Crosstown Concourse

Coordinates: 35°09′07″N 90°00′54″W / 35.152021°N 90.015002°W / 35.152021; -90.015002

Crosstown Concourse
General information
Type Mixed-use development
Architectural style Art Deco
Location 495 North Watkins Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
Completed 1927
Renovated 2015
Owner Crosstown, LLC
Technical details
Floor count 14
Floor area 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m2)
Design and construction
Architect Nimmons & Co.

The Crosstown Concourse is an art deco high-rise building in Memphis, Tennessee. Originally built as a Sears mail-order processing warehouse and retail store, the building is currently being renovated into a mixed-use vertical urban village.

History

The building was designed by Nimmons & Co., and construction was started on February 21, 1927. Known as the Sears Crosstown Building, it was one of the first Sears stores designed to attract customers by being situated in a relatively open area of the city and providing a large amount of free parking.[1] The location was also ideal for its access to highways and on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad line.[2] Officially opened on August 27, 1927, the Sears Crosstown Building was the largest building in Memphis to date at 650,000 square feet.[3] Three thousand people attended the opening ceremony and over 47,000 people (one in four Memphians) toured the building by the day's end.[4] At a cost of $5 million, the building was constructed in only 180 days, with work crews operating 24 hours a day, six days a week.[5] Sears & Roebuck's eighth regional distribution center included a soda fountain, luncheonette, employee cafeteria, and in-house hospital.[6] The Crosstown Building was a premier Sears retail store for more than 60 years.[7]The building became vacant in the early 1990s after Sears closed many of the buildings it had constructed in the 1920s:[8] the store that had occupied the lower floors was closed in 1983, and the catalog distribution center in 1993.[9]

Revitalization

Attempts by various organizations have begun to repurpose the high-rise. Many other Sears buildings across the country were quickly reused, such as the Midtown Exchange in Minneapolis.[10]

In 2010, The Crosstown Arts project began working on resurrecting the building as a "mixed-used vertical urban village." Developers received commitments from nine prospective tenants called "founding partners" to fill more than 600,000 square feet of the building with various uses.[11] The current plan is to have retail stores and restaurants on the first floor; fitness, health, arts, education, and office space on floors two through six, plus 270 apartments occupying floors seven through ten.[12] While work has been progressing to clean up the space since 2012, the official groundbreaking occurred on February 21, 2015; with various celebrations and speeches by the mayors of Memphis and Shelby County. The new name of the building was also announced on this date - Crosstown Concourse.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Jackson, Kenneth T. (1985). Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504983-7., p.257-58
  2. ↑ Knowles, Jeffrey (2006-05-01). "Constructing the New South In Memphis, 1892-1930". Rhodes College, Department of History. Retrieved 2015-01-16., p.52
  3. ↑ Knowles, Jeffrey (2006-05-01). "Constructing the New South In Memphis, 1892-1930". Rhodes College, Department of History. Retrieved 2015-01-16., p.54
  4. ↑ Knowles, Jeffrey (2006-05-01). "Constructing the New South In Memphis, 1892-1930". Rhodes College, Department of History. Retrieved 2015-01-16., p.58
  5. ↑ Knowles, Jeffrey (2006-05-01). "Constructing the New South In Memphis, 1892-1930". Rhodes College, Department of History. Retrieved 2015-01-16., p. 59
  6. ↑ Knowles, Jeffrey (2006-05-01). "Constructing the New South In Memphis, 1892-1930". Rhodes College, Department of History. Retrieved 2015-01-16., p.60-61
  7. ↑ Wolf, Cindy (2011-02-27). "Abandoned Memphis: Sears Crosstown, before the doors closed". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  8. ↑ "Will Sears Crosstown rise again? - Memphis Business Journal". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  9. ↑ Rushing, Wanda (2009). Memphis and the Paradox of Place: Globalization in the American South. New directions in southern studies. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780807832998.
  10. ↑ Bailey, Thomas. "'Founding partners' commit to lease most of Memphis' Sears Crosstown Building". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  11. ↑ "Sears Crosstown takes early steps to rebirth - Memphis Business Journal". Bizjournals.com. 2012-08-21. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  12. ↑ "Crosstown Groundbreaking Is This Saturday + Q&A With Todd Richardson".

External links

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