For decades, few in Memphis cared about this city’s last surviving train station.
In the 1960s, Memphis International Airport gained international attention as one of the most beautiful air terminals in America. Meanwhile, across town in the South Main district, most passenger trains stopped running through Memphis, until only one survived, the City of New Orleans, rumbling south to the Crescent City and north to Chicago. The train paused only briefly at the old Central Station,
and any visitor’s first impression of this city was surely a bad one: a simple platform, a derelict station, and streets with abandoned buildings.
Over the years, as the South Main Historic District began to attract restaurants, shops, art galleries, and — most important — people, various improvements were made to the 17-acre Central Station property. The upper floors of the building itself, erected in 1914, were converted to apartments, and the main concourse was transformed into Hudson Hall, a popular venue for wedding receptions and special events.
Developers erected clusters of modern condominiums along South Main and Front Streets. The tiny Amtrak station was moved from the basement of the old building to a new location, with a clean waiting room, baggage area, and even a police substation to put visitors at ease. A farmers market sprung up outside, and the old power house, with its iconic smokestack, housed an art gallery and a downtown church.
But as the area around Central Station began to prosper — the Tennessee Brewery project is just two blocks away — developers realized that the old railroad station property had potential that wasn’t being used, or was being used in the wrong way.
“One of our primary goals, when we started looking at this project, was to enable MATA to exit the party business,” says Alex Turley, vice president of real estate for the Henry Turley Company, which teamed with Archie Willis of Comcap Partners to form the Central Station Collaborative to repurpose the property.
For years, the Memphis Area Transit Authority was involved with Central Station, a hub for its Main Street trolley system. But that meant MATA was also in charge of leasing Hudson Hall, “and we thought they should be focused on the transit business,” says Turley.
An inspection of the entire complex, however, revealed problems — along with opportunities. “By the time we approached the property in 2015, it required a lot of additional investment. We knew it would be extremely costly to upgrade those apartments, and we wanted to bring this building back to life without any public funding,” says Turley. “Plus, it had an event facility, ground-floor space that was never utilized, and the Amtrak station. The whole thing seemed disjointed, and it became evident that a complete change of use made sense.”
That was the impetus behind the $55 million Central Station project, which has three major components. The main building will be transformed into a boutique hotel, to be managed by the Kemmons Wilson Companies, and called the Central Station Hotel - Curio Collection by Hilton. In addition to 133 rooms, the hotel will feature a ballroom, a 3,500-square foot restaurant, and some 6,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. “The idea of the Kemmons Wilson Companies coming in here and investing in the South Main area and downtown Memphis, we consider that a very big deal,” says Turley.
The second component will be residential. The Henry Turley Company plans to construct 200 apartments, in three clusters. The Main Street Apartments will be a single three-story building at Main and Carolina, the Front Street Apartments will comprise seven three-story structures along South Front, and the Railroad Platform Apartments will occupy a three-story building on Main Street.
The third major component brings a familiar name back to downtown Memphis. Malco — fondly remembered for the grand movie palace that now houses the Orpheum — will erect a seven-screen theater at Front and G.E. Patterson, to be called the Malco Powerhouse Cinema. As the name suggests, the railroad station’s original brick powerhouse will be converted into a lobby and concession stands for the complex.
“We’re looking forward to returning downtown after 40 years away,” says David Tashie, senior vice president of theater operations for Malco. “This will be a unique prototype for us,” explaining that special features will include motorized reclining seats, online ticket purchases, and a special wide-screen auditorium with high-definition sound.
The theater is scheduled to open by the end of this year, and the hotel and apartments will be completed in mid-2019. The popular farmers market will stay, but will be redesigned for better access.
Funding for the Central Station project came from a variety of sources: owner equity, bank financing, and historic development tax credits.
Not that many years ago, anyone getting off the City of New Orleans would step out onto a dark street. They might wander over to the Arcade, but there was little else to do in that area. Soon, they will find themselves in the lobby of a fine hotel, with shops, restaurants, and retail. They can visit the Railroad and Trolley Museum (which will remain in the building), or catch a movie. And they will be within an easy walk of many businesses that, years ago, never considered a move to this part of town.
“The idea is that this will serve as an anchor for South Main,” says Turley. “You think of the pedestrian traffic that’s generated by a hotel, by a movie theater, from the residential areas nearby, the farmers market, the restaurants in the hotel, and the retail this will attract. It’s going to be a really dynamic place.”
