Tag: Paul Morris

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1 S. Main Eviction Case Evokes Protest, New Legal Controversy

CREDIT: Chris McCoy

Laura Jean Hocking

About 100 people rallied outside City Hall on Monday, April 9th, to protest the pending eviction of artists and filmmakers Christopher Reyes and Sarah Fleming from their home at 1 S. Main.

“This rally was organized because we could not stand by silently as our friends and fellow artists were so ruthlessly mistreated by the new owners of the Madison, Aparium Hotel Group,” said Joann Self Selvidge of Memphis Women in Film, who organized the rally.

Self Selvidge said Fleming was a founding member of Memphis Women in Film and “vital to the Memphis film community. … Her list of awards and accolades is too long to cover here. But unless you know her personally, you might not realize the full extent of who she is outside of her career.

“So, I want you all to stop and think for just a moment what they are going through right now, as a family. As a mom, Sarah is struggling to explain to her 3-year-old daughter why mommy and daddy are packing up all of their belongings into big boxes in the middle of their living room floor.

In this past week since the court decision was made, her 9-month-old daughter, whom she’s still nursing, got baby measles, a virus that gave her a bumpy red rash all over her body. The entire family is suffering from the stress of an eminent forcible eviction from their home, their home that they have owned for 25 years.”

Chris McCoy

Musicians Will Sexton and Amy LaVere

Citing the examples of Austin and Nashville, musician John Paul Keith said “More and more, you’re going to see groups like Aparium coming into Memphis to try to make money off of the culture we create every day.

“If you look at Aparium’s website, it’s got a bunch of stuff about how they like to partner with local creatives. Well, we see what they really do to local creatives, and their actions speak louder than words.

“We need to speak with our actions as artists and be unified. We need to make sure we don’t give them the benefit of our labor. We need to make sure they realize what they have done, and how seriously we take it.

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“And I’ll tell you who else needs to understand that — City Hall and the county commission, the mayor’s office, and the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), who gave these people a $100,000 grant.

“Not only did Aparium get a $100,000 grant to do what they did to Christopher and Sarah, a Shelby County judge awarded them $102,000 in damages, adding incredible insult to injury.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is an absolute outrage and a crime. Like Woody Guthrie says, some people rob you with a fountain pen. That’s what happened to those guys — they were robbed.”

Reyes and his mother, Vernice Kuglin, who bought the property from Henry Turley in 1993, have filed an appeal of the March 27th to vacate their home and pay Aparium Hotel Group $102,000 in damages. Kuglin, Reyes, and Fleming declined to be interviewed for this article, citing the appeal and ongoing negotiations.

The ruling hinged on the interpretation of documents related to the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) program, which is administered by the DMC.

Article II, Section 28 of the Tennessee Constitution states that “all property, real, personal, or mixed, shall be subject to taxation,” except in the cases of property “held by the state, by counties, cities, or towns and used exclusively for public or corporation purposes.”

So, in order for governments to give tax breaks to developers looking to rebuild their city centers, the owners of the properties must surrender their titles to the DMC’s finance arm, which then leases it back to them.

Instead of paying taxes, the property owners technically pay rent to the Center City Finance Corporation (CCFC), a tax exempt entity. These PILOT leases contain a clause that gives the owners of the properties, who are technically called beneficial owners, an option to repurchase the properties from the DMC for a nominal amount. Then, the property is re-assessed and taxed at the normal rate.

“During the PILOT term, our CCRFC board is the technical owner of the property,” said Jennifer Oswalt, DMC president. “There is a $1,000 termination fee at the end of the PILOT period. This fee covers costs associated with the legal transfer of the property title. Our attorneys and the PILOT holder, or his/her attorney, monitor and execute this transaction.”

Paul Morris served on the board of directors of the DMC from 2003-2010, and then as president of the organization from 2010-2015.

“Chris Reyes and Sarah Fleming were very helpful to the Downtown Memphis Commission during my tenure there,” Morris said. “They were consultants to us as well as producers of many of the communication and marketing tools that we used to attract Downtown businesses. I got to know them as Downtown neighbors and folks that make the neighborhood better.”

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Morris is a lawyer who has reviewed all of the documents in 1 S. Main case, but he emphasizes that he does not speak on behalf of the DMC.

The PILOT program’s purpose, he says, “is to incentivize development of property and make it more valuable. The idea is, in certain cases, a property owner doing that would drive up their taxes so much that they would lose money on the deal.

“So, they wouldn’t do it in the first place. To incentivize them to improve their property, we don’t let them pay less in taxes, but we freeze their tax assessment at the pre-development level for a number of years.”

Current DMC head Oswalt says, “We have 107 active PILOTs, with an average remaining term of seven years. We cannot know the full value of the properties until they return to the tax rolls but these projects garnered over $1.3 billion in investment so far.”

Developer Henry Turley said the PILOT program has been vital to the redevelopment of downtown Memphis.

