The North Mississippi Allstars (Credit: Federico Sponza)
Music fans are still raving about Get Loud!, the weekly live music events that took many by surprise, yet proved to be one of this summer’s most memorable concert series. As it turns out, it was but one feather in the cap of Downtown Memphis this year, and there’s still more coming. This Friday sees a full blown mini-festival going down, thanks to Memphis Tourism and the Downtown Memphis Commission.
Memphis Music On Main, a free live music event scheduled for Friday, October 29th, will bring some serious musical firepower, including the North Mississippi Allstars, Al Kapone, Southern Avenue, The PRVLG, and Dottie. Performances will take place on two outdoor stages at Main and G.E. Patterson near Central Station, and a second stage at Main and Beale Street near The Orpheum.
If many of the city’s historic Downtown buildings once seemed destined for demolition, including the glorious Orpheum itself, the popular movement to preserve the area has now firmly taken root nearly half a century later. Indeed, the area is seen as key to the city’s identity.
“As the city’s definitive entertainment district, music fuels the vibe in Downtown Memphis. And live music often serves as an invitation to locals and visitors to come join us in downtown,” says Paul Young, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC). “Creating activity that contributes to a vibrant and active downtown is a core part of our mission at the DMC. Combining a Memphis Music Month event with Trolley Night is a great way to celebrate what makes Memphis and our downtown neighborhoods so special.”
This Trolley Night, a regular event sponsored by the South Main Neighborhood Association, and already a bit over the top with Halloween activities this month, will be one to remember with a stellar lineup of some of the city’s best musical artists. It’s a perfect note on which to end an October bursting with local music events.
“Memphis is music. The Memphis sound is what motivates people from across our country and around the world to visit our amazing city,” says Kevin Kane, president & CEO of Memphis Tourism. “On the heels of our Get Loud! live music series on Beale Street, our goal remains the same, celebrating Memphis music by highlighting our music attractions, vibrant live music scene, and artists that define the Memphis sound of today.”
Downtown sidewalks are in need of repair, and a new grant program hopes to help get them fixed.
The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) wants to set aside $50,000 to help Downtown business owners fix sidewalks in front of their properties. The business owners would split the cost of sidewalk repairs with the DMC through grants up to $5,000.
For now, the program is only available for businesses located in the Central Business Improvement District (CBID). There, the DMC staff has identified 60 parcels that could be eligible for the grant program.
The main aim of the program is to improve walkability, said Brett Roler, the DMC’s vice president of planning and development. It’s also about unlocking the potential of parking lots and parking garages, and creating a better retail environment Downtown.
“Our retail strategy says that the way buildings look matters, the way the public realm looks matters,” Roler said. “It not only communicates to people that this is a place that folks care about, but it also makes it easier [to walk] and you likely feel safer walking within the retail nodes like South Main or the Edge District or the Main Street mall.
“It also makes sure that between those same nodes, you’re much more likely to stop at more places, shop at more stores, and it’s all just a more enjoyable, pleasant experience.”
Sidewalk repair is a thorny issue in Memphis, and it has a past. It’s up to property owners to fix them, not the city, and there’s a whole lot of broken sidewalks out there.
The city has 3,429 miles of sidewalk, enough to stretch from Texas to Hawaii. A 2015 survey of peer cities found Memphis has more sidewalks and spent less on them. Atlanta, for example, had about 2,200 miles of sidewalk and budgeted $4.3 million for them.
(Credit: Memphis Flyer) As of 2015
Since 2004, Memphis has cumulatively budgeted only $334,000 on its sidewalks. To fix them all, it would cost about $1.1 billion, city figures say, to the tune of about $19 million per year for the next 24 years.
However, sidewalks here are in bad shape. The latest figures from the city say 80 percent to 95 percent of the city’s immense sidewalk network is in need of repair. Immediate repair is needed on around 33 percent of sidewalks here.
Memphis City Council members cracked down on sidewalk repairs in 2014, threatening fines to homeowners who did not fix walks. The council relaxed after a number of those fined were on fixed incomes or could not pay and established a financial assistance program for some sidewalk repairs. Current council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas floated a proposal last year that would stop the sale of properties with noncompliant sidewalks.
