{"id":1083,"date":"2007-07-06T23:05:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-06T23:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/wordpress\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2007-07-06T23:05:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-06T23:05:00","slug":"from-the-mbj-prince-mongos-planet-to-be-converted-into-boutique-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/06\/from-the-mbj-prince-mongos-planet-to-be-converted-into-boutique-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"From the MBJ: Prince Mongo’s Planet to be converted into boutique hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this print edition of this week’s Memphis Business Journal<\/a>, there’s an article about plans for the space formerly occupied by Prince Mongo’s Planet, a nightclub of the 1990s where 14-year-olds could go to get a beer and mingle with belligerent Navy recruits. A developer has a contract on the building and plans to renovate the building (56-60-62 South Front) into an upscale boutique hotel with 34 rooms. It will be called the Grade Hotel<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, there will be meeting rooms, a restaurant, a coffee shop and a BOOKSTORE(!!!!) on the ground floor. The developer is hoping to attract students from the U of M law school, which will be moving downtown in 2009, as well as students from nearby medical, dental, and optometry schools, to the coffee shop. He hopes to have clean-up crews in the building by September. The hotel’s grand opening could happen as little as 18 months from then, with the ground-floor businesses open sooner.<\/p>\n

Great news for Downtown! Unless you’re a freshman in high school and were hoping Mongo’s would reopen so you’d have a place to drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"