“We couldn’t have done virtually any of our products, save for the opportunities to do them with PILOTs,” Turley said. “When I added up 31 PILOT projects that I had done, including Mud Island, South Bluffs, the Cotton Exchange, Shrine Building, Paperworks … the total city and county taxes that were being paid pre-redevelopment was $190,000. The year I measured it, the taxes were over $7 million. It’s the best tool the city and county have to cause the redevelopment of the city.”

Turley first acquired the 1 S. Main property in 1986. In 1993, Reyes, then a freshly minted Memphis College of Art (MCA) graduate, and Kuglin, a pilot for FedEx, approached Turley about buying the building. But they could not secure enough financing, so Turley offered to sell them the second floor for $55,000.

“We created a condominium in the building for the purpose of selling — of conveying is maybe a more proper word,” said Turley. “I remember the lawyer [S. Joshua Kahane] shouted me down for using the term ‘sell’ — for conveying our beneficial interest in unit two of the condominium to Vernice and Chris, because we wanted to see it used as an art space and as a living space.

“When we conveyed it to them, it was totally unfinished, just exterior walls, floor, roof, and windows. We wanted to see it animated and used for the purpose it is being used for. We created a condominium for that purpose and sold our interest to them for their use and benefit.”

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After 30 years of redevelopment, such arrangements are now common Downtown.

“The Cotton Exchange Building, where I’m sitting right now, is a two-unit condominium, exactly like 1. S. Main,” said Turley. “They’re all like that.”

Under the terms of the PILOT lease, the sale — or, conveyance of the beneficial interest — was handled with a sub-lease which gave Reyes and Kuglin the option to buy the property for $1 when the PILOT lease expired, just like any PILOT beneficial owner.

At the time of the 1993 sale (or conveyance), the PILOT lease was set to expire in December 2001.

But in the late 1990s, then-DMC president Ed Armentrout spearheaded a 15-year extension of PILOT leases, with the funds earmarked for the construction of Downtown public amenities.

In 2001, when 1 S. Main’s PILOT lease was set to expire, it was instead extended. Critically, the original sublease with Kuglin and Reyes was not changed.

In 2007, Turley sold — or, conveyed his remaining beneficial interest in — the first floor of the building to the owners of the Madison Hotel, which is next door to 1 S. Main.

“We made it utterly clear to Muhommoud [Hakimian, Madison Hotel owner] that we were conveying to him our interest in the property, less that which we had conveyed to Vernie [Kuglin],” Turley said. “And we made it utterly clear to him in the public recording and discussions that Vernie had a right to buy her part of the condominium for $1 at the end of the PILOT lease.”

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Morris says that, before the current lawsuit, the question of ownership of the 1 S. Main condo was clear.

“There was no doubt in the minds of Chris or his mom [Kuglin] or Sarah or the person who sold it to them, who was Henry Turley,” Morris said. “And there was no doubt in the minds of the current owners of the Madison Hotel who, on May 3, 2016 wrote a letter to the Center City Finance Corporation in which they acknowledged that the property they were acquiring did not include the condo that Chris and Sarah occupy.”

The Aparium Hotel Group purchased — or, were conveyed beneficial interest in — the Madison Hotel and the 1 S. Main building in June 2016. In December, 2016, the PILOT extension expired, triggering the new owner’s option to get the title from the Center City Finance Corporation.1 S. Main LLC, the company Aparium Hotel Group created to administer the building, exercised its option on June 14, 2017.

Morris says that in his experience, “It’s very typical in these PILOT leases for the beneficial owner — who is technically the lessee under the PILOT lease — once the PILOT term has expired, to take many months, if not over a year to exercise their option to gain title.

“It was routine for the title holder — in those cases being the Center City Finance Corporation — to execute quit-claim deeds in favor of the beneficial owner long after the PILOT term ended.”

Oswalt said, “In this specific case, there was a sublease which included a purchase option at the end of the PILOT. It is common for PILOT holders to enter into subleases during the PILOT term.

“Such subleases are legally ‘attached’ to the PILOT lease; however the, Center City Finance Corporation/DMC are not involved in such subleases in any way. Practically and legally, these agreements are between the PILOT holder and the sublease tenants.”

On July 25, 2017, Aparium Group filed a lawsuit in General Sessions court claiming that Kuglin and Reyes were in violation of their sublease agreement and seeking to evict them.

“It struck me as unfortunately being in the wrong court,” says Turley. “It seems to be a question of title. It’s an extraordinary case to be in General Sessions court, which is typically a landlord-tenant court.”

Morris says, “What’s interesting to me about that is, this major corporation with accountants and lawyers, took six months after their lease ended to exercise their option to acquire title.

“After filing for the forcible eviction, without giving Chris any notice on July 25, 2017, on Dec. 19, 2017, they filed an application for an incentive [grant] with the Center City Development Corporation in which they represented that there were no civil proceedings pending by them. That is false. They submitted an application that contained a false statement.”

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The 1 S. Main LLC was awarded a $100,000 grant to improve the facade of the building.

“We understand the legal action was taken after the application was received by the DMC,” says Oswalt. “The grant was approved but has not been paid, as it is a reimbursable grant paid upon proof of completion in accordance with all requirements.

