Raleigh Springs Mall – Memphis Flyer

OT Marshall Architects

When the aging Raleigh Springs Mall was pegged for renovations, Tom Marshall, CEO of OT Marshall Architects, was excited to take on a project in an area that was near and dear to his heart.

A Raleigh native, he remembered the initial construction of the old mall.

“I’m from Raleigh and as an architect, I remember riding my bicycle to the mall and watching the construction. It was the largest thing being built in my day, so it was an exciting thing,” says Marshall. “The mall was sort of the community icon. It’s where we all went to enjoy ourselves, where we went to meet our friends.”

Marshall and the City of Memphis launched planning and construction on the new Raleigh Springs Civic Center in 2018. A lot of care went into retaining the community feel that the former mall had brought to the neighborhood.

Shops were replaced with a public library that doubles as a communal meeting place. A trail and lake were also created to provide a safe place to walk. But the defining feature of the Civic Center is its skate park.

Designed by world-renowned skate park developers Wormhoudt, the skate park sits at one end of the lake and attracts a myriad of faces. And while the park has become a neighborhood staple for youth, the idea was initially pushed for by the elderly residents of Raleigh.

“The Raleigh Community Council realized that the future rests with the youth, and so they wanted to bring diversity to the area,” explains Marshall. “This is probably one of Memphis’ most diverse areas. There’s a large number of African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Americans that come to the skate park. Young and old as well.”

OT Marshall Architects

Before renovations, local skaters would use the mall as an impromptu hang-out spot. In doing so, they would bump into elderly members of the Raleigh community that used the area as a walking trail. “It was the older folks that in the community center that said, ‘Hey, we need to give those poor kids a real place to skate,’” says Marshall.

“There was a lot of communication between folks that that were inhabiting the mall for the purposes of their morning or afternoon walks and the skateboarders,” he continues, “and so we wanted to design something that integrated both.”

Patrick Tionloc, a local skater that came to Memphis from the Philippines, say that he likes how the park gives skaters in Raleigh a place to call their own.

“I got into skating when I was in college in the Philippines, but I stopped skating when I got into the states because I didn’t know there was a skate park in Memphis,” he says. “I like that now there is a place that’s really easy for the beginners who want to get into skating or for people that are experienced.”

After years of bits and pieces being amputated from the Raleigh Springs Mall, the formerly thriving mall has been declared a “slum and blighted area,” according to a proposed plan to renovate the entire property.

The Raleigh Springs Urban Renewal plan, if approved by the Memphis City Council, would turn the lot into a multi-use property with coexisting public and retail space. The plan features a recreational lake and public skate park, as well as a walking trail. It also calls for the relocation of the Raleigh branch library and the Old Allen Road traffic precinct into the property. Both projects have funds set aside for that purpose.

“I think it will give residents of this area a stronger sense of security and safety knowing that a police precinct is a few blocks away,” Councilman Myron Lowery said.

The mall opened in 1971, but the plan surmises that when the Wolfchase Galleria mall opened in 1997, the Raleigh Springs Mall began to decline. When the mall was renovated for the first time in the early 2000s, businesses along Austin Peay Highway had already begun a perceived downturn.

“Several businesses such as check cashing and pawn shops opened on the street giving the impression of a depressed area,” the plan reads.

According to Councilman Bill Morrison, who represents the Raleigh area, the mall will eventually be torn down, but the demolition will occur in phases. He said if everything goes well, construction might start in late 2014.

The current proposed plan would be “pretty close” to the final product, Morrison said. The private section of the property might change, depending on what retailers decide to build, but the public portion will be within the parameters of the current plan.

“Either I will be the person who had a great idea or [I’ll be] the guy who screwed up the traffic precinct for Raleigh,” Morrison said.

the Raleigh Springs Mall remain open.

At a joint committee meeting on February 18th between the council’s Economic Development and the Housing and Community Development committees, Mayor A C Wharton said funding for the new police precinct was already approved by the city council in 2010. Councilwoman Wanda Halbert sits as the chairman and vice-chairman of the two committees, respectively.

Halbert expressed concerns about the specifics of the plan to Robert Lipscomb, director of the Division of Housing and Community Development. She says the project is needed, but she wants to know the details on all long-term plans for anti-blight projects that have been proposed all over the city.

“I just wish I could see that five-year strategic and operations plan with all of these projects included in it,” she said. “Somehow there’s a cherry-picking process — what project comes first, what project doesn’t come at all — none of that is really making sense when you look at the big picture. Having some type of strategic direction is critical.”

Lowery does not share her concerns.

“[Lipscomb] refers to ‘connecting the dots’ around the city with a wide variety of projects,” Lowery said. “I don’t think any community has been ignored or left to suffer. I think our challenge is to treat every area equally, and I think that we’ve done that.”

The Flyer spoke to some business owners in the Raleigh Springs Mall, but many were unaware of the renewal plan.