike. SuperValu will remain in the building, which it will now lease from Tower Investments.

The facility was built about 30 years ago by American Real Estate Holding Co. and was leased as a dry goods and cold storage distribution facility to SuperValu, a grocery retail chain headquartered in Minneapolis.

"Our purchase was centered on a quality building, with a great tenant in a strategic location," Seth Curran, a project manager with Tower Investments, said in a press release. "Tower welcomes the opportunity to help Milton capitalize on its location and workforce to continue to strengthen the area's economy."

Another major commercial developer has its eyes set on McCordsville.

The Tow Council heard an informal rezoning proposal Tuesday, September 11, for McCord Square, a 90-acre "lifestyle center" located near the intersection of CR 600 West and Broadway Street.

Commercial realty executive Kurt Mathewson, representing developer Tower Investments of California, said that project will create a pedestrian-friendly complex similar to Carmel's Clay terrace Mall. It will include a mix of retail, restaurants and commercial office uses.

The development "will help update the town," Mathewson said, "while still maintaining the qualities that people who live in McCordsville would like to maintain."

Restaurateur and club owner Benjamin Goldberg will open Aerial, a glass-covered meeting and events venue, on the roof of his Paradise Park Trailer Resort honky tonk diner on Lower Broadway in late September.

Unlike the cheeky redneck themes of Paradise Park - with its trailer park theme - the 2,000-square-foot Aerial is designed to have a sophisticated appeal.

"Our idea is to have a high-end, private events space," Goldberg says.

The success of Paradise Park, which launched in March, helped make Aerial happen sooner than expected. The 24-hour bar and diner outperformed revenue expectations by 25 percent and will exceed $2 million in revenue in 2007, Goldberg says.

The Aerial space on top of 411 Broadway in the old Heilig-Myers Furniture store overlooks symbols of Nashville past and present - the honky tonks of Lower Broadway such as Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the Ryman Auditorium, the Sommet Center and the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

A ranching family with deep roots in the cattle country of Central California is becoming influential in Middle Tennessee.

Not only is the Marks family a major player in the high-density, rapid-growth Monopoly board of downtown Nashville development, it's wielding an impact in the idyllic community of Leipers Fork in Williamson County.

The Marks, via their development company Tower Investments, are building three sprawling equestrian-themed subdivisions in the rustic unincorporated area - a spot beloved by residents, preservationists, horse lovers, artists, farmers and old-timers.

Leipers Fork residents are known for being fiercely protective of the natural beauty of the area and area Realtor Ray Helmsworth says the family is getting a warm reception.

"They are really passionate about maintaining the natural beauty of the area," Helmsworth says.

Leaders in downtown redevelopment cement local presence

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tower Investments, LLC, the multi-state real estate investment and development company with significant holdings and projects in Nashville's urban core and surrounding counties, is cementing its local presence by opening an office at 411 Broadway in downtown.  This marks the first office that Tower has opened outside of its headquarters in Northern California.

"Physically opening an office here signifies our long-term commitment to this region," senior vice president Alex Marks says. "We're bullish on Nashville and see it as one of the most vibrant growth and development opportunities in the country."

Business owners, Realtors, brokers tour former Maytag plant

Galesburg - Economic development leaders invited businesses to Galesburg on Friday in the hope they would help fill several million square feet of available space.

"It's one thing for me to talk about a (1 million square-foot) building," said Linda Utsinger, vice president of business development for the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association. "It's another thing for people to actually see it."

GREDA, Tower Investments LLC., Industrial Realty Group and several other organizations invited real estate agents, brokers and business owners to the former Maytag plant on Monmouth Boulevard. They hoped to attract businesses that would lease space in the building.

Tower Investments and Industrial Realty Group own the 1.3-million square-foot former Maytag plant, the 850,000 square-foot Maytag warehouse and the nearly 1 million square-foot building that once housed Butler Manufacturing.

Tours of Maytag, Butler sites promote possibilities

GALESBURG - Many cities offer a spring festival of homes, having open houses for potential buyers. Galesburg had a similar event Friday, but the buildings were a bit larger. Galesburg Days featured an open house for brokers and Realtors at the former Maytag and Butler Mfg. facilities here.

The tours of the former Maytag factory, distribution center and the 900,000-square-foot Butler Mfg. complex continue today for the public. Anyone interested in touring the buildings that Tower Investments and Industrial Realty Group hope to bring back to life can do so from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tours can begin at any building.

