Adaptive reuse of breweries, bakeries, and warehouses have brought new life to Bluff City. As Southern cities like Charlotte, Austin, and Nashville continue their record-setting pace of development and expansion, many have overlooked the building boom taking place in Memphis, Tennessee.
Best known for its rich music history and its pivotal role in the civil rights movement, the riverfront city has seen a real estate rebirth. More than $13 billion in revitalization projects has reshaped Memphis?s downtown over the past four years, and, according to Cushman & Wakefield/Commercial Advisors, tourism grew 13 percent between 2012 and 2017. The city?s Main Street trolley line relaunched in April.
Earlier this summer, New York-based real estate firm Townhouse Management announced plans to rehabilitate an abandoned 37-story high-rise, 100 North Main, as part of a deal that would bring 500 luxury residential units, a new Loews Hotel, and roughly $1 billion of commercial and residential development to a sleepy stretch of downtown. Along with the $225 million One Beale project, a multi-use hotel, retail, and office project on the riverfront, it promises to reshape downtown. ?It?s a great city, and it?s underinvested,? says Arlene Maidman, executive co-chair of Townhouse. ?This project can help revitalize an entire downtown.?
While a project featuring significant investment from an out-of-town firm, 100 North Main, has grabbed headlines, in many ways, the high-rise rehab pl...