The city’s skyline will be very different if the ambitious One Beale development is completed. The five-acre project at the foot of Beale Street at the river would have two towers with 280 apartments and 255 hotel rooms and a parking garage with 640 parking spaces.
The developer is Carlisle Corp., which first proposed the idea in 2005. The late Gene Carlisle, chairman and founder, wanted to build a 27-story condo and hotel with office space. The next year he revised the proposal to have two towers and the plan was approved by the Land Use Control Board.
The flagging economy delayed the project until it was revived in 2014. But Carlisle died the following year and One Beale again went quiet. In late 2017, the company announced partnerships with office developer Highwoods Properties and others to get it under way again.
In March, the Land Use Control Board approved Carlisle’s plans to add two acres to the project, bringing the total to five acres.
It added the old William C. Ellis & Sons Ironworks and Machine Shop at 241-245 S. Front and property at 275 S. Front where a warehouse was recently demolished.
The metal business, described as one of Memphis’ oldest, closed in 2016. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and it and the land were sold to Carlisle in 2017 for $3.5 million.
The boundaries of the proposed project are Riverside Drive on the west, Front on the east, Beale to the north, and Pontotoc on the south.
As of early May, Carlisle president Chance Carlisle had not announced further details, but the company is expected to come before the Downtown Memphis Commission soon with a revised plan.