For Downtown’s pilot repair program, Roler said his team will focus on the quality of the sidewalks (which ones are in need of repair) but also where they are. They’ll look for sidewalks along main pedestrian connections on “signature streets,” from South Main to Beale Street, for example, or Madison and Main.
Roler dislikes having to tell business owners they are responsible for their own sidewalks. The DMC, he said, has been hesitant to put money in sidewalk repairs because “you can argue sidewalk repairs are the responsibility of the property owner.”
“But, at the end of the day, if Downtown is not seen as a safe, comfortable place to walk, our retail businesses aren’t going to be successful,” Roler said. “People aren’t going to want to live here. Businesses are not going to move here.”
PHOTO BY JON W. SPARKS.
Nelson Gutierrez’s art explores human identity, experience, and history.
Artist Nelson Gutierrez was born in Colombia and worked in various places around the world and in the United States before coming to Memphis six years ago. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone as devoted to local artists and art.
Gutierrez has an exhibition opening this weekend at 2021 Projects, a gallery at 55 South Main Street. That space is not the usual art venue, however, and that’s due to the artist working with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) and numerous other artists in town to make it an attraction on several levels.
That otherwise vacant space is part of the Open on Main retail initiative, a project that goes to the heart of the DMC’s mission to boost the economic presence of Downtown. There are, as any who stroll along Main Street will attest, plenty of empty storefronts. Open on Main makes it possible for entrepreneurs, artists, and small business owners to take a low-risk chance on testing their concepts Downtown in some of these storefronts.
The Walk, ink and pencil on paper, 54 x 8 inches, 2021
Open on Main
Brett Roler, vice president of planning for the DMC, says, “Blight and vacancy drag down property values, curtail a vibrant street life, and make it harder for our existing businesses to thrive.” It is clearly better to have open doors and engaged pedestrians. The program has helped more than 30 store operators test the retail market Downtown, with more than 80 percent participation by minority/women-owned business enterprises.
Open on Main typically provides rent-free opportunities for tenants to have their pop-up businesses on Main Street. The arrangement is usually for a month, but Gutierrez was able to secure a six-month plan since he was having rotating exhibitions of about a month each. His stewardship began in January and has gone well enough that the DMC has agreed to let him continue using the space through December.
“What they’re doing is letting entrepreneurs use the empty spaces temporarily in order to test businesses,” Gutierrez says. “It’s not specifically for art, but as that’s my field, I said that that would be a good thing to do.”
He was talking with the DMC last October when so much was still closed to public activity, but they realized it was the time to start looking at ways to reactivate the art scene. “I knew there were going to be a lot of obstacles and limitations due to the pandemic, but we had the tools to do a lot of things virtually. It wasn’t just the exhibitions or the physical space, but also the social media that we would promote, and the interviews we’d do, and promoting the website.”
Gutierrez got together with artist Carl Moore and discussed who could be part of 2021 Projects. “We wanted to help the artists that are not represented by a commercial gallery, so that was our main criterion,” Gutierrez said. “Carl has been here for a very long time, so he knows more people than I do after only six years that I’ve been in the city. We made a list of people that would be able to participate. Another criterion was the quality of the work, so those people had more need to find spaces to execute their work or to reach the public.”
Artists who have exhibited so far are Andrea Morales and Khara Woods (February-March), Maritza Dávila and Carl Moore (March-April), and Johana Moscoso and Scott Carter (May). Gutierrez’s retrospective show runs from Friday, June 4th, through Friday, June 25th.
Norma Constanza Esguerra, plexiglass and MDF, 25 inches diameter, 2019
Portrait of the Artist
Gutierrez’s work is very much grounded in his experiences in Colombia, which have been, he says, in a type of civil asymmetrical war among the Colombian government, left-wing communist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the drug cartels.
“It’s a really complex conflict,” Gutierrez says. “And I grew up in the middle of that. The government was fighting to provide order and stability. The guerrillas claimed to be fighting to provide social justice. The paramilitary groups were reacting to threats by guerrilla movements and to protect private interests. The drug cartels were fighting to protect their own businesses. And basically the people that most suffered were the civilians at large.”
