MEMPHIS, Tenn. — More jobs and more money are being invested in Memphis. That was the big announcement Wednesday afternoon by LEDIC Real Estate, formerly LEDIC Property Management.
The company is moving from their location on Thousand Oaks Boulevard to Poplar and Perkins.
The area where LEDIC is moving is retrofitted for high-speed internet which for LEDIC was a game changer.
The company will be moving into the top floors of a building already located at 555 South Perkins.
Besides bringing 100 jobs to Memphis and investing $10.2 million, it hopes to start a trend for the area.
“Fiber optic at the corner of Poplar and Perkins that is faster than Google city,” announced LEDIC’s CEO Pierce Ledbetter at a news conference Wednesday.
Those magic words, “fiber optic” and “high-speed internet”, are one of the reasons Ledic decided to stay and expand its headquarters in Memphis.
The new location will not only be their headquarters but will be a high-tech training facility for real estate groups.
“It was really a surprise to us when we learned the kind of tech that Memphis had,” said Ledbetter.
Perhaps you’ve heard of LEDIC because you live in one of it’s buildings.
Founded in Memphis in 1979, it owns and manages more than 9,000 apartments across the country.
Ledbetter said he looked at other cities like Austin, Texas but chose to stay in Memphis, bringing 100 jobs to the city and 200 other jobs to the state of Tennessee.
They’re jobs that pay well here in the Bluff City.
“The average wage of those jobs is between $40,000-$50,000 a year,” said Ledbetter.
The news is a slam dunk for the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
Recently Desoto County has been seen at the forefront for recruiting hundreds of industrial jobs.
The chamber said Memphis will always be known for its logistics and distribution, but lately the chamber has focused its efforts on back office jobs like the ones Ledic will offer.
“We’ve got to create more good jobs, If we want to grow the middle class, increase economic development, we have to focus on more middle class, high skilled jobs,” said Phil Trenary, President of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
Ledbetter hopes more companies will see the benefit of building in their area, right along the fiber trunk line to FedEx. He wants to turn the area into a tech magnet for other businesses.
Memphians we talked to agree –and think technology and good jobs will help expand other industries.
“Memphis is already a big city for other industries like healthcare.”
LEDIC currently has 200 employees in Memphis. The planned growth will bring the total to 500 across the state. The company plans to start construction here early next year.
