Memphis Riverfront Library

$2 million promised to revive work on Beale Street Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:00:00 +0000

The Commercial Appeal [Link]
By Amos Maki, April 27, 2010

The Riverfront Development Corp. has raised $1 million from private sources and the city’s Division of Housing and Community Development will provide another $1 million to continue construction on the troubled Beale Street Landing project.

The $2 million will allow the city to finish the docking facility and the building housing a restaurant and retail space. The RDC would likely still need another $7 million to finish the project as planned.

“Thank you for finding those dollars and I hope you continue to keep looking,” said councilwoman Barbara Swearengen Ware.

The RDC is facing a projected $8.9 million deficit to cover cost overruns and funding shortfalls for the project at the foot of Beale Street, between Tom Lee Park and the historic cobblestones.

The landing's design - the product of an international competition - includes an elaborate docking facility accommodating large excursion boats, a structure containing a restaurant and retail area built into the landscape, and terraced pods on which visitors can descend to the river.

But construction costs have ballooned from early estimates of $27.4 million to more than $35 million. The RDC, the nonprofit corporation overseeing the city's efforts to enhance the riverfront, attributes the overruns mainly to delays caused by historic-preservation issues and city budget problems, as well as declining federal funding and skyrocketing contracting costs along the river in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Construction on the landing, which was supposed to be a cornerstone of the city's efforts to redevelop its Mississippi River waterfront, began in July 2008 - two years behind schedule - and was to be completed next year.

Mayor A C Wharton told council members in an e-mail that he is committed to completing the project, which he said complements Bass Pro Shops’ plan to transform The Pyramid and efforts to revive the Pinch District.

“The southern area of the new riverfront is Beale Street Landing, and if it is to achieve its full potential, it must be completed as designed,” said Wharton in a letter delivered Tuesday. “It is clear to me that Beale Street Landing will have an iconic status similar to The Pyramid, but what remains for us is to decide if the icon is positive or negative.”

Mayor Wharton's letter to City Council

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:00:00 +0000

April 26, 2010

Mr. Harold Collins, Chairman
Memphis City Council
125 North Main Street, Suite #514
Memphis, TN 38103

Re: Beale Street Landing

Dear Chairman Collins:

Our riverfront is being reborn, and when we are completed, it will be more than two miles of new activity, vibrancy, economic impact, public space, and options for experiencing the riverfront in new ways.

The northern anchors for our renewed riverfront are Bass Pro Shops at The Pyramid and the lifestyle retail center in the Pinch Historic District, which together will attract hundreds of thousands of new visitors and millions of dollars in new tax revenue to Memphis each year. With this project, we become the first major city to convert an old arena into an economic engine, much less use one whose adaptive reuse sparks a major retail development in the area adjacent to it.

The southern area on the new riverfront is Beale Street Landing, and if it is to achive its full potential, it must be completed as designed. It is clear to me that Beale Street Landing will have an iconic status similar to the The Pyramid, but what remains for us to decide is if the icon is positive or negative. If we modify the design, which was the result of an international juried competition that attracted 171 entries from 20 countries and 27 states, we erode the important impact that that Beale Street Landing promises for the future of our riverfront. Cities across the U.S. are reinvesting their waterfronts at costs that are several times more than Beale Street Landing. Chattanooga has spent $120 million, Louisville has spent $110 million, and Cincinnati has spent $90 million so far. The cost of Beale Street Landing is $35 million.

The rebirth of the riverfront is a key part of our agenda to achieve our vision of Memphis as a "City of Choice" and this vision is based on a change of philosophy and a clear focus on first-class, high-quality facilities in the tradition of FedEx Forum and Autozone Park. Beale Street Landing creates a dramatic sense of arrival for our riverfront, it creates a place for people to get close to the water, it creates a destination and gathering place, and with The Pyramid and the Pinch District retail district, it sets the frame that embraces an attractive gateway at I-40 and Riverside Drive with streetscape, maintenance, and painting; improvements to Confederate Park and the bridge to the University of Memphis Law School; the transformation of the historic Customs House into the University of Memphis Law School; the master plan for the Mud Island River Park that could add a skate park to the park's activities; Memphis Art Park; and connections between the riverfront and the new College of Art Graduate School in the South Main Historic District.

The overall benefits from Beale Street Landing are not only critical to the other riverfront redevelopment initiatives but the entire city. To that end, $1 million in Community Development Block Grant Funds (CDBG) can be re-allocated to the Beale Street Landing Project, and they will be matched by $1 million in private funds. As an eligible CDBG public facilities project, Beale Street Landing will create an estimated 762 construction jobs, an estimated 683 jobs from visitor spending, and 15 jobs from retail operations (total of 698 jobs). Fifty-one percent of these jobs must be held by or made available to low-to-moderate income persons.

While I am very supportive of the need to complete this phase of the Beale Street Landing Project, I am equally committed to the need to re-imagine our entire riverfront. This is especially critical due to the impact of the Bass Pro and Pinch District Project. The city has spent considerable time and dollars to implement these projects. It is now time to integrate the Beale Street Landing Project into the Bass Pro Pinch District and Uptown West Projects to update/finalize a Comprehensive Strategic Plan for the entire riverfront.

It is crucial that we take full advantage of this opportunity for the rebirth of the riverfront as we advance our City of Choice agenda for Memphis. This bold agenda -- whose projects touch every section of Memphis -- is poised to improve neighborhoods, expand the economy, strengthen infrastructure, create new anchors, and provide connectivity to maximize impact and choices for Memphians. These interlocking key projects include the dramatic improvements to Graceland, Memphis Zoo, and the Fairgrounds, to demolition of Marina Cove Apts., from development of Aerotropolis to Bioworks district to a system of greenways.

These projects have catalytic relationships with each other, and most of all, they give us the opportunity to produce economic activity that allows us to capture taxes that in turn can be used in innovative financing plans to prevent more dependence on property taxes as we find ways to increase our tax base. At no time in recent history of Memphis has there been more momentum for progress than now, and I look forward to discussing Beale Street Landing and these other important opportunities with you.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

(signed)

A C Wharton, Jr., Mayor

c:
Members of the Memphis City Council
Greg Duckett, Chair of Riverfront Development Corporation Board
Members of the Riverfront Development Corporation Board
Benny Lendermon, President of Riverfront Development Corporation
George Little, Chief Administrative Officer, City of Memphis
Bobby White, Chief of Staff, City of Memphis
Kelly Raine, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, City of Memphis
Robert Lipscomb, Directory of Housing & Community Development, City of Memphis
Kerry Hayes, Research Analyst, City of Memphis
Tonya Meeks, Communications Specialist, City of Memphis

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noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:29:00 +0000

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NY Times: When Parks Must Rely on Private Money

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:00:00 +0000

New York Times, N.Y./Region [Link]
By Diane Cardwell, February 5, 2010

A majestic staircase of granite rises some 30 feet above the Brooklyn edge of the East River, revealing a panorama that sweeps from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Midtown Manhattan. A salt marsh lined in limestone offers a contemplative look at the river as ecosystem. Along paths winding up manufactured hills and ridges are hundreds of trees that outline velvety fields of green.

