Memphis Tobacco Bowl

« Rest Your Pipe Here | Main | EUnuchs in Charge? »

Welcome to Mid-Second(?)

It’s on these dog days of summer, when it’s hotter than hell out and just that slow in here – those days when JF comes in for his lottery tickets and you’re almost (ALMOST) happy to see him because it means three more dollars in the till – that it seems all there is
to do (rather than clean or pay bills, naturally) is bounce around the internet. After checking to see what the bloggers are up to and the cigar nerds on the boards, I check my vendors’ sites to find out what might be new there, and then I find myself on the Center City Commission website only to find that I am part of a neighborhood. A real neighborhood! Not the general, generic Downtown neighborhood, but a real South Main or Pinch-style community. And someone with a marketing degree, but no creativity, named it Mid-Second Neighborhood. Its area appears to encompass a half-block south of Monroe to a half-block north of Jefferson and a half-block on either side of Second Street, so that the Tobacco Bowl squats just inside its Eastern parameter on Madison. The website does a good job of detailing the vacancies, investment opportunities and potential for the neighborhood. By my calculations, there are approximately 1.5 million sq. ft. of vacant office/retail space just waiting for you in my neighborhood.

When I purchased the Tobacco Bowl over six years ago, I did so because of the potential of downtown and the plans that were on the books then, which included Autozone Park and Peabody Place. Things seem to slowly be moving our way. Court Square is the geographical center of downtown and has been called ‘Memphis’s living room,’ yet Jack Belz and his vision have done everything possible to make the Peabody Hotel and mall into the core of downtown, and new ventures have been spreading out from there like rays of sunshine. As Monroe fills in with great restaurants such as Lolo’s Table, McEwen’s on Monroe, Stella and Zoe’s, joining old favorites like The Bon-Ton, I think that people will have to start looking at Madison, which has a multitude of opportunity for retail, restaurants and residential. And may I add, Hurry Up! Because as I stare out my door, which opens less and less this time of year, and watch the empty trolley cars rumble past, I get disillusioned. I forget that I have the greatest regular customers and that downtowners support downtown businesses to the exclusion of all others. I don’t consider that this business has been around for 56 years and no matter what the heat index is outside, or what the anti-smoking establishment says, or how crazy the economy gets, that this will remain a gathering place downtown for all types of people. Yet, what this neighborhood needs is more – more business (especially retail), more people shopping, more sightseers and more people who believe in downtown.

Posted by Richard Alley at August 4, 2005 02:36 PM

Comments

Post a comment