He says most fighting was happening in remote rural areas in mountains and jungles. “There were several cases of terrorist attacks in big cities, which increased in the mid-’80s to the early ’90s. I was affected directly by that violence. Everybody in Colombia knows someone that at some point was kidnapped. Everybody in Colombia knows someone that at some point was badly hurt or killed by these types of situations. So that was our reality.”
In the late 1990s, Gutierrez left his homeland and went to England to study for his master’s degree. It was transformative. “When I started seeing the whole thing from outside, everything changed because when I was living in Colombia, I was used to it,” he says. “That was what we were seeing every single day in the news. We didn’t even have a sense of shock anymore. That’s not normal.”
He started to do some work on the subject of kidnapping. “There were about 1,500 people kidnapped,” he says, “so the work is about that and the spaces where people are kidnapped and how families suffer — all the psychological impacts of these particular crimes in a society.”
And there were the land mines. Gutierrez says more than 11,000 people were killed or wounded by land mines in Colombia. While in England, he did an installation for UNICEF and the Colombian Embassy regarding that. Despite a 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, the United States, along with China, India, Pakistan, and Russia, have not signed the treaty. Colombia, however, did sign it.
Youth, acrylic on paper, 25 x 25 inches, 2021
The Road to Memphis
After his master’s degree, Gutierrez went back to Colombia to teach for a couple of years, and he met his wife. They moved to Miami where he worked for an educational foundation. After four years there, he went to Washington, D.C., for eight years, continuing to do his art and to teach. His wife worked with nonprofits, including United Way International, until she received an offer from the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), the fundraising organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
And that’s how they came to Memphis.
He got an offer to work with ArtsMemphis as an artist advisory council member in 2016. “I was helping to understand better the situation of diversity in the city and in the county and how we could impact, in a more balanced way, the artists in the city based on that,” he says. In those years, he met artists and did work with the UrbanArt Commission. One of those artists he met was Carl Moore, who told Gutierrez about the program.
Being able to secure 2021 Projects for an additional six months was a definite win for Gutierrez. “When we first made the list of artists, the list was really extensive,” he says. “It’s not just the people that we’re showing now — there are a lot more people that we would like to support and show their work.”
Sorting Through His Passions
As for his own work, he continues to address the issues in his home country. “Having lived that conflict from inside and then seeing it from outside and seeing it now after 20 years, how do I feel about that?” he wonders. “I don’t feel like I’m a hundred percent Colombian anymore — it’s not that I’m not Colombian, but I don’t feel as I used to feel before. Things have changed, and I have changed. I’m trying to understand that and understand the history of the country and understand that as an outsider-insider. I don’t know — is that like a weird situation of non-place?”
These are the musings of an artist sorting through his passions. But it is what artists do, and Gutierrez is not idling. “Some of the work that I’m doing now, some of the drawings that I’ve been working on are based on photographs from the 1940s and 1950s,” he says.
Some of those photographs were taken on April 9, 1948. A political assassination that day sparked violent riots that came to be known as “El Bogotazo.” It changed history.
“That started the violence that we’re living in now,” Gutierrez says. “So that’s what I am working on now. And how am I seeing that from the outside 75 years later? Even after 75 years, you see repercussions of those acts.”
Whatever questions he still has, Gutierrez knows this about his art: “The intention of the work is to point to this reality and to engage people in a critical debate around it changing in the public their habitual way of looking and thinking, in an effort to create empathy again.”
Maria Cristina
Another view comes from Marina Pacini, who was chief curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art from 2001 to 2019. Speaking of a recent series, she says, “Like his earlier works, the images are a graphic exploration of human interconnections, and they emphatically demand close attention from viewers, who are rewarded for their effort. With a simplicity of means, Gutierrez packs both a literal and a metaphorical punch.”
Downtown leaders sent that “soul” sign proposed for Mud Island back to the drawing board this week but they approved projects that could bring another (smaller) grocery Downtown, revive a blighted building, and give Alcencia’s a glow up.
