Expect a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on when Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Rush, Jerry Lawler, and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top show up in the same place.
That was the scene at the grand opening celebration for the new Hyatt Centric Beale Street hotel, with plenty of excited people holding cell phones waiting to get selfies with the celebs. The event, held April 29th at the hotel on Beale Street and Front Street, drew about 300 people, who toured part of the nine-story, 227 room hotel that includes 12 guest suites. People gathered in the already opened CIMAS restaurant as well as inside and on the massive Beck & Call Riverfront Lounge patio with its Mississippi River view.
The hotel includes 9,000 square feet of meeting and event space created through the conversion of the William C. Ellis and Sons Ironworks and Machine Shop, originally constructed in 1879. It also includes an Event Lawn, 3,500 square feet of outdoor space that overlooks the Mississippi River and the pool deck.
The rooms feature a neutral color palette with vintage graphics, leather headboards, and shower walls etched with Memphis centric names and sights.
The hotel is part of One Beale, the vision of the late Gene Carlisle. The $400 million development will include apartments, two more hotels, and more restaurants.
Gene’s son, One Beale developer Chance Carlisle, who cut the ribbon to herald the opening of the hotel, told the audience he was “worried that this day would not come.” It was “40 years in the making.”
And, he said, “We’re here and I couldn’t be more proud of it.”
The evening included music performed by DJ Alpha Whiskey, Chris Johnson, and a concert by Allen Mack Myers and Moore in the ballroom.
“If Mr. Ellis and Mr. Carlisle could be here, they’d be smiling ear to ear,” Mayor Jim Strickland told the guests.