“The DMC’ s exterior improvement grant program is designed to incentivize property owners to improve their building facades. The Madison Hotel owners applied for and met all of the eligibility requirements for this program, which must be administered fairly and without bias by the DMC. The DMC supports positive facade improvements and we welcome investment into Downtown Memphis.”

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In court on March 27, 2018, Aparium Hotel Group’s lawyers argued that the facade improvements covered by the grant applied only to the downstairs of the property, and not to Reyes’ condo.

When the eviction ruling was handed down on March 27th, the news sent shock waves through not only the film and arts community, but also the legal community and Downtown property holders.

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“What a dreadful miscarriage of equitable justice,” says Turley.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a beneficial owner under a lease like this be divested of their title,” says Morris. “I have never seen a situation where someone who held the beneficial ownership of a property Downtown, via PILOT lease or PILOT sublease, which this is, where it is questioned whether they are ultimately the ones to regain title.

“As far as I know, no one has ever questioned that — and I don’t want to name names of other major property owners downtown who don’t own title to their properties, but everyone assumes … not just assumes, knows that they’re the beneficial owners.”

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Part of Aparium Group’s winning argument was that the sublease Kuglin and Reyes had under the PILOT lease expired in 2001, when the PILOT was renewed, and that they failed at that time to exercise their option to purchase, and thus their option had expired.

But Morris says there is no time limit to exercise the option specified in the sublease or in any other agreements.

“Looking just at the terms of the sublease in isolation, one could conclude that Kuglin had an option to gain title for a dollar as of Dec. 30, 2001,” Morris said. “But as a matter of fact, it would have been impossible for her to exercise her option at that time, because the party with whom she had executed the sublease didn’t have title.

“Title was still with the Center City Revenue Finance Corp., and pursuant to the PILOT lease extension, would remain with the Center City Finance Corp. until Dec. 15, 2016 at least.

“As we saw in this case, it stayed with the Center City Finance Corp. until June 14, 2017. What that means is, the first moment that Kuglin or Chris Reyes could have possibly gained title under the sublease, pursuant to their $1 option, was June 14, 2017.

“That was a publicly filed document, but no one gave them notice that 1 S. Main LLC had acquired the title on June 14, 2017. About a month later, they got sued. They never got a real chance to exercise their option.”

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Could this ruling set a precedent with ominous implications for other downtown property owners?

“I don’t know,” Morris said. “I think given the opportunity to present all of the facts in evidence, a judge on appeal will likely find the other way. … The implications beyond private agreements are limited.

“It’s important to note, because some people think that this was a PILOT lease, or that the DMC could have stepped in legally and done something, and that’s just not the case.

I think this is a purely private legal dispute, but it does have public implications because of the fact that the nature of the PILOT program, which is what’s involved with this as a master lease, does make the situation more complicated, and led to the confusion here.”

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Speaking at the protest in front of Memphis City Hall on April 9, Pat Mitchell of the Beale Street Caravan radio show said, “This is a watershed moment. We have a crucial choice in front of us: Do we stand by the side of artists and creatives, or do we stand with those who want to harm artists and creatives?

“This is a simple choice. If creatives are a key part of our strategy to attract businesses and investment to Memphis, we need to value creatives and who they are first. We need to keep them in their homes, keep them contributing to their city.”

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News The Fly-By

Update on Beale Street Board

CREDIT: Bianca Phillips

Beale Street has seen its own share of the blues over the years, thanks to a long-standing feud between the street’s former manager, Performa, and its lease-holder, the Beale Street Development Corporation (BSDC).

But it looks like management of the entertainment district might be entering a period of stability. The Beale Street Tourism Development Authority (BSTDA) is serving as the street’s new manager, and the board is currently working on prioritizing the street’s needs.

The board was created by Mayor A C Wharton’s office and approved by the Memphis City Council in April. Made up of 13 Beale Street stakeholders, the new group has a lot of work ahead.

The control of Beale Street currently resides with the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC). The DMC has been serving as the interim managers of the street since January 1st, 2014, when they took over for the entertainment district’s long-standing manager Performa Entertainment.

Bianca Phillips

In 2012, the BSDC sued Performa, which had a lease/management deal with the city for more than 30 years, claiming the management company had violated the terms of its sublease. A judge ruled that Performa wasn’t in default. But the following January, Performa filed for reorganization in bankruptcy court and agreed to assign its sublease back to the city.

The BSTDA cannot take over for the DMC until they have a lease, which must be approved by the city council. At the BSTDA meeting last week, the board voted to create a lease proposal to send to the city council. This will take some time to get approved, leaving Beale in a limbo period well into the fall.

However, the flux in management seems to be having little negative effect on the street itself.

“Our revenue is higher than our budget. Our expenses are lower than our budget. We are pulling in cash for the city for the first time ever on Beale Street, and we are fully leased up for the first time in decades,” said Paul Morris, president of the DMC. “So, Beale Street is doing really well, which is an exciting moment to talk about the future.”

The BSTDA’s first goal is to find a new private management company for the street. The board is also looking at the possible expansion of the entertainment district’s boundaries. Wharton has made it clear that he would like to see the attractions on Beale extend all the way to the river.