OPEN SPACE: A view of Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Photo: Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

This is Brooklyn Bridge Park, perched atop a ribbon of piers, and already hailed for its design and scope. But the park is taking shape only in fits and starts, and even opening the small part that is complete has been delayed until spring as the city and state hash out questions of money and control.

Despite 20 years of planning, work has barely begun on the bulk of the project. The $350 million construction budget is still short $125 million, and no one is sure who will come up with the $16 million needed each year for operations and maintenance.

Like the other important, expensive New York City green spaces built in recent years — Hudson River Park and the High Line — this one is arriving piecemeal as it awaits fresh infusions of money. And like the others, this park faces an uncertain future as the recession and resistance to its source of financing — in this case, luxury apartments — threaten its ability to move forward.

The struggle to pay for Brooklyn Bridge Park echoes similar problems around the country in creating urban parkland in a postindustrial age when open space must often be carved, at great cost, from derelict manufacturing zones, military installations or rail yards. Governments no longer have the fiscal or political muscle to finance the projects alone, and the involvement of private donors or commercial ventures has led to public battles.

IN THE WORKS: Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is embroiled in issues of money and control. Photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times

The days of grand development in the style of Frederick Law Olmsted and Robert Moses, whose parks and playgrounds were built and maintained by the government for decades, have given way to an era of private-public partnerships and pay-as-you-go.

“There is this accelerating notion that not just parks but many aspects of the public realm have to be self-financing,” said Michael Sorkin, director of the graduate program in urban design at the City College of New York. “The paradox is that it’s always amounting to giving away some public good in order to realize some other public good.”

The tradeoff has provoked fights in many cities.

Millennium Park in Chicago is a huge hit, but only after bruising battles as the price tag swelled to $475 million from $150 million. That money, critics said, would be better spent on public education and the poor, and there were concerns that the city was making public space corporate by taking $200 million from private donors whose names now adorn the park.

In San Francisco, a fierce dispute ensued during the redevelopment of the Presidio, which started in the mid-1990s. Originally envisioned as a campus for nonprofit organizations, the park has become a more conventional entertainment zone, with restaurants, housing and a Disney museum.

In New York, the Bloomberg administration’s insistence that new developments include open space has fostered a boom in parks: the city has added more than 500 acres of parkland since 2002, with thousands more to come, including large-scale projects like Governors Island and Fresh Kills. But it is unclear who is to pay for all these new parks, many of which are on waterfront sites, making them much more expensive to maintain than those inland.

Two of three sections of the High Line, an abandoned elevated rail bed that was transformed into a linear park, cost about $152 million to build. Now, the private conservancy that developed the park with the city is scrambling to devise an income stream to cover the expected $3.5 million to $4.5 million annual cost of maintaining its jewel-box appeal. A proposal to assess a fee on nearby property owners foundered after business owners and residents objected to paying for what they see as a tourist destination. Officials are now looking to increase concessions and to raise money for an endowment.

Hudson River Park, a city and state collaboration, is about half complete after 30 years of fractious planning and $400 million spent; most of the remainder is due to open later this year. The park gets about half of its operating money from a parking garage on Pier 40, said Connie Fishman, president of the park’s trust. The income is “enough for now,” she said, but will not be for the long term, especially since the pier is in need of repair.

There is potential for income at Pier 57 from creating a cultural hub and marketplace, but one elaborate plan fell through and a new proposal is still in negotiations.

“While the idea is that the park would generate funds to sustain itself, they put so many restrictions on what could be done in the park that it just doesn’t work,” said Douglas Durst, a real estate developer whose $330 million proposal for the pier was rejected in favor of a less expensive plan from Youngwoo & Associates.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is using city and state money for construction, but officials plan to cover operations and maintenance with revenue from concessions and, more controversially, fees from housing developments built at its edges. A luxury complex, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, has been open since 2007, but some of its 441 condominiums remain empty, despite price cuts and rentals. Construction has not begun on a hotel and three other proposed housing developments near the park, with nearly 800 additional apartments.

City officials say they are open to other ideas for financing operation and maintenance — which is especially expensive because the 12,000 pilings supporting the piers are under constant attack from marine borers like shipworms and gribbles. But they say they have not seen any strategy with as much promise as housing.

“We came up with a novel way to fund the operation of the park,” said Robert C. Lieber, the deputy mayor for economic development. “The market today may not be as receptive to that idea as it was when it was conceptualized, but we’re as optimistic as you can be that the markets will recover.”

Community activists and elected officials who fear that developers could turn what should be a public amenity into a private backyard for wealthy homeowners have accelerated efforts to block more housing. Daniel L. Squadron, a first-term Democratic state senator who represents the area, has suggested that the city instead dedicate to the park any increased tax revenues from rezoned properties within four-tenths of a mile.

“When you talk more broadly about parks,” he said, “I don’t think we have figured out how to make them self-sustaining.”

Worried that Albany’s fiscal woes could stymie progress, city officials have stepped up efforts to take over the project, now overseen by the Empire State Development Corporation. The city would pay $55 million, allowing work to begin on Piers 2 and 3, including installing a covering to permit winter recreation. But it is unclear whether the governor and the Legislature will give up their signatures on an amenity that could prove popular with the public. Meanwhile, the park is coming into view, with benches and tree-lined paths atop Pier 1 at the foot of Old Fulton Street, and a 1.6-acre playground on Pier 6 near Atlantic Avenue.

Regina Myer, president of the park’s development corporation, decided to open the park in phases, building as money became available. She said she was confident the real estate market would rebound and support the rest.

“We know that these sites will have incredible inherent value,” she said.

Frozen

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:22:00 +0000

What happens when an unstoppable boat dock meets an irresistable force?

Memphis Magazine [Link]
By John Branston, February 1, 2010

The Memphis riverfront is a bleak place in winter when the temperature dips below freezing. The parks and sidewalks are all but empty, the wind blows in from Arkansas over the dark, foreboding river, and skim ice forms at the edge of the harbor.

There's a new piece in the picture this year. A barge crane stands like a giant sentinel at the mouth of the harbor just off the north end of Tom Lee Park. A partially completed iron dam and two red columns jut out of the water. The tip of the park is gouged and cluttered with supplies and equipment. This is the construction site of Beale Street Landing, a boat dock, restaurant, and public space scheduled to open in the summer of 2011.

In early January, with temperatures falling to single digits, Beale Street Landing was frozen, in more ways than one.

The price of the controversial project has steadily increased since its inception from $27 million to $30 million to $33 million to at least $35 million. The completion date has been pushed back a year. Some of the federal funds that the Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) was counting on to pay for it have not come through, leaving Memphis taxpayers on the hook for a shortfall of $8.9 million or more.

[Click to read the rest at Memphis Magazine.]

Project aims to restore Mississippi river flow and aquatic life behind diversion dikes

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Memphis Commercial Appeal [link]
By Tom Charlier, Sunday, November 9, 2008

With its Sahara-like dunes and outcroppings of sun-bleached shells that hinted at a richer past, the acreage stretching out behind Ron Nassar and John Rumancik on a crisp fall morning had all the hallmarks of an ecological desert.

Biologist Leighann Gipson surveys the scene near a Mississippi River dike targeted for relief to restore aquatic habitat up and down the river. Photo: Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal

This area just upstream from Downtown Memphis used to be a back channel of the Mississippi River -- a place where young fish could find refuge before plunging into the swift current, and where migrating shore birds could swoop in for a quick meal of tiny crustaceans.

