Took 12 pages of notes at the South Main Association meeting. This is going to be a long one.
– Talked to Lisa Brumleve from the CCC before the meeting started. She told me she ate at Pa Pa Pia’s, the Italian restaurant on Union, last week and had a very positive experience there. She said they do a ton of business in pizza to-go orders. You know, I don’t know why I never think of the place for take-out pizza, it’s only 2 blocks from where I live.
– Downtown Condo Connection provided the space, wine, food, beer and music for the meeting. They are the information center for ALL Downtown condos, are located in the 420 S. Front building, and are open 7 days a week.
– 420 South Front has 36 condo units – 28 sold since the conversion was completed last year, 8 still remaining.
– They had complimentary Bud Light for members. John D: “Wha… Bud Light? Paul, do you think they’ll let me join the South Main Association even though I have a house in Midtown?”
– Andy Kitsinger and Lisa Brumleve from the CCC came up to speak about the CCC’s retail plan for Downtown.
– In the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, over 200 pedestrian malls were built on North American. Only about 30 have not been reopened to vehicular traffic. People who have studied the malls have concluded it was a “terrible mistake,” according to the speakers, to close off the streets. Even the malls that have been the most successful, such as those in Denver and Minneapolis, and being considered for conversion back to allow traffic.
– Downtown is growing 9.8% per year, or about 2,000 people annually.
– Forbes.com named Downtown Memphis a top place for singles. Hmmm, I can’t dispute that, there is certainly some god tube top viewing on the streets of Downtown in the summer months.
– One-third of people moving Downtown are from other states or countries.
– There more than 3,000 condos Downtown, with another 1,800 in the works (that’s an awful lot, in my opinion). More than 5,000 apartments with another 600 in the works. Apartment occupancy rate is 92%. I can believe it… I had a friend who moved here from Atlanta last month, and she couldn’t find a place in any of the buildings I recommended and had to get a place in Germantown.
– Office space is cheap down here. $16.58 per square foot average, compared with $21.04/SF for East Memphis and $21.49/SF for the Nonconnah corridor.
– The Downtown Hampton Inn is the highest-grossing Hampton Inn in the U.S.
– There are 40,000 parking spaces Downtown… and, I’d like to add, several hundred bums who will be happy to show you one of those spaces and charge you to park there.
– The CCC did a block by block survey, and based on the results estimates Downtown redevelopment to be 35-40% complete.
– Their retail plan calls for an eclectic mix of retail storefronts and signage. They want unique and different, displays that are engaging, with Memphis personality. They don’t want “vanilla ice cream.”
– Potential retailers should reach out to the CCC about incentive plans. “A conversation today may be a store a year from now,” they said.
– Audience members asked what had been done to recruit a grocery store Downtown. This was quite a point of contention/argument and several audience members spoke passionately about the subject. One audience member pointed out that there are dozens of little podunk towns in TN, AR, and MS that have populations of 7,000 and have two grocery stores. Downtown has a population of 28,000 and does not even have one (he kind of overlooked Miss Cordelia’s, but it’s questionable whether that can be called a true Downtown grocery when it’s not accessible from the trolley line).
Another person responded that you’re going to see neighborhood grocery stores come in here, not big-box ones. Incentives for these are being worked on. In Cordova or Collierville, your neighborhood grocery store might be 3, 4 miles away. Schnucks in Midtown is 2 1/2 miles from Downtown.
An audience member asked if the CCC has even courted big chains like Kroger and Schnucks. He pointed out that Atlanta has a Publix in its Downtown, but it’s scaled down and is a boutique grocery. Someone should go there, he said, see what they’ve done, and present a plan based on that to the big retailers.
Andy Kitsinger from the CCC said they had discussions with all the major retailers including Kroger, Schnucks and Publix. He said there’s an urban prototype and a suburban prototype, and we have to be careful what we wish for or we may get the suburban protoype with a 7 acre parking lot. Urban models cost more. Retailers look at the number of people, per capita income, how long they are going to stay in the area. Whole Foods actually has this type of info on their website, he said. They also look at what else is around – there are 6 supermarkets within an 8-minute drive of Downtown.
