What's Right With Our City? A New Memphis Seminar Responded: "A Lot."

New Memphis hosted a seminar on the urban renaissance of Memphis.

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Sometimes, the best kind of conversation is held around the family dinner table. On Monday, October 30th, New Memphis replicated such a discussion – okay, there were actually more than 40 tables – with a seminar at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn, where community leaders (members of our Memphis "family") discussed a host of issues that centered around urban renewal.

Sponsored by the First Tennessee Foundation, “Celebrate What’s Right: Urban Renaissance” featured Montgomery Martin, founder and CEO of Montgomery Martin Contractors; McLean Wilson, co-founder of the Crosstown Concourse; Eric Robertson, president of Community LIFT; and Archie Willis, president of ComCap Partners. The event was moderated by Dr. Noelle Trent, director of interpretation, collections, and education at the National Civil Rights Museum.

Nancy Coffee, president of New Memphis, introduced the panel by noting they had been actively involved in developments that honored where we have been, and these projects weren’t just about making money, but how to make a better community for all of us.

Trent got the discussion started by mentioning two projects in particular — Crosstown Concourse and Central Station — that were good examples of celebrating what’s right about Memphis. In answer to the question of what are we doing right, she noted, quite simply, “A lot.”

Montgomery Martin, as the head of a construction company, observed that “building is easy. Imagining and creating it is much tougher. But Memphis is thriving, and we have a wonderful history of saving so many buildings here. We’ve demolished a lot, but we’ve saved a lot,” citing the Tennessee Brewery and the Chisca Hotel as prime examples.

Archie Willis said the challenge was to find a structure “that was not being utilized to its capacity, and then to try to imagine what it could become.” Regarding Central Station, he noted that the property includes 17 acres, and most of that was not being used on a regular basis. There was a weekly farmer’s market, and at one point MATA had set aside a Park & Ride center. But he drew a laugh from the audience when he said that MATA finally realized, “Nobody parked and nobody rode.” “So there’s a lot of potential in that property, and we hope it will stimulate other development nearby.”

The Crosstown Concourse came up a lot during the luncheon, and McLean Wilson said, “That came out of dreaming.” How could such a massive structure be repurposed, his team wondered, and how could his group generate large-scale community support for it? The answer, he said, came from “creating a voice that breathed life into that vision,” and making everybody feel a sense of involvement with it.

Wilson remembered when the former Sears distribution center was a place for moving goods and products, through the building and then out into the Mid-South.” What was the next version of the building? “Now it’s being used to move people and ideas throughout the building, and send them out into the Mid-South.”

He recalled opening day last August, which took place one week after the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville, and he and his partners in the venture were nervous about the turnout. “But it was a magical moment,” he said. “More than 10,000 people — the heart and soul of Memphis — came there, because they simply wanted to be together, arm in arm.”

The discussion moved into challenges this city still faces. Eric Robertson noted that we need to spread the development across all neighborhoods, with more energy and funding devoted to projects in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

Willis echoed this concern, observing that “most communities of color have not benefitted from recent developments.” He discussed projects his company is working on, especially the adaptive reuse of three abandoned school buildings — Vance, Georgia Avenue, and the old Porter Junior High — south of Crump. Those buildings comprise more than 200,000 square feet, and the challenge is “what to do with all that space, and how to turn it into viable real estate.”

Martin remembered when the Shrine Building re-opened in 1980, as one of the first successful examples of adaptive reuse downtown. He cited other examples in other areas: Shelby Farms, Broad Avenue, the Highland Strip, the Graceland area, and other catalysts.

“Memphis is truly at a tipping point,” he said. “I’m 62, and I’ve never seen anything like it — when things are built up, when you make things happen, when you can imagine the reality, and know that it’s going to be successful.”

He reminded the audience of the days following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, when TIME magazine called Memphis “a backwater river town.” Those days are long gone, he feels. “We still have problems, such as crime, but we are not ignoring those problems. We are embracing them so we can change them.”

Robertson agreed with that assessment, but noted that “we still need to play defense in our outer neighborhoods, where we are hemorrhaging population loss to DeSoto County and other areas.” What is left behind, he noted, “were those empty schools” that Willis was hoping to develop, along with “communities that have just been hollowed out.” He emphasized the need for more development outside downtown, “with all their low-dollar opportunities for investors.”

He continued, “It’s easy to feel we have reached a tipping point. If you drive east and west through Memphis, you do get that sense. But if you drive north and south, you get a sense that Memphis is standing still. We need to think how to communicate hope and opportunity to the broader community.”

Trent closed the 90-minute discussion with one final topic: With 2018 marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, how do we want the national media to view Memphis?

“I want them to see the progress that we have made,” said Willis, “but we need to embrace all the work that needs to be done."

Robertson, referencing King’s mission in 1968, said “we should examine what is our Poor People’s Campaign for today, with 146,000 citizens here living in poverty, and how to build an African-American wealth class in this city, while expanding the African-American middle class.”

Martin acknowledged that there were “decades of injustice” to be rectified, but he hoped people were aware of the growing numbers of minority- and women-owned businesses in the construction industry.

He also hoped the national media would look at Clayborn Temple, “dark, wet, and smelly – not the kind of place anybody would want to be in.” But with the recent renovation, it’s “almost been like a rebirth. I’d like to see the same energy come out of Clayborn Temple and used to inspire others.”

It may be only a building, he noted, “but it means a lot more to so many people.”

“The key word is hope,” said Wilson. “We need to show the world that we are still having these conversations. We’re not putting blinders on, but we are moving forward together.”