Carlisle Development Co. will bring its new, $137 million plans for Central Yards — a mix of condos, retail, parking, and a hotel — to a Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) board next week, seeking a tax break of $24.6 million to make them real.
The Central Yards development idea has been around a long time. An original development project was stymied when an investor was snarled in a Bitcoin scandal. The property was seized by the government and sold at auction to Carlisle.
The roughly 6-acre site in Cooper-Young sits near Central and Cooper. (Right around the Taconganas stand and Bluff City Sports.) The area was once home to a plumber supply shop, which closed. For years now, the vacant shop has stood dilapidated and alone in an empty, weedy field surrounded by chain link topped with concertina wire. All buildings on the site now would be demolished, according to the new plan.
Carlisle’s plan for the spot includes 250 condos, 27 townhomes (each with a two-car garage), a 325-car parking deck, all with resident amenities like a pool. It will also have a five-story hotel with 125 rooms and an 82-car parking lot. The hotel will have 4,160 square feet of commercial space.
“An investment of over $125 million in the site will revitalize a blighted portion of an otherwise thriving neighborhood, and help bridge the gap between Cooper-Young and other Midtown neighborhoods to the north,” Carlisle said in its application to the DMC’s finance branch, the Center City Revenue Finance Corp. That board can finance, own, lease, and dispose of properties and give tax breaks.
Carlisle plans construction to begin the second quarter of this year and have it wrapped up in 2027.
DMC staff reviews each project brought before the board and gives board members its recommendation on them to approve or not. The DMC staff recommended approval of Carlisle’s plan for Central Yard and to give a tax break lasting 20 years. Staff liked that the plan brought new homes and retail spaces, activating now-vacant property, and its new parking spaces.
“The Cooper mixed-use project will bring new vibrancy to area to support the many established businesses in the Cooper-Young neighborhood,” staff said.