The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) Design Review Board (DRB) voted down a planned art installation on Mud Island from the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) on Wednesday. The installation would have brought a large (40 feet tall and 46 feet wide) black and yellow sign (which some said looked like a billboard) to the island. The sign was to face Downtown from the island with large words reading “we have no time for things with no soul.”
MRPP leaders hoped the sign would have drawn visitors to the island from Downtown. For this, they pointed at the success of the “MEMPHIS” sign they erected on the island in 2019. The sign quickly became one of the city’s most Instagrammed spots.
DRB board members invited the MRPP to submit new designs for the installation.
Big River Market (516 Tennessee)
Photos and renderings from Urban Arch Associates
At that same Wednesday meeting, DRB members helped move forward a plan to bring a small market (think: light groceries, coffee, grab-and-go food) to the old Emerge Memphis building in South End. The application for Big River Market describes it as a “boutique market store.” The 2,000-square-foot store would have food, drink, groceries, and coffee.
This comes after last months’ announcement from Castle Retail Group (the company behind Cash Saver and South Point Grocery) to put a full-fledged grocery store on South Main.
“The applicant is excited to join the newly announced South Point Grocery in bringing food accessibility to the southern end of Downtown,” reads the DRB staff report. “The applicant views this market not in competition with the grocer, but as a small market option for those who live or work within a .3-mile radius of the site.
“The business model is built upon having an established consumer base within walking distance. The location especially provides convenience for the South Bluff neighborhood, residents of the Lofts, and the Tennessee Brewery residents.”
Brown GirlsDevelopment (337 S Fourth)
Photos and renderings from Self+Tucker Architects
The DRB also approved the renovation of a dilapidated building at Fourth and Vance into a modern building with a mix of retail spaces, apartments, and a bar.
Brown Girls LLC is leading the renovation project for the building that has laid dormant, broken, and graffitied for years. The building would feature 15 retail spaces. Twelve of them would be “micro-suites” and the other three would be traditional retail sizes. The building would also house four apartments and a bar on the first floor.
Alcenia’s (317 N Main)
Photos and rendering from Self+Tucker Architects
Soul-food icon Alcenia’s was approved for a project to spruce the place up inside and out.
Exterior improvements include new paint, new awnings, new lightings, new trim, and new windows and doors. It will also bring a handicap accessible entrance and a new outdoor seating area.
A rendering of the proposed installation. Courtesy the City of Memphis
A new, Instagram-ready art installation could come to Mud Island soon.
Last month, the city of Memphis parks department asked the Downtown Memphis Commission for permission to build the temporary installation. The project would bring a huge black-and-yellow, billboard-like art installation that reads: “We have no time for things with no soul.”
The installation would be 46 feet high and 40 feet wide. Before the billboard would be a trail of 54 flags and three short platforms for seating. The sign would face east, easily visible from Riverside Drive. It would be erected close to the new “Memphis” sign recently placed on Mud Island.
The installation would be erected before the Memorial Day opening of Mud Island and would remain until the end of November, according to the city’s application.
Here’s a look at some images from the application:
Paul Young will lead the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) after a board vote Tuesday morning.
Young has been the director of the city of Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for many years. He takes the post as DMC president and CEO after Jennifer Oswalt left in November.
The DMC hired Adams Keegan to search for Oswalt’s replacement. The local and national search found 30 applicants. The firm, ultimately, recommended Young.
DMC board member Joanne Massey, director of the city’s Office of Business Diversity and Compliance, said she’s worked with Young over the years and said he is a “model of effective leadership” and that he “drives outcomes with data to back up decisions.”
“We are thrilled to have you on board to lead the DMC into the future,” said DMC chairwoman Deni Reilly.
Young said he takes the post at a difficult time for Downtown in the wake of the effects of COVID-19.
“We have to help Downtown recover from a very, very tough period of time,” Young said. “Everyone has had a tough time but especially Downtown Memphis with a loss of visitors, and businesses have lost a lot of revenue. There’s a lot of work to do to recover and this will be an all-hands-on-deck effort.”