“We’ve got this great riverfront. We’ve got activities on the river, and then we have this void of land between the river and [the entertainment on the] street,” said BSTDA Chairman Archie Willis III. “And then if you think about it, why not go to the next block? I think it could be a much larger entertainment district.”

Morris, who has led the interim effort to manage the street for more than a year, said he’s excited to see what having a new permanent board can do to improve the entertainment district.

“[I am] eager to see who might step up and how we might do this, [how we might] really bring Beale Street to the next level. Beale Street is such a powerful brand [known] around the world, and it’s such a great reality, but it could be so much more,” Morris said. “I think it’s time to move to the next level, and interim management is not in the best interest of the street. We need to move forward with the long-term perspective to make Beale Street even greater than it already is.”

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Downtown Memphis Commission Begins Search for New Leader

Paul Morris

The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) has released their requirements for its next president and CEO. Current DMC President and CEO Paul Morris is vacating his position to lead his family’s business, Jack Morris Auto Glass.

DHL International was selected to lead the agency’s search. According to a press release issued today, the DMC is looking for “a visionary, high-energy, downtown advocate.” The position involves managing the DMC’s staff, preparing its budget, work plan development and implementation, and “fostering positive relationships with downtown property owners, businesses, residents, public officials, the media, and the general public.”

The requirements can be viewed on the DMC’s website. Resumes and inquires can be emailed to Laura Faust at DHR International.

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News The Fly-By

Downtown Memphis Leads the County in Growth Since 2000

CREDIT: Downtown Memphis Commission

Downtown Memphis sparked and boomed over the past 14 years, according to a new report from the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), and more fireworks are on the way.

Downtown Memphis Commission

Downtown’s population grew more than any place in Shelby County from 2000 to now, the report said. The area is unmatched in the region for work and play, and it does all this in six square miles, only two percent of the county’s entire landmass. 

Downtown fell on hard times after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. in 1968. Businesses were boarded up, and residents raced to the suburbs. Signs of life returned in the 1980s; Beale Street was reopened, and some urban pioneers moved onto South Main. Progress was slow throughout the 1990s, but momentum mounted, the boom began, and that’s good news for the entire city, said DMC President Paul Morris. 

Downtown Memphis Commission

 “I really, truly believe that [the growth of] Downtown is one of the most efficient and effective ways to save our city,” Morris said. “I know that sounds like I’m exaggerating, but we strongly need new citizens in Memphis. And we need to retain the talent and the people that we have here now. Downtown is performing in that regard.”

And Downtown’s fireworks show isn’t over. The report says $294 million worth of new attractions have either just opened Downtown or are on the way. That list includes Bass Pro Shops, Beale Street Landing, and the Main Street to Main Street bike and pedestrian path. 

Downtown Memphis Commission

But a “tremendous amount of challenges” remain for Downtown, Morris said. 

“This report shows a lot of the successes, but [the DMC] spends 99 percent of our time focused on the problems,” he said. “That’s our purpose, to solve the problems, not just to celebrate the successes.”

Many blighted properties pock the city’s sprawling Downtown landscape. The DMC is trying to increase the cost of holding blighted property and decrease the cost of redevelopment. 

Downtown Memphis Commission

Downtown also shows a weak demand for office space, mainly because of competition from suburban office centers. Some of the vacant space Downtown has been successfully converted to residences, Morris said. But the Downtown market is also seeing organic growth from existing companies.

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Beale Street $10 Cover Charge Discontinued

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People visiting Memphis’ beloved Beale Street after midnight on Sunday mornings no longer have to worry about paying a $10 cover charge to access the street.

Paul Morris, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission, revealed in a letter to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Wednesday that a decision had been made to no longer enforce the fee.

The fee had been enforced for the two weekends prior to Labor Day weekend, but it was not enforced over the holiday.

The $10 cover charge was introduced after a video of Memphian Jonathan Parker laying unconscious in a pool of his own blood on the street around 2 a.m. on Sunday, August 10th, went viral. The footage showed people gathered around Parker recording videos and snapping pictures of his motionless body but not seeking the assistance of authorities.

After the incident received a whirlwind of attention, local law enforcement, the Beale Street Merchants Association, and the Downtown Memphis Commission collectively agreed on enforcing a $10 cover charge to limit the potential for a similar occurrence in the future, as well as to combat overcrowding.

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News The Fly-By

Bloody Beale Street Incident Leads to Sunday Morning Fee

CREDIT: Paul Morris

Jonathan Parker lay unconscious in a pool of his own blood on Memphis’ iconic Beale Street around 2 a.m. on Sunday, August 10th, as people gathered around him recording videos and snapping pictures of his motionless body. No one was shown alerting authorities.

Footage of the incident quickly went viral, attracting attention from local law enforcement, the Beale Street Merchants Association, and the Downtown Memphis Commission.

The three agencies agreed on a plan to limit the potential for a similar occurrence in the future. They would charge Beale visitors a $10 fee to access the street after midnight on Sunday mornings whenever the street seems overcrowded.

Paul Morris

A photo snapped after midnight on the first weekend for the fee.

