JMSTiger Wrote:

3601 Wrote:

salukiblue Wrote:

tigergreen Wrote:

Chi-Town Wrote:

salukiblue Wrote:Is there enough of a money base in the city for people to actually occupy that building? 150 condos, I imagine will go from $300,000 and up. How many businesses will relocate to that space?

It looks good on paper, and in picture, but I dunno.

I'm with you.....if there were not a hotel involved, there wouldn't be a snowball's chance to get this thing going. I know there is a lot of interest in downtown lately, but that is some serious coin for a bunch of condos. I wonder if the "river condo" upscale market has been tapped out with south bluffs, etc..?

not really.....there are a lot of people, empty nesters mainly, who live out in collierville & g'town who are starting to purchase these condos as "second homes," coming to grizzlies/tigers games, and spend the weekends downtown.

For half a mil? I know the exchange building and the condos over the Y are pretty popular, but they run in the 100-300k range. These bad boys are starting out at $550,000.

The lender requires a certain percentage of presold units before they'll let go of any money for construction to begin.
That being said, I'm sure Carlisle did a market study before he began spending money. He's probably spent close to a million dollars on architects, land use/zoning attorneys, marketing and engineers.

Exactly. He knew he had people willing to buy those high end units well before he started the ball rolling on this project. There is more money in this town than most people realize. Plus, $550,000 for a home these days is not that much of deal anymore. He'll have no problem selling those condos, whether the $550,000 ones or the $1.3 million ones.

Memphis

Mike_M_Tiger Wrote:

Joe_Tiger Wrote:

Mike_M_Tiger Wrote:That Nashville tower is a disaster waiting to happen. I guess they didn't hear about 911.

yes terrorist are lining up to hit Nashville Ten. I don't think the developers have anyhting to worry about.

Well considering it will sit in wide open space with no other building around it, I would say it's a spot on bullz eye for a possible terrorist attack. But it's in Nashville, so nothing can happen, correct?

Muslim terrorist will NEVER come to Tennessee.

It would not make any sense. They are TERRORISTS... Media in New York and LA would not be terrorized by a Nashville or Memphis building coming down....It would be a big story for a week or so and they would move on.

They might hit the CMAs if they were being held in Nashville or something like that....... we are fly over country as far as they are concerned.

Terrorists might target middle America just to show Americans aren't safe anywhere. But middle America is vast, so the odds that any particular place would be targeted is extremely low. It's just as likely that Mall of America would be struck as anywhere else, b/c of sheer size and people.

don't forget people we are the distribution capital of the world. more cargo goes through the memphis airport than any other airport in the world. you hit the airport/fedex and the bridge and see what happens.

MemphisNate Wrote:don't forget people we are the distribution capital of the world. more cargo goes through the memphis airport than any other airport in the world. you hit the airport/fedex and the bridge and see what happens.

I know, I know

Don't say it!

1) It hurts civic pride to say that we will not be a target. (Of course we are important enough to be a target! )

2) If we admit that we are a low value target, we could lose valuable FEDERAL anti-terrorist dollars!

3) Of course there is a 1/100th of 1 % chance something could happen so DONT SAY it....


Terrorists are not strategic they concentrate on TERROR....it would not TERRORIZE the media elites, legislators, and Europeans to bomb a TN city, it just would not.

Look at where they have bombed so far:

New York
D.C.
Madrid
London


Do you see a pattern here.

They do not have great resources, ?If they bombed in MEmphis it would be the 50th Terrorist attack of the year.

I know it hurts our feelings to acknowledge it, the truth is we are not that important.

wkid87 Wrote:

3601 Wrote:

kabluey Wrote:It's great to improve downtown and turn it into the jewel that Memphis deserves. I think we should pull out all the stops in that respect, and look to build higher and better. The next step is to create livable walkable neighborhoods with distinctive identities across the region. I'm talking Broad Ave, the Highland Strip, the Fairgrounds area, the airport area, we need to take the lessons learned in developing downtown, in comparison with the embarrassment of G'town Pkwy, Winchester, and all the strip malls and lack of walkability in the suburbs, and create little focal points across the region, to enhance the visual landscape as well as health offerings for the citizens.

One Beale is just the next step in the evolution of our great city. It's not enough by itself, but hopefully will be another catalyst to continue the process.