But today, it's 11 miles of mostly sand.

"You can see what's happening to the river," said Nassar, coordinator of the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee. "You're converting it from aquatic to terrestrial habitat."

The problem lies with the navigation dikes -- stone walls up to a mile long -- erected by the Corps of Engineers to divert the Mississippi's water away from back channels and into the main river where barges navigate. Although they've kept the navigation channel deep enough for barges, the dikes have dried up many of the critical side chutes and channels behind islands.

But now, through a comprehensive program known as

"Restoring America's Greatest River," the corps and a group of other federal and state agencies are working to undo the damage. They've identified 239 projects along 954 miles of the river between Cairo, Ill., and the Gulf of Mexico to improve aquatic habitat and recreational opportunities.

Two years ago, in the initial project of the restoration campaign, the group reopened a secondary channel behind Island 63 in Coahoma County, Miss.

In a $200,000 project now under way, a contractor is creating large notches in seven dikes that blocked channels behind Loosahatchie Bar and nearby islands near the Arkansas side of the river across from DeWitt Spain Airport in Memphis. To make the notches, trackhoes and bulldozers peel away rocks weighing up to 5,000 pounds.

Until now, water flowed into the secondary channels only when the river was high. When low stages occur during summer, water gets trapped behind the dikes and eventually dries up or withers into stagnant pools, in which fish are doomed.

The Corps of Engineers and the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee are putting notches in navigation dikes on Loosahatchie Bar and Redmond Chute near Memphis to restore river flow behind the dikes. Photo: Mike Maple/The Commercial Appeal

Biologists over the years have noted a decline in the diversity in the age groups and sizes of some fish found in the river. It's been attributed in part to the loss of the secondary channels, which newly spawned fish need to safely forage and grow before entering the main river.

Once the notches are in place, the river will scour away some of the sand, creating channels that will have some flow at least 97 percent of the time.

Rumancik, a biologist for the corps, said the builders of the dikes in past decades shouldn't be faulted for not foreseeing the damage.

"Nobody ever thought what might be the impacts because the river was so big and huge," he said.

Herenton, council study options for cutbacks, including buyouts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Memphis Commercial Appeal [link]
By Amos Maki, Sunday, November 9, 2008

As the effects of the global meltdown trickle down to City Hall, Memphis officials are considering employee buyouts and other measures to deal with what could be the city's worst financial year in nearly two decades.

Mayor Willie Herenton and the City Council gathered Saturday at the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis for their annual retreat. While the banter was lighthearted at times, the financial scenario laid out by city officials was anything but.

Herenton said next year probably will be the toughest of his 17-year tenure, with a host of cost-drivers -- fuel, utilities and contributions to health and retirement benefits -- continuing to escalate, while sales tax and property revenues are likely to decline.

Herenton promised no property tax increases next year and delivered a broad cost-control plan to council members, who have the ultimate control over the city's purse strings.

The tentative plan includes offering buyouts and severance packages to city workers to reduce personnel costs, cutting capital expenditures, looking for opportunities for city-county consolidation and retooling heath care and pension benefits.

Herenton did not say how many employees would be offered buy-outs and promised to provide details to the council in the next 30 days.

"There will be no property tax increase to support our budget in 2010," said Herenton. "We have developed a buyout plan in an effort to reduce personnel costs."

Herenton said the city is prepared to restructure its health care, retirement and benefits plans.

"In the corporate arena, the employees are paying more and the employer is paying less," said the fifth-term mayor.

"These are trend lines at the corporate level and governments are now looking at the same kinds of trends," said Herenton. "It is predictable that in the future the benefit programs provided to employees will change."

City officials said they likely will start the 2010 fiscal year, which begins in July, facing a $25 million deficit because of increased costs.

The city probably will have to scale back its capital budget, the five-year plan that funds major projects like road improvements and costs $90 million to $100 million annually. City finance director Roland McElrath said the capital budget will likely be $70 million next year.

McElrath also said sales-tax revenue, state revenue sources and property-tax revenues are all likely to decline next year. Sales taxes, which generate about 20 percent of the city's revenue, are likely to get hit hardest.

"We think this trend will continue downward, and unless we see a quick turn around in the economy there will be a sharp drop-off in 2010," said McElrath.

The city has around $89 million in reserves, the roughly 10 percent of the city's general budget that the credit rating agencies like. That number includes a likely $16 million surplus this year.

Looking ahead to next year, council members and the mayor said major cuts to government spending are likely, possibly even in fire and police services, whose budgets represent more than 50 percent of the city's spending.

"We are in these times going to have to prioritize needs," said Councilman Shea Flinn. "It could get very ugly, very quickly."

Riverfront plaza to replace lot

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Renovation project to include walkway, pedestrian bridge

Memphis Commercial Appeal [Link]
By Tom Charlier, Sunday, October 19, 2008

In a reversal to the old Joni Mitchell tune, a Memphis agency wants to pave over a parking lot and put up a bit of paradise.

Under a project being designed for the Riverfront Development Corp., the parking lot behind the old Custom House and Post Office on Front Street will be transformed into a walkway and plaza on the Downtown bluff overlooking the Memphis waterfront.

The $2 million project also includes a pedestrian bridge over Court Avenue to connect the plaza and walkway with Confederate Park.

The project will be built in conjunction with the renovation of the Custom House and Post Office into the new home of the University of Memphis law school.

Design work should be finished early next year, with construction expected to be completed in time for the reopening of the building as the law school in January 2010.

"It'll be part green space, part plaza, part walkway," said RDC president Benny Lendermon. "It'll be just a nice public space behind the law school."

The walkway and pedestrian bridge should provide for greater use of Confederate Park, also, he said. Because land on both sides of Court rises high above the street, the bridge will be at-grade, requiring no stairs.

The project will be funded in part through $500,000 to $750,000 in donations from private groups, including the Hyde Foundation, Lendermon said. The rest will come from the city's capital budget.

Lendermon said land with such a commanding view should be put to good public use. "We don't want parking lots sitting on the bluff overlooking the river," he said.

With the loss of the lot, parking will be shifted to nearby garages and street spaces.

Jim Smoot, former dean of the law school who oversees the renovation project as chairman of the building committee, said the parking lot "by anyone's estimation is ugly" and should be replaced.

"We agreed (with the RDC project) and we're pleased that it'll be much more beautiful and fit in with the riverfront," he said.

The historic Custom House and Post Office will be transformed into the law school through a $42 million state-funded project. Private donors chipped in $5 million to $6 million for acquisition of the property.

Editorial: Time to move on Promenade

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:15:00 +0000

If the area isn't properly redeveloped, everyone who cares about the Downtown riverfront will lose

Memphis Commercial Appeal [Link]
Sunday, August 17, 2008

It's time to do something with the Downtown Promenade. Check that. It's time to do something great with the Downtown Promenade.

The Promenade is made up of four blocks west of Front Street, stretching between Union and Adams avenues.

It's located between the Mississippi River, one of the city's greatest amenities, and Main Street, which the Center City Commission hopes to revitalize as a center for shops and restaurants.