Young said he’ll work to ensure Downtown Memphis will reflect the character of the city of Memphis. He said he hopes to see increases in minority businesses Downtown and spending with minority businesses on Downtown projects.
Groove On-Demand will offer affordable ridesharing options to Memphians
The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA), Downtown Memphis Commission, and Memphis Medical District Collaborative have partnered to create a new transit service that will offer an alternative to Uber and Lyft in the city of Memphis. Called Groove On-Demand the dynamically routed public transit service will launch on the 10th of February.
The goal of the new service is to give to affordable, efficient, and convenient public transit for all riders in the greater Downtown Memphis area. In a statement, the partnership mentions Downtown Development and an increase in population as the basis for the creation of the program.
“Nearly three years ago, MATA was selected to receive free technical assistance to help develop mobility-on-demand projects such as this one,” said Gary Rosenfeld, chief executive officer at MATA. “The launch of Groove On-Demand is another opportunity for MATA to improve how people connect to their destinations using an on-demand-response service that transports riders directly from their doorstep to their destination. Another great benefit of this service is that it will greatly improve transit service to people who live in density-challenged neighborhoods.”
Groove On-Demand will work in a similar fashion to other ride-sharing services, with riders hailing a vehicle directly from their smartphone using the Groove On-Demand mobile app. Riders will be able to travel to any location within the service area from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. Rides will be similar to that of a bus trip starting at $1.25 and going up to $0.75 for each additional passenger. Concessions for seniors, students, and riders with disabilities are $0.50 per ride.
“Our work to create a ‘Downtown for Everyone’ includes increasing mobility options across this geography. Working with MATA and MMDC to provide equitable transit options in Downtown just makes sense. Whether you are a commuter, resident, patient, or student the new Groove On-Demand provides a low-cost shared-transit opportunity,” said Lauren Crabtree, transportation program manager at Downtown Memphis Commission.
“Additionally, increasing mobility choice is a core function of Downtown’s new Transportation Management Association or TMA. Providing an on-demand transit service like this a great start.”
As a part of their pledge to ensure accessibility for all riders, Groove On-Demand will provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles and booking for those without a smartphone by calling them directly at (901) 763-8422. For more information about Groove On-Demand visit their website.
Malone Park Commons (MPC) units will be move-in ready next month, and local leaders say they bring a needed housing product to Downtown and the Medical District.
MPC housing development is currently accepting applications. The development will include 35 units with a mix of building types that were common prior to World War II.
Phase one of the project has 11 small cottages that share a courtyard. The cottages will range from 330 to 1,100 square feet and will have luxury amenities like red oak hardwood floors and large front porches.
“Many architects and builders today focus on materials and methods to promote sustainability. We believe beauty is just as, if not more important, as sustainability,” says developer Andre Jones of Jones Urban Development. “Simple, beautiful, flexible buildings that encourage human activity and interaction will be loved and repurposed for years to come. This was our vision for Malone Park Commons.” Jones Urban Development bought the land in Uptown from the Community Redevelopment Agency.
“2021 marks the 99th anniversary of zoning in Memphis, and for most of that time the zoning code promoted low-density suburban development while discouraging the kinds of places that make cities special. That changed with the adoption of the Unified Development Code (UDC) in 2010,” says Josh Whitehead, zoning administrator for Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development. “Malone Park Commons is one of the clearest manifestations of one of the UDC’s primary goals: to promote innovate urban infill that blends in with the existing built environment.”
Financial incentives for this project were made possible by the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC). Financial Federal Bank has been a strong advocate for emerging developers and traditional, walkable neighborhood development. The Jones Urban plan is part of a larger revitalization in the area, with recent and planned investments in Uptown, St. Jude, The Pinch, and the Renasant Convention Center.
“Malone Park Commons is the type of project the DMC loves to support, one built with inclusivity and equity at the core,” says Brett Roler, vice president of planning and development for the Downtown Memphis Commission. “The project is being built in a key Downtown neighborhood by an emerging developer, who is building a new housing capacity in the same neighborhood where he lives.”
