Crosstown Concourse facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Crosstown Concourse |
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| General information | |
| Type | Mixed-use development |
| Architectural style | Art Deco |
| Location | 495 North Watkins Street Memphis, Tennessee 38104 |
| Completed | 1927 |
| Opening | 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. Looney Ricks Kiss in association with DIALOG (renovation) |
Crosstown Concourse is a huge building in Memphis, Tennessee. It's a special place where people can live, work, shop, eat, and learn. This building is called a "mixed-use development." This means it has many different uses all in one place.
The building is located in the Crosstown neighborhood. This area got its name from old trolley tracks. These tracks crossed paths at Cleveland and Poplar streets. They helped people travel around Memphis back in 1927. Today, Crosstown Concourse is still a busy spot. People from all over Memphis come here. They enjoy the shops, restaurants, schools, and art spaces.
Crosstown Concourse is very large. It has 65,000 square feet of shops. There are also 630,000 square feet of offices. Plus, it has 265 apartments where people live. The building is also very eco-friendly. It has a special "Platinum LEED" certification. This means it's one of the largest historic buildings in the world to be so green.
A Look Back: The Building's History
Crosstown Concourse was once a big Sears, Roebuck & Co. building. It opened on August 27, 1927. On its first day, almost 30,000 people visited! The first part of the building was 640,000 square feet. It was built very quickly, in just 180 days.
Over the years, the Sears building grew even bigger. By 1965, it had five new sections. Its final size was 1.5 million square feet. This building was more than just a store. It was also a huge distribution center. It handled orders for people in many states. These included Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. The center processed about 45,000 orders every day. They sold everything from clothes to toys and even parts for houses!
Bringing the Building Back to Life
Sears closed its retail store in Crosstown in 1983. The building continued to be a distribution center for a while. But then, Sears' mail-order business slowed down. Because of this, Sears closed many of its warehouses. The Crosstown location closed in 1993.
For over 20 years, the building was empty. It became a well-known but unused tower. It was often vandalized. But then, people had a new idea for it.
In 2010, Todd Richardson and Christopher Miner started a group called Crosstown Arts. Todd was an art history professor. Christopher was a video artist. Their group is a non-profit arts organization. They decided to help bring the old Sears building back to life.
Two years later, they had a big plan. Eight local groups agreed to rent space in the building. This was almost half of the building's total space. By the time they asked the city for funding, many groups were on board. These included Church Health, Methodist Healthcare, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Crosstown Arts also became a tenant.
Today, Crosstown Concourse is a busy place once again. It's like a "vertical urban village." It has Crosstown Arts, Crosstown High School, and apartments. There's also a small hotel and many health-care groups. You can find 15 restaurants and many shops there too. Bringing this building back has also helped the whole community around it.