The Promenade property includes the historic Post Office and U.S. Customs House building, which is being converted into a new law school for the University of Memphis.

The Promenade is also a couple of blocks north of the site of Beale Street Landing, a boat dock and public gathering place that's under construction. And it's just a few blocks south of The Pyramid, which may at long last be getting a new anchor tenant soon.

In short, the property is right in the middle of everything. And, best of all, it's legally required to be dedicated for the public's use.

Yet, the law school plans aside, not much has been happening with the Promenade the last few years.

In 2004, the Riverfront Development Corp. suggested putting high-rise office or condominium towers on the property. That was a bad idea, for at least a couple of reasons.

For one, Downtown already seems to have more vacant office space and unsold condominiums than it needs. Also -- and much more important -- tall buildings would put up another barrier that would further discourage people from getting closer to our magnificent river.

On the other hand, Benny Lendermon, the RDC's president, makes a good point when he talks about how some commercial development on the Promenade could help cover the city's expected costs of improving the property.

Friends for Our Riverfront, a citizens group, has done a very effective job of raising questions about various aspects of the RDC's plans for the waterfront.

Yet if anything positive is going to happen on the Promenade, the RDC, Friends and others interested in the riverfront are going to have to recognize the value of compromise. Because in its current state, the Promenade property is badly underutilized.

Citizens' access to the river is blocked by the law school building, two parking garages, a fire station and the Cossitt Branch Library. Only from Confederate Park or the spaces between the buildings can motorists and pedestrians catch fleeting glimpses of the river as they travel along Front.

Preserving the status quo isn't to anyone's benefit. If the RDC and Friends could put aside their history of animosity, they might discover they're really not so far apart in their thinking.

If both sides were willing to give a little ground, the property could support some commercial development -- a restaurant, cafe or outdoor market are all possibilities -- while remaining a true public gathering place.

City Councilman Shea Flinn has expressed interest in trying to bring the two sides together.

For the sake of all who love the river, let's hope that happens. And sooner rather than later.

Prom-e-not? Plans for Downtown Promenade limping

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:07:00 +0000

Property's legal status, slow economy present chicken-and-egg quandary

Memphis Commercial Appeal [Link]
By Blake Fontenay, Sunday, August 17, 2008

After years of planning, a groundbreaking ceremony was held last month to mark the start of construction of Beale Street Landing, a $27 million-plus boat dock and public gathering space.

The landing is one of the key components of the Riverfront Development Corporation's master plan to draw more people to the Downtown riverfront.

Meanwhile, though, not much has been happening with another major element of the RDC's plan -- the development of a four-block area between Union and Adams avenues that is known as the Promenade.

In 2004, the Memphis City Council approved a concept that envisioned allowing construction of skyscrapers as tall as 150 feet on the strip of property west of Front Street. That proposal grew out of a report that included input from a consultant and a series of public meetings on the future of the riverfront.

But the council decision drew strong opposition from some in the community, including a citizens group called Friends for Our Riverfront.

The council's decision also touched off a debate about whether the property could legally be used for such major commercial development.

When Memphis was established in the early 1800s, a group of the city's founding settlers granted the city an easement to preserve the Promenade for public use. However, the heirs of those founding families retain ownership of the property.

And their feelings about allowing a massive private development, such as an office building or condominium complex, on the site have been mixed.

"Taking (the land) from the city and giving it to private developers to build something on it -- that's not a public use," said Bruce Kramer, an attorney who has represented Friends for Our Riverfront, a group that includes some of the property's heirs.

Economy stalls plan

The disagreement has led to a virtual stalemate over the future of the Promenade.

But RDC officials and other riverfront advocates generally agree that the property could be put to better use than it is now.

The site currently is home to a city fire station, the Cossitt branch library, the old Post Office and U.S. Customs House building, two parking garages and Confederate Park.

A plan announced in 2006 to renovate the historic granite and Tennessee marble Post Office building into a new home for the University of Memphis law school is under way.

But Benny Lendermon, the RDC's president, said not much can be done with the rest of the property until the city's lawyers clear up any ambiguity about what can and can't be done on the Promenade.

"We're getting the sense that may be happening in the not-too-distant future," Lendermon said. "But there's certainly nothing happening now."

With the dismal state of the economy, Lendermon said, it is unlikely the city would put out a request for redevelopment proposals right now even if the legal issues were resolved.

But, he added, "Now would be a good time to clean up those issues before things turn around."

The property's legal status presents sort of a chicken-and-egg quandary, though:

If city officials want to resolve those issues before a development project can proceed, they might need a case in court testing the legal boundaries for public use of the Promenade.

However, in order to get such a test case before a judge, they might need a developer who is ready to move forward.

And many developers would probably shy away from the idea of investing time and money in a project that might be a nonstarter.

Library site draws interest

Not that there's a shortage of ideas about what could be built on the four-block parcel overlooking the Mississippi River.

Local developer Henry Turley believes the Cossitt library site at Front and Monroe Avenue, next door to the new law school, would make a prime location for a mixed-use development in a building no more than 60 feet tall, to keep the project in scale with the former Post Office and Customs House building.

Turley favors tearing down the current library, which was built in the 1950s, and replacing it with a multistory building that would include a restaurant, coffee bar or other "public house" on the ground floor, along with perhaps a smaller branch library or a bookstore. The upper floors could be used for residential or office space, Turley said.

"That property is unique," Turley said of the library site, once home to a Romanesque red sandstone structure that was Memphis' first public library when it opened in 1893. "It's valuable to us as a city. We've squandered it heretofore."

Andy Kitsinger, the Center City Commission's vice president of planning and development, said several projects are planned for the area east of Front Street that could support whatever happens along the Promenade.

Those projects include a luxury hotel planned for 52 S. Front, former home of the Prince Mongo's Planet nightclub, and apartments with ground-floor shops planned for a building at 67 Madison Avenue, Kitsinger said.

Private projects are key

Even without the legal questions and the opposition to skyline-altering commercial development that has been expressed by Friends for Our Riverfront and others, a high-rise office or condominium complex doesn't seem likely for the Promenade, though.

According to a market study issued by the Center City Commission last month, Downtown already has a relatively high office vacancy rate of 19.3 percent for top quality space.

The same study showed that Downtown condominium sales have been on the decline since a big spike in 2005 and 2006.

Lendermon of the RDC said the riverfront master plan didn't specifically call for skyscrapers on the Promenade. However, Lendermon said the RDC's position was, and still is, that some type of private development is necessary to generate money needed to cover the costs of tearing down the buildings and parking garages on the site.

"We're not locked into what the maximum amount of development should be," Lendermon said. "We're just saying there needs to be some to help pay for the amenities."

There's a big disagreement between the RDC and the Friends for Our Riverfront about what it would actually cost to clear the site.

The RDC estimated the cost three years ago at $30 million to $50 million. Friends counters that the work could be done for $7 million, a figure that assumes part of the Cossitt building would be saved and renovated.

Friends members say they're willing to consider other alternatives besides simply turning the Promenade into a giant grass field.

The group's Web site lists a number of possible amenities, including a drawbridge to connect the property to Mud Island, places for artists to display their work, stands where vendors could sell vegetables, an outdoor movie viewing area and a platform for speakers, musicians and playwrights.