Peter Yanson, senior vice president for Quadrelle Realty Services, and Matt Marks, senior vice president, Tower Investments LLC, opened Friday's event with a PowerPoint presentation. Yanson said QRS acts as the property management agency for Tower and IRG.

Marks said Tower has more than 100 active real estate projects in 14 states. Yanson said IRG has 70 projects in about 25 states. While Tower Investments is involved in everything from residential to commercial, retail and hotel projects, Yanson said IRG is "basically strictly industrial rehabilitation in a big way."

GALESBURG, Illinois - Real estate developers and Galesburg leaders are getting a first look inside the massive former Maytag plant. Now owned by a California-based company, this is a chance to find new uses for the facility.

"The beauty is that we can accomodate big users to small users," said Matt Marks, Tower Investments.

The general public will get a rare chance to go inside the former plant, distribution center and Butler Manufacturing on Saturday. Tours will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at all three locations.

When the Maytag plant closed nearly three years ago, most of the remaining 1,600 jobs were wiped out and replaced at a plant in Reynosa, Mexico. After decades of refrigerator production, the bustle of busy workers is contrasted now with wide open spaces.

Marks family's philosophy behind involvement in redevelopment incorporates a 'simple formula'

It's easy to rhapsodize about riverfront development. But the Marks family doesn't seem like the type to rhapsodize.

To them, the decision to take the plunge on Nashville's waterfront was about cold, hard arithmetic: rising land prices in California plus a good business climate in Tennessee plus a little bit of water equals economic opportunity.

It's a simple formula. So simple that Alex Marks, the family member responsible for residential development, finds it difficult to explain it without seeming glib.

The family came to Nashville "because you have a river," Alex Marks said. "It will sell itself."

Earlier this month, the family's firm, Tower Investments LLC, bought a majority stake in the $250 million Cumberland Yacht Harbor marina-and-condo project. It also negotiated an option on 28 acres owned by the descendants of the founders of the Steiner-Liff scrap yard, the industrial metal recycler now owned by PSC Metals Inc.

Exclusive residential communities for horse lovers are emerging on the rural fringes of Middle Tennessee just beyond high-growth suburban areas.

Construction of several homes is underway at Beechwood Plantation in the unincorporated Leiper's Fork area of Williamson County. The second phase of the four-phased, 500-acre project was launched earlier this month.

Huge estate tracts with price tags from $319,000 to $750,000 - ranging from 5. 9 acres to 41 acres - are features of the private development.

About 6 miles of riding trails are available and residents are encouraged to build their own barns, says Alex Marks, senior vice president of Tower Land Co., the developer.

Tower plans to build six private residential communities where horses are welcome on 2,200 acres in Williamson, Maury and Fentress counties, Marks says.

Teams with two other investors to take majority interest.

An investment company controlled by a California ranching family has bought a majority interest in the Cumberland Yacht Harbor project in Donelson.

Tower Investments LLC,perfect watches the real estate partnership owned by the Marks family, has joined with Hardaway Group Inc. of Nashville and Parkes Development Group LLC of Franklin in buying stakes in the $250 million project.

The Markses' previous investments include buying Rolex Datejust gold replica watches on Lower Broadway and land in the SoBro neighborhood. The family is also developing the Beechwood Plantation equestrian community in Leiper's Fork.

Varallo Investment Properties LLC, a Rolex watch company run by project developer Jim Varallo, will retain a minority stake. Terms were not disclosed.

Varallo has been working since 2001 on the Cumberland Yacht Harbor project, which would combine 181 condos with diamond ladies Datejust replica shops, restaurants and a 13.5-acre harbor at the mouth of Mill Creek.

By Nashville Business Journal
January 18, 2007

A family-owned real estate firm from California has finalized the purchase of a prime parcel in SoBro.

Tower Investments paid nearly $14.8 million for the 5.67-acre site that is just south of the Gaylord Entertainment Center. The land is currently home to a surface parking lot, but supporters of a new convention center have zeroed in on the area as a prime spot for the proposed convention center.

The majority owner of Woodland, Calif.-based Tower is Stephen Marks, and five of his children also work for the company, which owns property in 13 states and Canada.

In addition to the parking lot south of the Gaylord, Tower has snapped up some prominent properties on Broadway, including the Merchant's restaurant building and the building that houses Big River Grille & Brewing Works.