“We don’t want the message to be that anytime you come to Beale, you’re going to have to pay to get on. Beale will remain a free block party 99 percent of the time,” said Paul Morris, president of Downtown Memphis Commission. “We’ll only implement when necessary to ensure public safety. We don’t like it. Merchants lose money on it; they don’t like it.”

The fee was introduced the week following the Parker incident. Money collected from the fee, which will be implemented on a case-by-case basis, will be used for daytime and nighttime security patrol.

In addition to limiting crowds, the fee was introduced to make police and security more visible and make it easier for them to patrol the area, Morris said.

Some people, however, think the fee is arbitrary and could be used in a way to limit the city’s African-American and disadvantaged populations’ access to Beale Street.

Memphian Justin Bailey opposes the fee and said he refuses to pay a cover charge to walk on a public street.

“You’re talking about closing off a city street that all people should have access to and enjoy regardless of income, race, or anything else,” Bailey said. “I think it’s too much power in the hands of the merchants association without any oversight to dictate who can and who can’t go down on Beale Street. I think it’s targeted toward minorities, and I think they’re the ones who are going to be disproportionately affected by it. If you look at the make-up of Beale Street patrons, it’s us, and it’s a lot of us just on the street, which shows you that we may not want to pay a $10 entry fee to go into the club. We may just want to go hang out on the street because it’s free.”

Morris said the policy would ensure the safety of African Americans rather than have a discriminatory impact, considering they make up the majority of the street’s traffic during the wee hours of the morning on weekends. He said he hates the fee, but he found it necessary to protect Beale’s reputation.

“Put yourself in the shoes of the person who’s responsible on Sunday morning when somebody’s lying in a pool of their own blood,” Morris said. “What would you do next weekend to make sure that didn’t happen? Maybe you would do something different, but maybe you can understand that what we did is reasonable. As awkward as it is for me to have to explain to people why we have to charge that [fee], I feel a lot better about being awkward and uncomfortable about spending a $10 fee than I would feel having to explain another young man lying face down in a pool of his own blood on the street.”

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Cover Feature News

$outh Main

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Hop a trolley along South Main Street and you’ll take a trip into the past and the future. Hidden behind chain-link fencing and the fronts of antique buildings, money and energy are being pumped into the South Main district like nowhere else in Memphis. Construction is underway up, down, and around South Main, in projects large and small.

On the north end of the district, near Beale Street, a dirt patch is the promised home of The Orpheum’s Centre for Performing Arts. Down at the south end, the South Junction apartment complex is nearing completion. In between, projects valued at nearly $100 million are underway or recently completed. 

Most of the projects are being built using the area’s large stock of existing buildings, many abandoned a generation ago. They’re being lovingly refurbished and repurposed by companies and developers who know South Main’s authenticity is the core of its charm. 

“You know, we’re recycling an entire abandoned neighborhood,” says Henry Turley, founder and CEO of Henry Turley Company. “(South Main) was industrial. Then it was nothing. So, it’s the ultimate in recycling, when you take the whole neighborhood and bring it back to vibrancy.”

Justin Fox Burks

The Arcade

South Main’s Four Eras

Paul Morris, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission sees South Main’s history in four clear eras:

Era I — The district used to be in a separate city, a Memphis suburb called South Memphis. Rich folks lived there in single-family homes and mansions in the early 1800s, Morris says. The city merged with Memphis in 1850, and the area remained largely residential. 

Era II — The trains came in the early 1900s. Union Station opened in 1912 and Central Station opened in 1914. They brought as many as 50 passenger trains a day, Morris says, with hundreds of passengers. The single-family homes and mansions were torn down and replaced by factories, warehouses, hotels, and storefronts. These are the buildings that have remained and are the bones for the new construction underway.

Era III — Rail traffic died. With few passengers and no commerce, South Main businesses dried up. By the 1950s and 1960s, the district was in decline. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the district’s Lorraine Motel in 1968 formalized its demise.

“The neighborhood was so totally and completely abandoned that nobody even cared enough to knock the buildings down and redevelop,” Morris says. “They just left them there and abandoned them. That’s good news, though, because this neighborhood today thrives on the fact that we’ve got a lot of the same buildings and the architecture that existed in the early 1900s.” 

Era IV — Artists discovered those abandoned buildings in the early 1980s and South Main’s fourth era began, Morris says. Then Hollywood found the district in the 1990s and all the old buildings became a stopped-in-time backdrop for everything from Walk the Line to Hustle and Flow. “All you have to do is change out the automobiles,” Morris says.

The artists and their galleries brought a new momentum, a new reason to visit the area, and South Main was dubbed an “arts district.” That momentum spread. The National Civil Rights Museum opened at the Lorraine Motel in 1991. The trolley line opened in 1993. Central Station was redeveloped into apartments in 1999.

Today, 2,500 people live in the South Main area. The average age of residents is over 45. Property values have grown from $270 million in 2005 to $460 million. South Main is home to everything from Emerge Memphis, a technology incubator, to The Blues Foundation. “South Main is not just one thing,” says Kimberly Taylor, owner of K’PreSha, a South Main clothing boutique. “It’s a collective of things. It’s boutiques. It’s restaurants and art galleries. It’s bars, The Orpheum, and the Civil Rights Museum. It’s the compilation of all these things that just make for a great neighborhood.”