Hite McLean, one of the group's members, said some type of nonintensive commercial development, such as a small restaurant or cafe, might also be considered a permissible public use.

City Councilman Shea Flinn said he's hoping to bring representatives from the RDC and Friends together soon to see if they can reach some areas of common ground regarding the riverfront in general, and the Promenade in particular.

"Both sides just need to talk," Flinn said. "The issue with the Promenade is not going to go away."

Pike Place a model?

In searching for a possible compromise, both sides might do well to study the Pike Place Market, which, according to its Web site, opened in Seattle exactly 101 years ago today.

The market, originally established to combat price-gouging by middlemen selling produce, is a major gathering place overlooking the Puget Sound.

According to the Web site, about 200 businesses, 190 craftspeople and 120 farmers rent table space at Pike Place by day. At night they give way to about 240 street performers and musicians.

The site boasts that 10 million people visit the market each year -- a number that tourists who've been there on a busy weekday can easily believe.

So what does McLean, one of the Friends members, think about using Pike Place as a model for developing the Promenade?

"I think it would be a great thing if they had a farmer's market there," he said.

RDC CIP Budget Meeting audio

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Click the link below to listen to an MP3 audio recording of the City Council committee hearing on the RDC CIP budget on May 21. The recording lasts about 1.5 hours. If you download it to your own computer (in Windows, right-click "Save target as...") the resulting file is about 15.5 MB (megabytes).

Click here for entire 88-minute CIP budget audio (15.5 MB MP3 file). Selected highlight clip(s) below.

Cobblestones Preservation Project

In the course of the CIP budget hearing, there was a 12-minute discussion between Chairman Boyd and Benny Lendermon about the Cobblestones Project. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed discussion in a public forum of what the RDC has been planning. In the course of this discussion, Lendermon makes it clear that the RDC would like to move the riverboat daily-excursion operation away from the cobblestone area and over to Beale Street Landing.

Click here to listen to the discussion or to download it as a podcast (2.2 MB MP3 file).

Click here to read the transcript of this audio.

Barbara Ware asks: When will this all be done?

Click here to listen to the 4-minute discussion or to download it as a podcast (0.7 MB MP3 file).

Shea Flinn asks: Why a new boat dock?

Click here to listen to the 7-minute discussion or to download it as a podcast (1.2 MB MP3 file).

Wanda Halbert asks to understand the Master Plan.

Click here to listen to the 10-minute discussion or to download it as a podcast (1.8 MB MP3 file).

Chairman Bill Boyd asks about a water taxi.

Click here to listen to the 1-minute discussion or to download it as a podcast (0.3 MB MP3 file).

Jim Strickland asks about the parking lot.

Click here to listen to the 3-minute discussion or to download it as a podcast (0.6 MB MP3 file).

RDC CIP Budget 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Click here to download the RDC's CIP budget for 2009 (PDF file, 804 KB).

RDC Operating Budget Meeting audio and partial transcript

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Click the link below to listen to an MP3 audio recording of the City Council committee hearing on the RDC operating budget on May 9. The recording lasts about 48 minutes. If you download it to your own computer (in Windows, right-click "Save target as...") the resulting file is about 8.6 megabytes.

Click for operating budget audio. A partial transcript follows below.

Ware Questions Lendermon About Public Promenade

Below is a transcript of Councilwoman Barbara Ware's questioning of Benny Lendermon regarding the status of the Public Promenade. On the full audio, this portion of the meeting starts at 34:10 and runs to 40:33. Click here for just that section of audio [1.2 MB]. Transcript:

WARE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Lendermon, you said something that just kind of aroused my curiosity. You said that you are not involved in anything really with the Promenade. And I thought that the moving forward on the riverfront development, which included the Promenade, was something that Riverfront Development [Corp.] was taking the lead. So what has happened?

LENDERMON: We did. We took the lead on the plan. We were charged to do a master plan for the riverfront and we bought the Master Plan. And, then we also zeroed in on one little of it, based upon the Urban Land Institute's suggestion that this was really important, and we looked at the Promenade. We had this huge public input on what should happen with the Promenade. We brought that plan to the City Council in 2004, May of 2004 I think it was 2004, I'm not so sure of the exact day. 2004. And you approved it in, you know, a very interesting environment, okay. At that point, that was, RDC's challenge at that point was to to take, to us look at what we think ought to happen to that to that[inaudible, bring it to the City, and the City adopted, and at that point , the real issue was in implementing it. RDC can't deal with the legal issues. The legal issues are strictly a City administration process of, the City administration will want to resolve the legal issues that allows that plan that was approved to ever go forward. So, at such point that they do that, I'm sure we will be supportive with the facts that help their legal case just like any other person would do, but we aren't the one to pursue the legal, you know, we don't drive that train.

WARE: So, in other words we're at a legal stalemate on what happens on that plan? Okay, well, somebody else might have been aware of that. I wasn't. I just knew that we hadn't heard anything lately, and it was almost like let sleeping dogs lie. But at some point we need to get it off dead center, and decide to either you're gonna do or not do. I understand the legal issue with the Promenade. But if that is going to be an insurmountable factor, then what's Plan B? I mean do we just leave the riverfront as it is, and say that this is an issue that we can't resolve? Or do you work around it. I mean, and I think that it is in your lap to come back with something. If that's not gonna work, then what will work? We don't need to just leave it, well like it is.

LENDERMON: We are working, we're working with the University Law School. Within your CIP budget, which you'll see at some point, I think our hearing is on the 21st, there's a project in there that deals with improving the area behind the Law School, you know sort of making the back of that building, the front of that building in some sense green, putting up a pedestrian bridge across to Confederate Park and starting this connection here, this sort of a connection that will work under a multitude of environments. That's the beginning of something, whether it ends up being public or the plan that the Council adopted. So that's going forward I think the purpose is...until, I mean, the legal issue needs to be resolved, but it's um, the timing's probably not right to deal with that property anyway. So this is one reason why we're not pushing the City to so something one way or the other cause we think at this point it's probably okay to let it sit there then and let the Law School get put in there, let that drive the Confederate Park and improve that area, let the rest of downtown develop around there and all of a sudden you've got more impetus and more reasons to do something there one way or the other, if you will.

WARE: Okay, now what did you say about Confederate Park?

LENDERMON: Well, I'm getting off the subject, but there's a, in the Capital Improvements Projects there's a project that actually connects, it's improving behind the Law School, building a pedestrian bridge over to Confederate Park, connecting that green space with the Law School, thus tying that whole area together. We hope that whole waterfront's tied together. And it's being done to, because at this time the Law School's wanting to, they have been, I'm getting, I apologize, I'm getting off a little sidetracked here. There's a project which is heavily leveraged with State and private funds, requires some City dollars, to accomplish we think a lot of green space improvements. It doesn't really do much with Confederate Park, it pretty much, it includes a few little landscaping improvements. We don't change much of Confederate Park at all. It's primarily behind the law school.

WARE: Okay. Well I for one would like an update on where we stand on all of this. I don't know who is going to be responsible for bringing that information but I do want the riverfront developed in my lifetime.

LENDERMON: We do a lot...What I suggest, Councilman Ware, is that in the not too distant future that we have a committee meeting where we talk about what's, all the issues, all the things that Riverfront Development's moving forward with now. We'd give you basically an update on everything. That may be helpful.

