Oct. 21–Investors Snay Patel and Jay Kumar have transformed a piece of Memphis history into upscale lodging in the Hotel Napoleon at 179 Madison.

The partners in Suna Investments opened the 58-room hotel in the 114-year-old Scimitar Building in late September after a year of interior demolition, renovation and restoration.

"We just kind of took a modern approach to a historic building, more clean lines, more modern amenities, more technology. It's designed with the millennial market in mind," Patel said.

The ultra-modern look differentiates the Hotel Napoleon from the historic Peabody and the Madison hotel's adaptive reuse of a historic building. "The Madison and The Peabody, those are more traditional rooms," Patel said.

Techno music plays on the sound system. Circular LED lights dangle from a soaring ceiling, and changing-color LED-backlit signs designate the front desk and a one-desk business center in the lobby.

Luna, the hotel restaurant and lounge, has a quartz bar top and Italian bar stools. Industrial-looking stainless steel railings line stairwells that navigate a multilevel first floor.

Guest rooms are equipped with Bluetooth-enabled clock radio docking stations, 50-inch flat screen televisions with 130 channels and WiFi connections so guests can print documents on the lobby printer, which is paired with a large-screen Apple desktop.

"I think it's incredible," said architect Charles "Chooch" Pickard, who was historic preservation consultant for the project designed by UrbanARCH of Memphis. "It's a great mix of ultra contemporary with historic."

The Scimitar Building was initially home to a forerunner of the old Memphis Press-Scimitar, an afternoon newspaper that ceased publication in 1983. The building contained real estate and law firm offices when Patel and Kumar bought it.

Both men grew up in family hotel businesses, and they previously had opened hotels in suburban DeSoto County, including a 92-room Holiday Inn Express in Southaven.

Looking Downtown, they were attracted by "the history of the building and the look of the building," said Patel, 45.

"It's a 1902 building built by Napoleon Hill," he said, referring to a wealthy 19th Century Memphian. "That is basically where we derived our name."

The hotel is across from First Tennessee Bank's tower and down the street from the Madison, Fogelman YMCA, Toyota Center and AutoZone Park. Less than a block from the Napoleon, a Washington investor plans to renovate the vacant Leader Federal Savings Bank headquarters into a boutique hotel.

"We kind of saw that five years from now, this will be a happening intersection," said Kumar, 38.

Hotel Napoleon has 41 king rooms and 17 queen rooms, with two suites available. It's part of the Ascend Hotel Collection of Choice Hotels, a lodging group that provides a reservation system to affiliates.

Guest rooms have 12-foot ceilings and feature high-end mattresses, 250-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets and robes and slippers for guests.

Rooms are $249 a night during the regular season and as low as $179 a night off season.

Luna started out serving breakfast and will add lunch and dinner soon. A beer license has been obtained, and a liquor license is in the works. A hotel grand opening is anticipated in November.

Although the immediate neighborhood has development challenges, including the Sterick Building, a 29-story skyscraper across Madison vacant since 1986, the partners said they're encouraged by development plans in the area announced since they began work last September.

Elsewhere Downtown, Kumar and Patel bought 107 S. Main and are mulling over what to do with the long-time target of the city's anti-neglect campaign.

Napoleon Hill was one of the city's richest residents at the start of the 20th Century. He had a mansion on the northeast corner of Madison and Third, where the Sterick Building now stands.

Hill built 179 Madison, originally known as the Madison Avenue Building, to house the Evening Scimitar, of which he was part owner. A 1983 National Register of Historic Places nomination form said the newspaper and its presses occupied part of the building from 1902 to 1926. Memphis Power and Light, predecessor of Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, later owned and occupied the building.

The National Register nomination describes it as a blend of Beaux-Arts and Romanesque revival architecture. Reminders of the building's past can be found among the sleek, modern fixtures and finishes.

Embedded in the Madison Avenue facade are small shields initialed N and H for the original owner. Ornate lion head masks and fleur-de-lis appear below the roof, above semi-circular, arched windows. A brass grill with a laurel wreath decorates the arched transom window above the main entrance from B.B. King Boulevard (formerly Third Street). A second transom shows remnants of a decal reading "8 South Third."

Dark green marble panels recovered from the facade were incorporated in the lobby bar, and expanses of Tennessee marble have been retained in the lobby.

Kumar said exterior lighting is being installed in the next two to three weeks to bring out the building's architectural detail at night.

Patel said the developers believe the project supports Downtown's rebirth.

"When you take a building like this, that has a unique historical look to it, and you put a hotel into it, that just brings something additional to the city. That creates a vibe, and that's what has happened for us."