Justin Fox Burks

Future site of The Orpheum’s Centre for Performing Arts

What’s Coming Next?

Here are some of the bigger projects that will further transform the South Main district: 

The Orpheum Theatre’s Centre for Performing Arts

When it’s completed next year, the two-story building will undoubtedly be the most modern-looking structure in the district. The Centre’s design sports a ground-to-roof glass facade and curves and angles in equal measure. 

The building will be the new home for The Orpheum’s 19 education programs that cover students from pre-school to college. It will have classrooms and a rehearsal stage the same size as The Orpheum’s, so productions can be easily moved from one to the other. The program served 66,000 students last year, and Pat Halloran, The Orpheum’s president and CEO, said the space is necessary.

“You’ve heard the adage ‘Build it, they will come.’ This is the reverse of that,” Halloran says. “We have the audience. We don’t have the building. But we’re creating it.”

The Chisca Hotel

Crews are hard at work inside the long-vacant Chisca Hotel. Behind the chain-link fence outside, workers are cleaning up the enormous space inside.

It’s being prepared for construction crews to begin a massive renovation project that will transform what became a behemoth eyesore into a modern apartment building with retail space on the ground floor.

Project officials say the new Chisca will bring new residents to South Main and will also help connect the district to the Downtown core. 

But for many, the new Chisca will finally be a proper place to honor the history that happened there.

Dewey Phillips broadcast his “Red, Hot, and Blue” radio show from the Chisca, and in 1954 he played Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right Mama.” It was the first time Presley’s music was broadcast and, some say, the first time rock-and-roll was played on the radio.

“I heard one tourist remark, ‘If we had this in our town, we’d never let it look like this,'” Morris says. “This would be the center of our town. It would be the main thing.”

Main Street to Main Street Multi-Modal Connector Project 

This project will connect pedestrians and bicyclists from Main Street Memphis to Broadway Avenue in West Memphis, Arkansas, which is that city’s “Main Street.”

The project has brought construction crews to Main Street, North and South. They are tearing up and replacing old sidewalks, curbs, and gutters. The plan is to leave behind a more inviting walking and biking space for tourists, locals, runners, and bikers.

Crews will then turn the old roadbed of the Harahan Bridge into a wide, open path for pedestrians and bikers to cross the Mississippi River.

“When that bridge opens up, that’s when the floodgates will open,” says Daniel Duckworth, owner of South Main’s Midtown Bike Company. “That’s why I’m here.”

Duckworth moved his bike shop from Overton Square to South Main six years ago. The talk back then was to somehow open up the Harahan Bridge to bikers, and Duckworth wanted to be there when it did. “I just didn’t know it was going to take this long,” he says.

Once the bridge is open, Duckworth says he’ll see new revenues from renting bikes to people wanting to ride the route. His shop already attracts many touring cyclists, but the Main to Main project will literally put him on the map of a growing number of bike routes in Arkansas and Mississippi.    

The project is estimated to be completed by October 2015.

Justin Fox Burks

National Civil Rights Museum

National Civil Rights Museum

Chains were broken and doves were released in April to mark the opening of the newly updated National Civil Rights Museum. 

The museum now contains new, tech-fueled exhibits that can transport visitors to the cramped quarters of a slave ship or put them in the courtroom during the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. They can sing along with protestors and listen to the poetry and music from the Black Pride/Black Power era of the 1960s-1970s.

The museum also retained its iconic exhibits: the Montgomery Bus, the sit-in counter, the Freedom Rides bus, and the Memphis Sanitation Truck. 

The museum attracts about 200,000 visitors to South Main each year and the renovations are expected to bring even more. 

Central Station

New development is on the way for Central Station, according to Turley.

His company and Community Capital were hired by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to begin the next stage of development for the apartment and office complex. Turley says he’s not sure yet what that will look like.

“When people ask me what we’re trying to do, I say we’re trying to make Central Station central once again,” Turley says. “It should be a dynamic anchor for the South Main neighborhood, and it’s just not behaving that way now, and we’d like to improve it.”

Plans for the station won’t be firmed up until at least the end of the year, Turley says.

Justin Fox Burks

South Main Artspace Lofts have moved into the former United Warehouse at 138 St. Paul.

Residential Developments

Turley’s 300-unit South Junction is, indeed, the largest single residential development around South Main. But it’s far from the only one. ArtSpace Lofts will have 44 live/work spaces. The Cabinet Shop Apartments will have 25. Printer’s Alley Annex will have 22. 

In all, the new developments are expected to bring 1,000 new residents to South Main. This fact gives hope to K’PreSha owner Taylor, who says retail in South Main struggles during daytime hours, unless there’s a special event.

“I think if everyone down here can sustain themselves over the next two years, then I think South Main will definitely be where it’s at,” Taylor says. “I think the increase in residents will help us get more local traffic. All the development in general will just bring more people.”