WARE: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Memphis Landmarks Commission

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000

The Memphis Landmarks Commission meets Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm in City Council Chambers (Lobby) to consider a number of current Certificate of Appropriateness applications. One of them is Beale Street Landing (08-067) in the Cotton Row District. Click for more...

Click here to download the Agenda for the meeting and the Staff Report for Beale Street Landing (PDF, 1.8MB).

Click here to download the Memphis Landmarks Commission Design Review Guidelines, August 1988 (16pp., PDF, 5.8MB).

Benny Lendermon on Smart City

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:43:00 +0000

Benny Lendermon, CEO of the Riverfront Development Corporation, was recently interviewed by Carol Coletta on her radio program, Smart City.

Click here to listen to the Lendermon portion of the program We have compressed the file enough that you should be able to listen even on a dialup connection. The MP3, if you wish to download it, is under 5 MB.

Work finally set to start on Beale Street Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:51:00 +0000

Waterfront plans revised after historic group had objections
Commercial Appeal [link]
By Tom Charlier

Satisfied that modest design changes will protect the Downtown cobblestones area, Tennessee historic-preservation officials have cleared the way for construction to begin on the Beale Street Landing project.

The Tennessee Historical Commission dropped its objections to the $29million riverboat dock and waterfront amenity after the city's Riverfront Development Corp. agreed to change color schemes and relocate and downsize one feature of the landing.

With the revisions, the project will not "adversely affect" the cobblestones area, which is part of the city's historic landing on the Mississippi River and within the Cotton Row Historic District, commission executive director Patrick McIntyre said in a letter last week.

The commission's consent was needed because federal grant money will help fund the project.

The decision removes the last barrier to construction, which will begin "real, real, real soon," said RDC president Benny Lendermon. Completion is expected in 2010.

"We're really pleased to get this resolved as quickly as we did," Lendermon added.

The landing, situated at the foot of Beale between Tom Lee Park and the cobblestones, will feature an elaborate docking facility serving excursion and cruise boats and other vessels no matter how high or low the Mississippi might be. It also will include terraced pods designed to help bring people closer to the river.

Critics, however, have described the project as an extravagant boondoggle.

The RDC, a nonprofit group overseeing improvement projects along the city's frontage on the Mississippi, had been planning to begin work more than two months ago when the historical commission ruled that the original design would have adverse effects.

State officials said the vertical profile of the landing was out of character with the downward-sloping cobblestones.

Although the commission outlined six conditions for dropping its objections, the key changes clearing the way for the project included:

Making the color of the dock and ramp structures "earthen rust" rather than the originally planned red.

Moving the "island," or pod, closest to the cobblestones to the east, closer to Riverside Drive, and reducing its size by 15 percent. As a result, it won't stick out as much over the cobblestones.

A prominent critic of the landing said the revised design represents an improvement.

"It kind of calms it down, makes it less intrusive," said Virginia McLean, president of the group Friends for Our Riverfront.

She's not sold on the landing yet, though.

"It's going to cost a lot of money," McLean said.

[More on the decision here.]

BSL Design Revisions - TDOT/SHPO Approvals

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:25:00 +0000

On December 5/6, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) approved, and the State Historic Preservation Office conditionally approved, a set of proposed design changes for Beale Street Landing.

Quoting TDOT's letter, "[t]he assessment proposes several design changes including shifting and reducing the height and size of Island A, softening the transition between the project and the historic cobblestones, innovative interpretation techniques, and changing the red accent color to rust."

The complete Design Revision Submission, as prepared by the RDC, together with the TDOT cover letter dated December 5, 2007, can be downloaded as a 2.11 MB PDF file compatible with Adobe Reader v5 or later. Click here.

The Tennessee Historical Commission's "conditional" non-adverse-impact letter dated December 6 can be downloaded here (PDF, 105KB).

For more information about the Consultation Meeting that led to this, click here.

Note: The Librarian has made a non-substantive, technical change to the Design Revision document. An oversized and complex architectural drawing on page 10 made the document bulky and clumsy to read. We have substituted a 150dpi JPEG rendering of the same diagram. We also made it compatible with older versions of Adobe Reader.

For the convenience of those who cannot download the full document, the most important pictures from it are reproduced below.

Page 10. Architectural drawing shows the largest pod moved back toward Riverside Drive by approximately 40 feet.

Page 11

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Editorial: New day, new way for mayor?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:12:00 +0000

Commercial Appeal [link]
Sunday, December 2, 2007

MEMPHIS MAYOR WILLIE HERENTON sounded like a man with a renewed sense of purpose.

After meeting with most of the members of next year's City Council at The Rendezvous last week, Herenton said he plans to revive discussions about some issues that have long been on his to-do list.

"I'm going to be revisiting some of the dramatic and bold statements I've made in the past," Herenton told reporters after his get-acquainted session with the new council. "They fell on deaf ears before."

The golden oldies Herenton plans to put on his play list again include riverfront development, fairgrounds redevelopment, football stadium construction or renovation and that classic stand-by, consolidated government.

It was classy (and politically savvy) for Herenton to meet with the incoming council members.

There will be nine newcomers next year, eight of whom attended last week's session. Obviously, it was smart for Herenton to try to get off on the right foot with people he'll be working closely with over the next four years.

But if he's serious about bringing some of those sticky-wicket issues up for discussion again, meeting with council members was the easy part.

They probably share many, if not all, of his goals.

The real challenge is selling some of those ideas outside the sympathetic confines of City Hall.

The mayor wants riverfront development? He'll need to engage with groups like Friends for Our Riverfront, the Overton family heirs who own the so-called "Promenade" property and others who are intensely interested in what happens along the city's waterfront.

He wants to redevelop the fairgrounds? It would help to get the support of the various neighborhood groups surrounding the property.

A new or renovated stadium? Might be a good idea to work something out with University of Memphis officials and those boosters who are aggressively lobbying for an on-campus stadium instead of one at the Liberty Bowl site.

Government consolidation? That might require going into the lion's den to deal with suburban mayors who have long opposed that idea.

And, if Herenton wants the results to be any different this time around, he must do more than briefly share space in the same room with people who disagree with him.

For example, it wouldn't change much if Herenton were to show up at a meeting with those suburban mayors, tell them why he's right about consolidation, then head off to his next gig.

He needs to actually sit down and exchange ideas, to listen to other people's points of view and then try to persuade them. In a word, it'll require diplomacy.

A similar strategy is needed for virtually all of the other big-ticket items on that list.

After 16 years as mayor, Herenton has had plenty of time to accomplish the things he could do without anyone else's help. The goals he hasn't been able to achieve yet are the ones that require cooperation from other stakeholders -- in some cases, many stakeholders.

To build the kind of legacy Herenton has indicated that he wants, he'll need to reach out to people in ways he has never done before. Doing that might not come naturally or easily for the long-serving mayor, but it's probably the only way he'll be able to make real breakthroughs.

As the well-worn saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If Herenton wants to finish his mayoral career on a high note, he would do well to take that to heart.

Tennessee preservation group wants educational kiosks on Beale Street Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:57:00 +0000

Commercial Appeal [link]
by Tom Charlier

State historic-preservation officials might drop some of their objections to Beale Street Landing if educational kiosks and other interpretive features are added to the project, an official said Wednesday.