Andy further said the incentives are there for both the property owner and developer, if they can find the right fit. He said they have 8-10 places Downtown where land can be assembled for a 3-4 acre site. But, he cautioned, “Retailers are not risk-takers.” Boy is that the truth. I’ve been lobbying Walgreens at Main and Madison to stay open later than 8 at night for YEARS now, but they won’t do it because their “profitability studies” indicate it won’t be a success.
“Not that it’s a substitute, but that’s one of the reasons we started a Farmer’s Market, even if it’s only one day a week,” the CCC people added.
The grocery issue generated so much discussion that the SMA leaders asked if they could continue the conversation after the meeting, in order to keep things moving along. After the meeting one of the attendees approached me and said he thought lobbying for a grocery store should be the major focus of my blog from now on. It’s important, but I haven’t chased all the bums out of here yet. And not ’til the end of June anyway, because right now tube tops are the #1 focus.
– A retailer on the Main Street Mall was asked his opinion about opening the mall to vehicular traffic. “There are more trolley stops in the core than there are in South Main,” he cautioned. “That may slow up traffic.” That said, he admitted he was still undecided and wanted to hear more before he makes up his mind.
There won’t be street parking on the Main Street Mall if opened to traffic, the CCC people said.
Andy Kitsinger: “They want to drive by and see your front door, then find a parking space and come back.”
– A South Main business owner asked why there were no signs in the train station letting people know about all the wonderful shops and things to do in the area, and in the Downtown core a short trolley ride away? Many people sit in the train station for hours, and have plenty of time to venture out and explore Memphis, but they don’t know what’s there.
A SMA representative responded that it’s being worked on, but there are a lot of opinions and a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of people with ideas on how signage should be done. All those opinions have to be resolved. Also, someone has to foot the bill. It’s going to happen, but it’s not reasonable to expect it tomorrow.
Andy Kitsinger followed up that activity and foot traffic are the most important things. If people see activity and foot traffic, they will be drawn there. Those things are more important than signage.
– Another South Main business owner, who has had a store for 6 years, raised two points that she thought were “nuts and bolts” of getting retail to work in South Main.
First of all, she said, there are no parking lots on South Main. People are intimidated to come there because they don’t know where to park. We need a lot, she said, with prominent “Parking” signs. Another SMA member commented that people from East Memphis come down here, and if they can’t find an open spot on South Main, they leave because they’re afraid to park on the side streets.
Secondly, she said, the litter, the trash on South Main, is a huge problem. She spends 30 minutes picking up beer bottles and other trash outside her shop every Sunday morning.
– Another South Main resident commented about the Downtown safety patrols that have been put in place to curb panhandling. She noted that the southern boundary of the patrol’s area is around Beale/Linden and many of the bums have figured that out and have started panhandling in South Main. Andy Kitsinger said it’s a matter of funding. They have to find private businesses willing to fund the patrols if the CCC is to be able to expand them.
A business owner on Monroe commented that he’s gone an entire month without as many as 3 panhandlers coming in his store, which he said was a tremendous improvement. He complimented the CCC and the new safety patrol on their fine work.
– SMA members get free Boscos beer and grilled food every month at Trolley Tour.
– SMA needs “resident representatives” to print flyers that are e-mailed out and post them on apartment and condo bulletin boards. Hard to get the word out about meetings and events when most of the buildings down here are controlled access.
– They talked about an “adopt a block” program to fight litter. “We need to get people to take ownership,” they said.
– SMA’s website is in a state of flux. They’re re-doing it (if you look at it you may recognize the default WordPress template) and it will take about a month to get everything there. The advantage is that it will be much easier for SMA to reach members with the new site, and keep it current and informative.
– Memphis Farmers Market is hosting dinners around town – next one is at Circa on Sunday, June 22.
– MIFA is holding a “Feed the Soul” preview at the September trolley tour, with a preview of art work, a live radio remote, choirs, and a MIFA information table. This is the preview to the Feed the Soul Celebration to be held at The Warehouse October 2.
…And that’s the recap. Sitting at the Saucer blogging this. It is really crowded in here for a Tuesday.
All right, back to my work building online stores until my battery dies. Next store should be rolled out by week’s end.