I want our next mayor to focus on two things...

1. Reduce crime
2. Improve public education

You are right on. I like seeing the new things happening downtown, but who is going to come to a city while there is a crime festival going on? Once crime is down, then they can improve the city. I admit I hardly goes downtown, unless to the Fedex Forum. Its has been a while since I been on Riverside or even Main. I can see why they want to do downtown first because money talks, but after downtown they will needs to work on the inner city. It would also be nice to get that light rail system going before I be too old to drive.

The key to reducing crime in our city is reducing blight, beginning major economic development, strengthening our colleges and universities, and breaking ground on the first phase of a southeast corridor regional rail line that would travel from Gtown/Collierville through the U of M/Cooper Young and make stops in the medical district and the core of downtown Memphis.

Community leaders, local government, business leaders, and developers, must come up with a collective plan to expand downtown, revitalize Main Street, improve the U of M, CBU, Lemoyne-Owen, and Crichton College. A couple of fortune 500 medical companies would add more high end jobs to the city of Memphis as well. With the biomedical center set to be built in the core of downtown Memphis the time to expand is now. The regional rail line that would run from dowtown Memphis to Desoto county, Millington, and the airport would be a major step in improving mass transit in Memphis and helping revitalize the entire downtown.

Nashville is breaking ground on the tallest building in the South and Atlanta refuse to sit back and watch. Memphians should take notes. Mayor Willie Herenton's main goal should be to attract more fortune 500 companies and break ground on the regional rail line before he leaves office. The rail line would also make a stop at the U of M's on-campus stadium. Think about it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stori...st=s_cn_hl

When I was born in 1952, my father said he would not take the Sterick Building in exchange for me. That is how precious I was to him, and that is how fantastic that building was to a whole generation. I hope we can find a way to make it useful once again.

There are not only people from East Memphis buying condos downtown just to use them for weekend trips downtown, but there are people from Nashville doing the same thing. There is more money in this region than one can imagine. My friend's loft condo building in the South Main District is very quiet during the week because about one-third of it is owned by people who do not live there. $500,000 seems like a lot of money for those One Beale condos, but there are many condos downtown in the old warehouses which are that and more. Driving down the streets, one would never guess the huge and modern loft spaces that exist above all the old-looking buildings.

And I disagree about the dirtiness of downtown. I have been down there 35 years, and I find it VERY filthy, even for a downtown area. There are urination marks all over the walls of buildings on Main Street, weeds and trash all in the broken sidewalks, esp. in the South Main area, tons of vacant lots full of trash. Come downtown with me sometime and ride your bike. It's quite a challenge just to keep from going in all the potholes. Don't leave your bike unattended, even on Beale Street; the criminals will steal anything not bolted to it, like your basket.
I have fallen more than once on the broken sidewalks and new sidewalks that were not built level with the curbs.
In spite of all this, I think Downtown is the very best place to live in Memphis and it is the safest precinct.

madtiger Wrote:

Quote:I want our next mayor to focus on two things...

1. Reduce crime
2. Improve public education

The One Beale Tower and other projects work towards doing just that. Firstly, the theory is that by reducing the blight, abandonded buildings, etc, you reduce crime because you 'push' that element out. Education can be improved by building neighborhoods, which in turn utilize neighborhood schools

i don't think people that pay $500,000 and up for condos send their kids to public schools in this city...

in fact I think that one of the biggest issues surrounding the school systems here is that for the most part the difference makers' children don't attend public schools and therefore it is left in the hands of parents who largely do not care or do not have the means to force change

To the dude discussing Signature, while we should take note of Nashville's ambitions and seek to inject similar pride into our own deserving community, Signature has hit speedbumps given the current economic climate. Currently, it appears that One Beale is a little bit further along to reality than Signature.

It's not height so much we should be competing on, however. It's design. The architectural merit of these structures. The hole in Main is one ignominious example of ever declining architectural proposals. On the other hand, the Trinity/St. Mary's building would ahve been, imo the best architectural design our community has seen. Architectural standards are a reflection of community pride. Look at our older structures. We had some serious boosters back then. I'd like to see a rebirth in showing off our self-image through architecture, as well as showing it off in other respects. In the past couple of decades, it appears that design merit has taken a back seat to other agendas and motives. It's unfortunate.