Owners of Poplar Plaza implored Halbert for months to sign letter for new location, emails show

Emails show repeated efforts over several months by the owners of Poplar Plaza to secure a new lease with Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert.

And, they show that the lease on the clerk’s Whitehaven office, located at 4122 Elvis Presley Boulevard, has been in a holdover for more than a year.

Rick Smith, director of real estate for Finard Properties, wrote to Halbert about the urgent need to tour a new space at Poplar Plaza and begin paperwork to rent the location, since the clerk’s current location at 3412-A Plaza Drive expires at the end of June.

“If we don’t start now (then) we’re going to have to deal with an expired lease at Poplar Plaza, and in that situation we will not have the freedom to let things coast along,” Smith wrote September 28 in one of a series of emails obtained by The Commercial Appeal.

Smith could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Halbert is slated to discuss the Poplar Plaza office with Shelby County Commissioners Wednesday, just days after Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris threatened her with possible ouster proceedings if she did not choose a replacement office.

In her response to Harris, sent to the commission chairman and not the mayor, Halbert said she wanted to open two locations to replace the current one in Poplar Plaza. Those locations would include one in the plaza and another in a former bank at Quince Rd. and S. Perkins Rd. That request for a location at Quince and S. Perkins has not been supported by Shelby County Government, Halbert wrote.

In a Tuesday interview, Halbert told The Commercial Appeal that she has no choice but to sign off on a lease for the new Poplar Plaza location, but that “the facilities, the buildout, drawings, renderings, etc., that’s what Support Services does.”

Support Services reports up to Harris’ administration.

The only thing Support Services has provided Halbert regarding the new location are renderings, she said.

In a statement to The Commercial Appeal, Harris said, “We will spare no effort to make sure that Clerk Halbert does not close another office.”

Support Services has done the necessary work to support the clerk, "including providing designs of a necessary build out of a new location in Poplar Plaza," said Kelly Roberts, communications officer for Harris.

"We need Clerk Halbert to participate in this process of setting up a new office, including choosing a build out design in line with her specifications," Roberts said.

Frequent check-ins, offers of help

Smith checked in again in October and January.

In October, he asked if Halbert and her employees had reviewed letters of intent yet and whether she had any questions.

In January, he wrote, “If we get to that expiration date without having you a new space the inconvenience to the citizens will be numerous.”

Cliff Norville, Shelby County’s director of public works, responded to that email, saying the county was in conversations with Halbert regarding her options.

In responses to questions from Norville, Smith confirmed that Poplar Plaza had one space available for the clerk, its current administrative offices toward the north end of the plaza. There also was an adjacent space currently occupied but that they could offer the clerk first right of refusal if the business in that space were to leave. He also resent the unsigned letters of intent.

In February, Smith again wrote Halbert and other county representatives, offering to make himself available when the county wanted to discuss a lease at Poplar Plaza.

In that email, he added that the clerk’s lease on the Whitehaven office, also owned by Finard properties, expired more than a year ago and has since been renewed each month on a 30-day basis.

“I sure would like to have you in new and more appropriate spaces at both properties but all I can do is remind you of the ticking clock,” Smith wrote.

Halbert responded, “We are meeting and talking with all involved. I will request an urgent meeting.”

It is unclear whether that meeting occurred.

Regarding the Whitehaven office, Halbert said Tuesday that she wants to lease a larger space adjacent to the property, but that her ask has not yet been supported.

New office at Riverdale still unopened as leases at Whitehaven, Poplar Plaza expire

Also in limbo is the opening of a new clerk’s office on Riverdale, which Harris’ office said in October was ready to open.

Halbert has previously said the office would be ready by the end of last year, but more recently has said she still does not have the staff or equipment required to open the location, and that Harris’ administration is blocking her from being able to hire or equip the office.

In 2020, the clerk’s office in Germantown also closed because of a lease expiration.

Katherine Burgess covers government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Poplar Plaza owners asked Halbert for months to agree to new location