Justin Fox Burks

“Buffalo Mural”

Smaller Developments

Construction work is underway on a number of smaller projects up and down South Main Street.

Cafe Pontotoc is planned for the space formerly occupied by Carrot. A new bar concept is coming to the former Cafe Soul space at 492 S. Main. The Book Juggler bookstore opened late last year at 548 S. Main.

An updated Five Spot and another new restaurant are coming soon to the space behind Earnestine & Hazel’s, according to building owner and Memphis restaurateur, Bud Chittom. No changes are planned for Earnestine & Hazel’s, Chittom says. He’s also planning to build a youth hostel in the two-story building behind the new restaurants.

Two new retail clothing concepts are coming from the team that brought the Crazy Beautiful pop-up shop to 387 South Main over the holidays. Eryka Smith and Chad West will open a new store, Stock and Bell, in the old pop-up shop space. They’re also renovating the former Russian Cultural Center space at 509 S. Main for a rockabilly-inspired vintage shop called Red Velvet. 

Perhaps the smallest development in South Main is the new bocce ball court in the once-vacant lot at Main and Talbot. The Downtown Memphis Commission built the court for around $1,000, and officials hope it will help draw future development to the space. People can play for free. Balls are available at South Of Beale and The Green Beetle in exchange for a credit card or driver’s license.

A new park and dog park are being discussed for an undisclosed location in South Main. Also, locals are working with property owners to convert the empty space behind the iconic “Buffalo Mural” into a performing arts area. 

Finally, the district got an identity upgrade this year with a new logo, a new visitor’s guide, and new banners touting the area’s “legendary” status. Some of those legends can be heard on a new self-guided walking tour. Visitors can use their smart phones to scan QR codes on some buildings that will give them web-hosted tales of Machine Gun Kelly or the Whistle Brand soft drink company.

Why Now?

Chittom says South Main is still riding the wave of energy created by the folks who got there early on, especially Henry Turley, he says.  

“The synergy in South Main is just remarkable right now,” Chittom says. “It was predicated on Henry. He did this. A lot of people played a role but not as big as Henry played.”

Turley began developing property in South Main after the initial wave of artists and others put down roots there. He started the South Bluffs development in 1991 after he’d finished the River Bluffs development. Turley credits those who came before him.

“They added more energy than I did,” he says. “I added more bulk, but they really got it going.”

South Main Association President Brian Douglas said the original galleries attracted foot traffic, which attracted bars and restaurants. This made the area viable for other businesses that moved in: public relations firms, architecture firms, and financial advisory firms, like his branch of Ameriprise Financial.

“It hasn’t been an increase in a single area,” Williams says. “It’s kind of been a mix of all of the infrastructure things you need to make a neighborhood great, from restaurants and bars and work, and now we’re adding housing again.”

Most agree the growth of South Main has been gradual, organic, unforced, the result of a large, loose network of residents, business owners, developers, and city officials, unlike Overton Square or the Pinch District, which have grown or will grow with the help of a single major developer. 

A Memphis Original

South Main’s supporters say much of the area’s success is due to an intangible factor — its authenticity.

Sharon Stanley, an associate professor of political science at the University of Memphis, moved to South Main six years ago, after living briefly in the Downtown core. Yes, rent was cheaper in South Main, but she says what kept her there was something deeper. Downtown felt like a “show piece with a little artificial Memphis [in it] for tourists or something.” South Main was different, she says.

“It also just has — and this is probably the most overused word for anyone describing what they like about a city or a neighborhood — but I do feel like the places here have a certain character that other places are lacking, especially in the newer developments in Memphis,” Stanley says. “I feel like those could be anywhere. But Earnestine & Hazel’s can only really be Earnestine & Hazel’s.”

A new study by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) spells this out. City dwellers these days, especially younger residents, like old buildings. They want to live in them, walk around them, and socialize in them. Blocks of old buildings, the study showed, provide affordable spaces for entrepreneurs to open new restaurants, bars, and businesses. They are all looking for authenticity and are finding it in Washington, D.C.’s H Street Corridor, San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood — and South Main in Memphis. These areas perform better economically, socially, and environmentally than those with larger, newer buildings. 

“That’s really one of the things that made South Main successful,” Paul Morris says. “It avoided what happened in many downtowns across America where people came in and wiped all the buildings away and started afresh to get rid of the urban blight.”

Jusint Fox Burks

Trolley goers enjoying the ride

Get on the Trolley 

Memphis and South Main are well ahead of the curve of one urban trend: Cities across the country are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to begin streetcar projects. 

Tucson has spent $196 million on its 3.9-mile Sun Link Streetcar project that will link its downtown and the University of Arizona. Washington, D.C., will open its $135 million, 2.4-mile H Street streetcar project this year. A 2.4-mile streetcar route will open in Seattle later this year, a project that cost $134 million. Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, and many other cities have similar projects either planned or under way.

Memphis trolley cars have been rumbling up and down 10 miles of tracks since 1993.

Enjoy It
Some worry that the Memphis population won’t be able to support all of the urban renewal blossoming across town.