The pandemic has dealt a blow to artists, but the creatives, undaunted, are fighting back.
For the next several months, the space at 55 South Main will be the home of 2021 Projects, a temporary gallery featuring the work of established and up-and-coming artists from the region. It’s part of the Downtown Memphis Commission’s (DMC) Open on Main initiative to energize and bring attention to available spaces.
Over the six-month schedule, the gallery will host a series of virtual and physical exhibits, opening receptions, lectures, and artist talks to engage the community.
The 2021 Projects schedule:
January 15th to February 12th: AtTest by Cat & Nick Peña, with a live Zoom interview Friday, January 22nd from 6-7 p.m.
February 19 to March 19: Andrea Morales & Khara Woods
March 26 to April 23: Maritza Davila & Carl Moore
April 30 to May 28: Johana Moscoso & Scott Carter
June 4 to June 25: Nelson Gutierrez Retrospective Show
“Blight and vacancy drag down property values, curtail a vibrant street life, and make it harder for our existing businesses to thrive,” says Brett Roler, VP of Planning for the DMC. “Filling high-profile gaps in street-level vibrancy is a top priority. In addition to showcasing available property, Open on Main offers entrepreneurs, artists, and small business owners a low-risk opportunity to test their concepts Downtown.”
The pop-up gallery offers safe viewing opportunities from outside the gallery on Main Street. Nelson Gutierrez is resident artist, curator and director of 2021 Projects. Carl Moore is advising artist for the project.
Other art-related Open on Main activations include Memphis Modern Market relocating to 65 Monroe from February to May 2021, and the continuation of Mary Ellen’s Kelly’s ArtChat series, which began as a part of her 2020 pop-up gallery and will continue in 2021.
Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) president Jennifer Oswalt will leave the organization at year’s end and will be temporarily replaced by former DMC staffer Ray Brown until a permanent replacement is found.
Oswalt joined the DMC as chief financial officer in 2015. She was elevated to president in 2017. Before her work with the Downtown Memphis Commission, Oswalt was CFO for Contemporary Media, Inc., parent company of the Memphis Flyer.
She leaves the DMC for a position in Knoxville with HF Capital. There, she will build the newly formed Family Investment Office for the Haslam family.
“Downtown Memphis is in a special place with eager and dedicated developers, supportive city and county government, and the opportunity for an influx of new residents and Downtowners of all types,” Oswalt said about the future of Downtown Memphis. “I am confident in the DMC staff’s strength, passion, and dedication to continuing the work of bettering Downtown to attract even more investment in years to come.”
In her time with the DMC, the organization completed a parking study and a Downtown master plan that focused on the area’s core, enhancing walkability, and strengthening connections to the riverfront.
The Downtown development pipeline rose to historic levels under Oswalt’s leadership with projects like The Walk, One Beale, Tennessee Brewery, Orion and Rise projects, Loews, Arrive, Central Station and Canopy Hotels, and the recently announced Mobility Center.
Downtown Memphis Commission
Ray Brown
Brown will step in as the DMC conducts a comprehensive search for Oswalt’s replacement. He has served as the DMC’s vice president of Planning and Development. He is the former chair of the Downtown Memphis Design Review Board and the current treasurer of the Center City Development Corporation.
“I believe in Downtown Memphis as the heart of our city. In various roles over two decades, I have been privileged to help Downtown grow towards its full potential,” Brown said. “I thank the DMC for entrusting me with this stewardship.”
A DMC search committee for the position will begin identifying and vetting candidates in early 2021. The position description will be posted on the DMC website later this month.
“We are truly grateful to Jennifer for her excellent stewardship of Downtown over the past four years,” said Deni Reilly, DMC board chair. “Her ability to lead humbly, with vision, acumen, and integrity will serve her well in her new position.
“It is a testament to not only Jennifer but the DMC and Memphis that Governor [Bill] Haslam and his family sought her out for this high-profile position. We know she will soar in her new role and will always carry Downtown Memphis in her heart.”
Downtown Memphis Comission 
Downtown Memphis Commission 
Downtown Memphis Commission