Beale Street’s seemingly unending chain of neon has two dim links, and the street’s manager hopes to make them shine again.
The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) is looking for proposals from businesses to fill two “extremely rare” vacancies on a street that has long been Tennessee’s top tourist destination.
These spaces once housed Black Diamond bar (its still-swinging sign calls it “The Jewel of Beale“) and Tater Red’s Lucky Mojos and Voodoo Healing (known to most as just Tater Red’s and as the place on Beale you could get a pack of smokes, a Coke, and a Memphis-themed, penis-shaped souvenir hex candle).
Black Diamond closed in 2012, according to a Flyer story at the time, on an expectation that Tater Red’s would expand into the space. Tater Red’s remained open but struggled through the pandemic. The shop continued operating through November 2020, though the owner Leo Allred said he was considering closing. Red’s closed temporarily in January 2021 and was closed for good by at least September 2021.
The DMC opened requests for proposals for the two empty spaces in April. Proposals are due by May 20th. Finalists will be interviewed late June/early July. Tenant selections and lease negotiations are expected to run until early August.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for any business that wants to experience the vibrancy of Beale Street,” said DMC president Paul Young. “It’s one of the top tourism destinations in the state of Tennessee and in the nation, quite frankly.”
The opportunity on Beale is, indeed, rare, Young said. Other spaces on Beale are vacant but those spaces have leases. Negotiations on those leases are underway. The vacancies in the former Black Diamond and Tater Red’s locations are “open, free, and clear,” Young said.
In the past, lease holders have been able to sell their leases to new tenants. (This is the way new businesses have traditionally secured a space on the street, Young said.) They negotiate terms and, then, must get approval from the city of Memphis.
So, these deals come to city leaders with terms already secured. Young said the deals for the Black Diamond and Tater Red’s locations will be the first time in a long time the city has been able to offer open solicitations on Beale Street real estate.
Young said he wasn’t sure when the last time this opportunity arose on the street. When he asks other Beale Street merchants about it, they can’t remember either, he said.
The DMC is marketing the locations — 151 Beale, 153 Beale, and 155 Beale — as one. The whole suite offers 3,300 square feet of interior space featuring bathrooms, a kitchen, two entrances on Beale, and a 2,500-square-foot rear patio space. All of it is sandwiched between King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille and B.B. King’s Blues Club.
Merchants and visitors have said they’d love to have more on Beale open during mornings and day times, Young said. But “nothing is off the table,” when it comes to the vacant locations.
“We want to see what’s out there and who is interested in being on the street,” Young said. “So, this really is an open solicitation.”
DMC president Paul Young said 2020 was a “tough year” for Beale businesses but they “rebounded pretty well” in 2021. Business is trending up in 2022, he said, though it’s still not back up to some of its peak periods from the past. But the rising trend line has continued, especially as the Grizzlies have continued a run in the NBA playoffs.
Because of Covid, tourism spending in Tennessee fell by $7.7 billion between 2019 and 2020, according to the latest figures from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Tourism dollars fell by about $1.2 billion between those years, from about $3.7 billion in 2019 to about $2.5 billion in 2020.