But Morris’ advice on South Main is to simply enjoy it. “It’s in your city,” he says. “It’s a big part of Memphis’ history and it’s going to be a big part of Memphis’ future.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Bridge Project Fights For Funding

A bicycle and pedestrian project that would connect Tennessee and Arkansas has hit a speed bump.

The Downtown Memphis Commission is asking the city to invest $2 million toward the Harahan Bridge Project, which if fully funded, would connect downtown Memphis to downtown West Memphis over the Harahan Bridge. But Memphis City Council Chairman Jim Strickland wants that money to be used for basic city services, such as street repaving, instead.

Right now, the cost for the Harahan Bridge Project, also known as the Main to Main Multi Modal Connector Project, is still undetermined while the organizations wait for bids, which are supposed to come in during the summer. While project leaders are waiting for a more cost-effective design, the current estimate of the project sits around $30 million.

Harahan Bridge Project

Almost $15 million has been approved from federal funds with the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (or TIGER IV) program. The project also has $2 million funded from the private sector, while $3.8 million has been dedicated from Arkansas and Tennessee government agencies for their respective sides of the project. Shelby County has committed $1 million to the project, and the city of Memphis contributed $500,000 early on. But the Memphis City Council is still debating whether the city will fund the additional $2 million.

“If we don’t get the funding for the project, we won’t start the project,” said Paul Morris, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission. “The mayor made that very clear. No loans, cash secured.”

The one-mile bridge currently only runs freight along its tracks, but a multi-purpose path would be placed next to it, utilizing the existing “wagonway” structure that was used in the early 20th century.

Morris said the project is about recycling, not starting anew, and maintaining what the city already has.

“We’ve been searching as an organization for years for funding to do basic things like fix the sidewalks, curbs, and gutters,” Morris said. “Right now, if you walk along the Main Street Mall, you have boards covering drainage ditches that don’t work. It’s embarrassing. For years, the city has never been able to prioritize that because of the lack of funding and all the budget problems we have.”

Strickland said because the city is in a “budget crisis,” Memphis needs to make tough decisions.

“A lot of good things, in my opinion, should not get funded. We need fewer big projects because we can’t afford them,” Strickland said. “A couple of years ago, when we appropriated [around] $500,000 for the Harahan Bridge, we were told that’s all that we would need, and then they come with a request for $2 million.”

According to Strickland, the money being requested for the project could go instead toward other city services.

“It would be a wonderful amenity to have, but we have some real budget problems,” Strickland said. “When you don’t have enough money to do everything, you have to prioritize. To me, repaving is an absolute need. In our operating budget, we’re $15 million per year in debt on our pensions. We can’t pay for testing all the rape kits. Both of which are needs.”

Strickland made a motion in last week’s council meeting to divert the $2 million funding for the Harahan Bridge Project and put it toward street repaving, but Mayor A C Wharton asked to give a presentation about the project during the next city council session.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Lawn Bowling

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Bocce has landed on South Main with a new court and an already-full tournament that are part of a larger plan to bring people and possibly new development to what was once an empty lot.

A bocce court was built last week diagonally across the square lot at Talbot and Main. The lot has been empty for years and has been mainly used as a green space for South Main dog owners. But the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) began working last year with the lot’s owner, antique auto preservers Kisber Enterprises, to lease the property for the court.

“All we really hope to accomplish is having a good time and making an amenity for the neighborhood,” said DMC President Paul Morris. “We want people to just come and enjoy South Main, one of the coolest neighborhoods anywhere.”

The bocce court was born in the DMC-hosted South Main Design Challenge that sought new ideas and plans for seven vacant lots in the neighborhood. None of those plans were promised for implementation. But construction of the court was only going to cost around $1,000 and bocce had proven its popularity in a prior DMC tournament in the empty lot next to Earnestine & Hazel’s, Morris said.

Play on the court will be kicked off with a tournament beginning Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and continuing on the next two Thursdays. Sign-up for the single-elimination tournament is already full with two-person teams with names like “Hibocce!” and “Boccee-lism.”

But anyone can use the court to play. Bocce balls will be available to check out for free at South of Beale and The Green Beetle in exchange for a credit card or a driver’s license.

The overall project is designed to “pre-vitalize” the lot. It’s a method that has used food trucks and pop-up shops in some empty areas across Memphis to help people imagine what those places would be like if they were filled with shops, restaurants, and people. For example, the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team has used its MEMShop events to pre-vitalize Broad Avenue and Overton Square, and they’ll soon be kicking off a MEMShop event in South Memphis.

“Just by way of getting people down [to the South Main lot] and interested in it, it sort of activates it in a non-traditional, commercial real estate kind of way,” said Michael Carpenter, who worked on the bocce court project and owns Memphis advertising agency Loaded for Bear. “We figured that would in turn help develop it for something more permanent.”

But before that, the hope for the court is to simply bring people and visibility to the neighborhood, said South of Beale owner and operating partner, Ed Cabigao.

“Public spaces like this will help strengthen the authentic identity of the South Main Arts District,” Cabigao said. “The bocce ball court fits perfectly within South Main’s vibe, and we’re just happy that we get to be in such close proximity.”

For more information, visit www.gosouthmain.org/bocce.