After standing vacant for over two decades, a $200 million makeover of the Sears Crosstown Building aims to revitalize the community under a new moniker: Crosstown Concourse.
Located at 495 N. Watkins, the redevelopment will include a charter school suited for 450 students, a fitness center, and residential living, offices and retail stores.
The concourse is also expected to include a 300-student adult learning center, which will be operated by Goodwill. Construction for the concourse began in February of 2015.
“We nicknamed it the ‘Vertical Urban Village’,” said McLean Wilson of Kemmons Wilson Companies, who along with Bologna Consultants and Crosstown Arts are responsible for developing the Concourse. “This project is something that is going to be very positive for the city of Memphis.”
The residential living portion will have 270 apartment units. There will be micro apartments, studio apartments and one, two and three bedroom apartments. The prices will be “on par” with apartment prices in the midtown and downtown areas. Twenty percent of the apartments, however, will be affordable income qualifying.
“We allotted 20 percent of the housing this way because we wanted to ensure that those who may not have otherwise been able to afford it, could be a part of this community,” Wilson said.
The project is being built in a building central to the Memphis community, the former Sears and Roebuck distribution center. Construction on the original grounds began on Feb. 1, 1927 and the 650,000 square foot facility was completed in a swift 180 days at a cost of $5 million.
When Mayor Rowlett Paine cut the ribbon at the grand opening in August 1927, it was the largest building in Memphis. When the doors opened for business, close to 30,000 customers came in to shop. For several years, the Sears building was used as a catalog distribution center, retail store and warehouse. By 1965 it expanded to around 1.5 million square feet.
Sears closed the retail location in 1983 due to the mail-order business beginning to fail. The facility shut down completely in 1993 after offering only surplus goods for ten years. The building stood vacant for years until the Crosstown Concourse began.
Clara Gilbert remembers shopping at Sears, and when it closed down for business.
“This brings back old memories,” Gilbert said. “My mom would order our school clothes from there and to see the building being put to good use.”
Similar projects have taken root in former Sears’ facilities in Minneapolis and Boston. Wilson projects the Concourse should be completed in the first quarter of 2017.
