Sorry, No Vacancy

The Sears Crosstown building is a great place to shop! It’s an art deco style building on North Watkins with a 14 story tower. Nothing beats parking in the garage and taking the underground tunnel into the building, knowing while you walk that one of the first things you’ll see in the store is a candy counter with all different kinds of fudge and cookies. With two retail floors and an outlet floor, you can find any product you want right there! After shopping you might want to go out to eat somewhere. There is a great restaurant downtown on the rooftop of the Sterick building. It is a beautiful 29 story gothic style building made of granite and limestone on 3^rd Street and Madison Avenue. It is very elegant on the interior with extravagant chandeliers and charming elevator operators to take you to the top floor. Once seated, you might want to try a Goldcrest beer to drink. It’s made just a couple of miles away at the Tennessee Brewery, located at 495 Tennessee Street. If you have time, I would suggest going by and taking a look at this fantastic building as well!

Does this sound familiar? It might if you were living in Memphis over three decades ago. None of these buildings have seen life in over 18 years. The Sears Crosstown building was built in 1927 and has been vacant since 1993. The Sterick building built in 1930 has been vacant since 1980. And the Tennessee Brewery built in 1890 has been vacant since 1981. These are just a few of the historically significant buildings in Memphis that have sat unoccupied for years. Each had been added to the list of the National Register of Historic Places a couple of years before their unoccupancy. Why, then, have they been left vacant and unattended to for so long? What are the possibilities and best uses for the vacant buildings in Memphis?

Mayor A. C. Wharton has talked about turning some of the vacant buildings into police substations, such as for the old Manassas High School. He even mentioned the Lenox School Condominiums as being a great example of adaptive reuse of a vacant building. However, the nature of larger buildings such as these makes it difficult to reuse for such a simple purpose. A large investment must be made to restore these buildings for any adaptive reuse to take place. Aside from cosmetic restorations, the Sterick building would have to be brought up to seismic standards. As has been seen with the Pyramid, yet another important vacant building, these infrastructure improvements can be very costly. There must be a decision made, then, of the future of our city. Is it one that will be proud of, preserve, and revitalize its historical buildings? We have recently lost two old churches to large corporate businesses placing their cookie cutter buildings on the lots. Part of the façade of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church on Union Avenue purchased by Chick-fil-A was preserved, however most of the building was deconstructed.

So how can our city preserve its history? Let’s take a look at just one of the buildings. At a price tag of $12 million, the Tennessee Brewery can be restored. For a city struggling with poverty more than any other in the nation, this is no easy task. The building was almost destroyed in the late 1990’s; however, the owner spent hundreds of thousands to bring the building up to code. Two promising projects to restore and reuse the building fell through in the past decade: one to open the building up as art space and the other to convert it into condos. There is a positive side to this, though. During this time, the abandoned warehouse just south of the Tennessee Brewery was redeveloped into the Lofts at South Bluffs, a mix of sales and leasing of spaces. Other redevelopments in the area will bring major attention to this abandoned building. Andy Kitsinger, DMC vice president of planning and development, stated “It's the last building in that area to be redeveloped because it's the toughest, but it has so much mystery and nostalgia attached, it creates an emotional connection with people."

From being the set of the movie “Trespass” to hosting weddings, it is apparent that this is a very important building. So how can it be preserved? The first step is done, as it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places which gives it more opportunity to receive grants from organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This organization provided more than $61 million in grants, loans, and direct equity investment for preservation projects in 2010. The State of Tennessee’s Historic Preservation Office is expected to provide about $400,000 in federal grants for 2012. Suffice it to say, the bulk of the restoration would fall upon the investor, so other means of incentives will need to be provided for a project such as this. Tax incentives may be provided for the development process as well. For what purpose, though, would this building be restored? It lies in highly residential area, with commercial to the east, which makes for great potential for a mixed use building. Access to the trolley line reinforces this idea and should be a major attractor for potential investors.

Our city should make a point to preserve the pieces of history it has left and make use of any resource available to do so. The effects that urban sprawl has had on the city has not been positive for its historical buildings, often leaving them abandoned. A stronger focus on restoring these structures would bring more pride and personality to Memphis.