Tennessee Historical Commission executive director Patrick McIntyre said the kiosks could explain to tourists and newcomers the past importance of the cobblestone landing to the Memphis riverfront.

The comments by McIntyre came at a meeting in which local and state officials and interested groups discussed ways to reduce the project's effects on the cobblestones, which lie within the Cotton Row Historic District.

Earlier this fall, McIntyre's office ruled that the landing "as currently proposed will adversely affect the historic property through the introduction of out-of-character elements into its setting."

The decision effectively blocked this month's planned start of construction on the $29 million project by the Riverfront Development Corp. (RDC)

Linking Tom Lee Park and the cobblestones, the landing would serve as a riverboat docking facility and an amenity providing terraced access to the water's edge on the Mississippi. Critics have described it as a costly, impractical and unnecessary.

After the meeting, RDC president Benny Lendermon said interpretive features will be included in the landing.

On Wednesday, McIntyre elaborated on the state's objections to the project. He said the "uplifted" landing is out of character with the downward sloping cobblestones, and the construction would occur on areas once part of the cobblestones.

Some of the concerns voiced by citizens in attendance included the need to restore the cobblestones, which have deteriorated and now cover less area because of work done by the city more than 15 years ago.

Lendermon said the RDC has secured $6 million from Congress for the cobblestone-restoration work. But that project also must win approval from historic-preservation officials, and they won't take action on it until issues with the landing are resolved.

"We're ready to move forward," Lendermon said.

Some critics of the project also said it should be relocated, while others argued for a more distinct separation between the landing and cobblestones.

Lendermon said the RDC will work with preservation officials and review the concerns expressed at the meeting before submitting proposed project modifications to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the process.

Kickin' Around the Cobblestones -- in Downtown Memphis

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:51:00 +0000

Rocks On Our Mind And In Our Heads
Memphis Flyer [link]
by John Branston

On a day when most Memphians concerned themselves with such mundane matters as rain, work, school, crime, foreclosures, and the fights and shootings that broke out at four city schools, 40 of us met at City Hall Wednesday to hear a two-hour discussion of rocks.
The rest of you can be excused for wondering if we have rocks in our heads.

The rocks in question are the cobblestones at the foot of downtown. The rock hounds included two reporters, representatives of the Tennessee Department of Transportation and various state and local historic preservation groups, and supporters and foes of the proposed Beale Street Landing.

The rocks are next to the landing. To a handful of people, the rocks are a historic treasure comparable to Beale Street or the Mississippi River itself. The $29 million landing might have "an adverse impact" on the rocks, which are slated for additional millions. Hence Wednesday's meeting.

"The current design reflects a primarily recreational use of boarding and disembarking pleasure boat and cruise ship passengers," says the state report. "In doing so, the design overwhelms any sense of the historic commercial use of the riverfront."

This is the problem with projects like Beale Street Landing and the proposed new stadium at the Fairgrounds. They absurdly inflate the importance of something that matters little if at all to most people and prevent progress on smaller and easier projects with potentially far greater benefits.

For decades, the cobblestones were so treasured that downtown workers and visitors used them as a bumpy and treacherous parking lot. Now they might be "adversely impacted" by the "verticality" of Beale Street Landing. As Benny Lendermon, the head of the Riverfront Development Corporation, noted, the elevation of the river fluctuates 57 feet. In high water, most of the cobblestones are submerged. In low water, big touring riverboats canâ€™t get in the harbor.

Hence the proposed landing at the north end of Tom Lee Park. It will be used by recreational boats, small day-tour boats, and big, fancy, cruising boats like the Delta Queen. That is, if the Delta Queen doesn't go out of business in 2008 because the government has deemed it a fire hazard, as The New York Times reported Thursday.

The design of the docking part of the landing is unique. After some sharp discussion Wednesday, it was determined that "unique" means nothing like it has ever been built before. RDC engineer John Conroy said its structural soundness has been certified.

The people from state government who hosted Wednesday's meeting are not "big-picture" deciders. They are, as one of them explained, a "pass-through" agency. They will go back to Nashville and weigh the historic considerations and announce, sooner or later, if and how the project can proceed.

Beale Street Landing, whose cost may now fluctuate like the river elevation, is to be funded by a combination of local, state, and federal funds. Some of the federal funds come from the Department of Homeland Security, because there are ferry-boats involved.

And you thought Homeland Security was just to protect us from terrorism.

Smart City and Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:38:00 +0000

How a blog and a citizen activist are shaping the riverfront debate
Memphis Flyer [link]
by John Branston

Tom Jones and Virginia McLean are making the Riverfront Development Corporation irrelevant.

Jones is the cofounder and main writer for the Smart City Memphis blog (smartcitymemphis.blogspot.com). McLean is the founder and chief activist of the nonprofit Friends for our Riverfront (friendsforourriverfront.org).

They are often on opposite sides of riverfront issues, including the proposed $29 million Beale Street Landing. Jones has emerged as its most articulate and well-informed defender. McLean, equally hip to the latest ideas and trends in parks and cities, is the RDC's most passionate and dogged critic.

Both of them run on shoestring budgets and receive no money from local government or the RDC. Jones, a former newspaper reporter, was a spokesman and policy-maker for Shelby County government for some 25 years. McLean is an heir to the Overton family that was one of the founders of Memphis.

Their websites are timely and frequently updated, and they have become bulletin boards for unusually thoughtful comments, speaker listings, and even occasional news items. When a state official weighed in on Beale Street Landing this month and delayed the project, Jones and McLean were ahead of most if not all of the news pack spreading the word and collecting different points of view.

The RDC, in contrast, often seems muscle-bound. Created six years ago to focus public and private resources and cut red tape, it has a staff of former city division directors and City Hall cronies making six-figure salaries. It also has a blue-chip board of directors including public officials and downtown bigwigs. And it is consistently outhustled, outsmarted, and outmaneuvered by Jones and McLean and their helpers.

While Jones and McLean embrace the Internet and rough-and-tumble debate in real time, the RDC's website is outdated and trite. "Steal away to a day's vacation in the city's front yard," says the home page. "Nowhere else can you feel the rush of the Mighty Mississippi as its breeze flows through your hair and its sunsets warm your soul." The most recent "news" is a June 12th press release and a year-old item about the Tom Lee Park memorial. The description of the master plan still includes the aborted land bridge to Mud Island and pegs the total public cost at a staggering $292 million, which "will spur $1.3 billion in private investment in real estate alone" and bring "a minimum" of 21,000 new jobs and 3,400 new residential units to downtown.

Meanwhile, Jones and McLean are slugging away about the latest delays to Beale Street Landing and the next meeting of the Shelby County Commission. Within the last year, each of them helped bring national experts to Memphis for well-attended discussions of parks and citizen activism. The RDC, meanwhile, made a by-the-numbers Power Point presentation to the Memphis City Council aimed at justifying its own existence as much as informing public officials.

The RDC is not without is success stories. Its park maintenance is exemplary. Its concert series and improvements at Mud Island have made the park more attractive. Its structure involves business leaders and nonprofits in a way that government cannot, although the group's standard claim that it saves money is difficult to prove.

