DRG901

Haslem was the mayor of Knoxville, think you are thinking of Phil Bredesen, he was mayor of Nashville in the 90's and Democrat who became governor. I definitely think Lee has done a lot for Memphis/West Tenn recently. Please bring as many Blue Ovals as you can lol.

That is wild about the airport authority. We've been dealing with crazy stuff with the state legislature for years (and recently along with Nashville as the national/world media has covered). We have a lot more in common than people like to admit. It can be a fun sibling rivalry on the internet at times but we really need to stick together

A report is coming out in July about rail connecting the Big 4 cities of TN: Memphis Flyer | State Officials Plan Passenger Rail System to Connect Tennessee’s Big Four Cities

Yep, definitely a cool and interesting history History — Broad Avenue Arts District (broadavearts.com) The Birth of Broad Avenue - Memphis magazine

Broad was a somewhat rough area- there were the old storefronts that are now revitalized with not much in them but an old bar/Broadway Pizza and some industrial type companies and warehouses across the north side that are now being torn down and replaced with apartments. It was really more of a cut through as all Sam Cooper traffic emptied onto Broad right at Holmes before the Sam Cooper extension was finished in the early 2000's. From what I recall and was told the whole path of the Sam Cooper extension was already cleared out in the 60's-70's before I-40 was put on hold following the Supreme Court decison to stop it from being built through Overton Park and basically cut off Broad from the rest of the neighborhood and cleared out a lot of homes and apartments along the way and just sat empty for decades. Fast forward to the early 2000's and the Sam Cooper extension opened and Broad was used even less and then by the late 2000's/early 2010's you begin to see the push to revitalize it and I definitely think it has a lot of potential, very impressed with what's come along so far. Becoming one of my favorite areas of town!

Is it that hard to believe? You post it once a week on almost every single thread. Cool screen name bro.

Yeah, and since then the Grizz and 901 FC have had blue/yellow colors... could definitely be part of a theme.

I always thought the Pharaohs were a cool nickname from the Arena Football team of the 90's.

After all this we could be getting a Lake Carlisle?!?

This has been my thought since July or whenever when Carlisle came back and said they had to have the backstop or it wouldn't happen after they'd already done site work and I was under the impression it was a 100 percent go. I never felt as confident since...and I'll be honest if this is the third try of a high rise Hyatt at this site that was approved and good to go after 17 years I'd be happy to see a 2 story Days Inn built at this site just to call it a day and know something will be built there (half joking :). But really I am not sure if I should be mad at Strickland or the city, they did seem to try to compromise time after time and Carlisle has not been exactly friendly in the media in the past 4 months towards them...and again with the third try on their part to get a tower built at this site and the second failure of Strickland to get a convention hotel it's all just frustrating as mentioned before. I almost ready to give up lol, but yes it reveals a lot of issues with Memphis getting big projects even somewhat off the ground and I'm not holding my breath on anything else big for the foreseeable future with the way things are with the economy now... and I do think it ends up setting a bad precedent because none of these projects are feasible here without the tax breaks which the developers end up taking advantage of and asking for more extensions after the fact and then yet the projects end up dying completely... so why on earth would someone else come along and then see how things are done here and the cycle just repeats itself as I've witnessed the past 2 decades in this town.

Yeah, back in 06 or so when it closed I was all about tearing it down but over time- I don't know if it's actually time or that so many have been so passionate about not tearing it down because we still "need it" after being replaced twice basically (3 times if you count the Landers Center) that I was on board with finding something useful for it but in reality with the no complete clause I just don't know what you could do with it unless you scale the seating back which in my mind seems pointless almost because it'd be harder to get hockey or whatever else as a guaranteed tenant back to it. And the group that has been trying to display it or whatever has had several years and nothing has come of it. Plus, back to the Landers Center- it did take its hockey team away in 2000 and it didn't have a tenant since then for the last 6 years it was open. The Landers Center is being renovated so it's not like it will stop getting the shows it gets (which seem to be mainly more country anyway than Memphis seems to ever get). And a lot of the argument is we need to renovate it to take shows back from Southaven.... but would that actually ever happen? Concerts and touring have changed since the Coliseums heyday. It's not going to get 100 shows a year like it did in the 70's no matter what and things that are already going to the Landers Center aren't going to all of a sudden say we're going to the Coliseum because I wanna be in the Memphis city limits. They're still just going to look at it as going to Memphis market. Plus throw in Snowden in Southaven and Radians Amphitheater in Memphis is getting a decent amount of shows for smaller things, plus you have the Forum and even the Overton Shell as well. On top of that no one knows what's up with Mud Island which I'd prefer over the Coliseum if we're going to spend money on older concert venues when I'm not sold either are really needed. On top of that-- the soccer stadium could hold 15,000 for concerts-- which is probably close to the Coliseum in seating-- and outdoor venues don't have to worry about the no compete clause- so what would we really be losing and not gaining much more in return? And also-- the renovated Liberty Bowl would be updated for modern bigger tours as well-- so right in the same complex we'd have two basically new concert venues- a 50,000 seat stadium for bigger shows and a 15,000 seat stadium for others-- again imo we'd be gaining more than we have now. And if we have two modern venues at Liberty Park that could hold different amounts of outdoor concerts than do we really need to renovate Mud Island as well? LOL...sorry, a lot of possible scenarios here!

Yeah that's my thought as well- they are already adding residential/hotels/entertainment so it's not like it's going to be the fairgrounds of old where you just park in a suburban style lot, go in and watch a game and leave. And yes I didn't really think of how close Cooper Young/Overton is also which is slowly blending into one area down Cooper St. I agree about the Coke factory but I believe I saw they were just going to use that as parking for the Liberty Bowl? Which is unfortunate since it could be more.

I agree. Also it gives the Coliseum site a new use, we've been watching it sit for 16 years with no real ideas thrown out there that would work. And with soccer having a summer season woudl give the fairgrounds more activity throughout the year. Also, it won't be downtown but with the new mixed use coming to Liberty Park it'll still have bars and things to do around the stadium. Seems like a win/win in the end.

How recent talk are we dealing with? I haven't heard anything since pre-2019 and haven't heard since. Some things have happened since then I've heard that have delayed some other things. And that might be an understatement.

Agree with both posts above-- I was under the impression the residential portion was already supposed to start before hotel/office/etc and figured that would've been easier to get going since there's still more residential projects that are getting built downtown. And with regards to One Beale I felt the same way and that's what scares me. Seems to be the same situation with a looming recession- came back with a similar plan and then they had other issues after the second proposal with the father dying when it was supposed to get off the ground and had to re-group and then came back with the scaled down plan that's finally been built (I can't recall all the details) but it eventually got going and still seems to be getting a hotel tower in the original planned spot (although also scaled back a bit). So I am hopeful but skeptic as always as I've become accustomed to around here. Hopefully something comes out soon...not sure I'd think of it as a Lowe's debacle. With that there seemed to be a lot more city involvement with plans etc including 100 N Main. At least with this the developers knocked down about 30 acres of blight that was an eyesore heading into downtown-- so hey, at least a clean slate for whatever may happen.