But the riverfront — Tom Lee Park in particular — often seems antiseptic and sterile, like a set-piece instead of a true park. On Sunday afternoon, for example, hundreds of people came to Overton Park in Midtown to beat on drums, whack golf balls, ride bikes, pick up trash, have picnics, toss balls, exercise dogs, visit art galleries, stroll babies, and do whatever. Midtown has no development authority, but funky Overton Park is surrounded by neighborhoods that feel invested in it.

Beale Street Landing looks more and more like a bet-the-company deal for the RDC. Without a big project — the land bridge (aborted), the promenade (still stalled), the relocation of the University of Memphis law school (coming soon) — why not turn its duties back over to a reenergized park commission and city administration? The Memphis riverfront, from The Pyramid to Mud Island to the trolley to proposed Beale Street Landing, doesn't lack for big investments. It lacks vitality, a decent public boat launch, walkable cobblestones, a skate park or something fun to watch, a working fountain next to the Cossitt Library, and enough shade and sprinklers to give tourists a fighting chance against the heat.

If those things happen, it will be because of citizens like Jones and McLean and their readers as much as the RDC.

Beale Street Landing Consultation Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:45:00 +0000

Updated: The minutes are now posted (click below for full article).

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) - Environmental Division today sponsored a Consulting Parties meeting for the proposed Beale Street Landing Project. The TN State Historical Preservation Office (TN-SHPO), also known as the Tennessee Historical Commission, has commented that the current design would have an "adverse effect pursuant to 36 CFR 800.5."

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to avoid the adverse effects to the Cotton Row Historic Preservation District that are thought to be associated with the current design of the proposed project.

The adverse effects associated with the current design were outlined in a document that was handed out at the meeting today. Click here (1.7 MB, PDF) for the document.

Updated: Click here (1.6 MB, PDF) for the official minutes that were taken of this meeting. Comments and recommendations from all sides are included.

'Memphis Fast Forward' political ties, accountability questioned

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:22:00 +0000

Commercial Appeal [link]
By Alex Doniach (Contact)

A debate among County Commissioners erupted Wednesday about whether to put $1 million in county funds toward an economic development campaign that has pledged to produce thousands of new jobs and millions in new tax revenue.

The development plan, one piece of the economic growth strategy "Memphis Fast Forward," will attempt to create 49,395 jobs by 2011.

The Memphis Fast Forward initiative is spearheaded by Memphis Tomorrow, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton and the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

But on Wednesday, some commissioners said they weren't confident how the funds would be spent.

They also expressed concerns about using taxpayer dollars for a plan that would give money to MPACT Memphis, a nonprofit that Commissioner Henri Brooks said has direct ties to New Path, a separate organization that endorses political candidates.

Brooks said New Path co-founder Darrell Cobbins is a former president of MPACT Memphis. He currently sits on the board of advisers.

"MPACT has a direct relationship with New Path; New Path endorses candidates," Brooks said. "We are not going to give money to political organizations."

Commissioner Sidney Chism agreed that the commission should stay clear of any efforts connected to New Path.

"All I want to do is make sure that we keep politics out of a funding effort that we've got something to do with," Chism said.

The economic development plan is broken down into 15 strategies that rely on the participation of local organizations, such as the Mid-South Minority Business Council, the Memphis Regional Chamber and MPACT Memphis, to create jobs and attract people to Memphis.

The City Council and state government have already pledged $1.5 million each. The private sector has given about $5 million.

Memphis Tomorrow president Blair Taylor reassured commissioners Wednesday that MPACT Memphis is a nonprofit that, by federal law, is not allowed to endorse political candidates.

She also said the commission's funds could be left out of MPACT Memphis' piece of the project.

And Commissioner Mike Carpenter reminded the commission that New Path is a separate organization that is not listed on the plan.

"Let's not get into, in this process, a lot of cherry-picking about what things get funded and what things don't," Carpenter said. "We've got to move this community forward and we've got to move it in a big way and in a fast way."

But there were other concerns about the plan. Commissioner Steve Mulroy found little support in a motion to keep county dollars away from the controversial Beale Street Landing project, which is included in the plan.

Brooks and Commissioner Wyatt Bunker said they were still unclear about how the county's $1 million would be used.

In light of the concerns, Chairman David Lillard delayed the vote until the full commission meets Monday.

Editor's note: The following extract was taken from page 22 of MEMPHISED: Memphis Area Economic Development Plan, prepared by Market Street Services on behalf of the Memphis Fast Forward. This is the program that Shelby County is being asked to help fund. Click to see the entire page.

Click here to download our scan of the entire, 40-page Memphis Area Redevelopment Plan. Warning: 6 MB PDF file, requires Adobe Reader version 6 or later. (7 MB copy for Reader version 5 here.)

MBJ: Beale Landing hits roadblock

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:27:00 +0000

Project delayed by historic concerns
Memphis Business Journal
by Andy Ashby

The Riverfront Development Corp. would like to be seeking construction bids right now for its 29.4 milliom Beale Street Landing Project, but a state historical preservation office's ruling could delay the process up to six months.

MBJ article page 1 [PDF, 50KB]
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Editorial: Another look at the Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:54:00 +0000

Commercial Appeal [link]
October 9, 2007

Beale Street landing suffered another setback last week when state officials questioned whether the $29 million boat dock and riverfront park would be a good fit with the surrounding neighborhood.

Patrick McIntyre, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Commission, wrote that changes to the Landing's design are needed because the project "as currently proposed will adversely affect the historic property through the introduction of out-of-character elements into its setting."

The Riverfront Development Corp., a quasi-governmental organization that had been spearheading the project, got word about the state's concerns just as some of the work was about to go out for bid.

Benny Lendermon, the RDC's president, said state officials will schedule a meeting, probably later this year, to discuss possible changes to the design. Groups that expressed concerns about the project to the commission will have an opportunity to attend and provide input.

While this delay won't make life easier for Lendermon and his staff, the commission's decision could be a blessing in disguise if it eventually leads to greater public acceptance for the project.

June West, executive director of Memphis Heritage, said her group has a number of concerns with the project as proposed. Chief among them is that the Landing would incorporate a modernistic design located next to the Cotton Row Historic District's riverfront cobblestones.

"It's not an ageless design," West said. "It may be bright and shiny for a number of years. Over the years, I'm not sure it'll wear well. I think that as it ages, it's going to be hard to maintain and keep it looking shiny."

The design was chosen from among 171 entries in an international architectural design contest in 2003.

While the winning design would certainly be distinctive-looking -- with a chain of islets shaped like guitar picks and linked by bridges -- it doesn't have the sort of retro feel that would blend into the district.

West said Memphis Heritage is also concerned about the technology that would be used to raise and lower the boat dock as the water level on the Mississippi River rises and falls. And that the project will require taking some land from adjacent Tom Lee Park. And that the RDC isn't doing enough to properly maintain the cobblestones.

It remains to be seen whether those issues and any others raised during the meeting can be resolved.

But let's hope so. The Memphis riverfront is an underutilized asset -- and it's in the whole community's interest to see it reach its full potential. A successful project at the foot of Beale Street could provide a key link to the entertainment district and the rest of Downtown.

However, that project needs to have widespread community acceptance if it's going to succeed. The state's meeting could be an important step in that direction.