One Beale developer: Memphians will wake up to a 'completely different' Downtown

Desiree Stennett
Memphis Commercial Appeal

Inside the old William C. Ellis & Sons Machine Shop in Downtown Memphis, the concrete floors are uneven and in spots, crumbled into dirt. The windows are discolored, broken or both. And there is a gaping hole where a back wall once stood.

Still, it was where about 60 people — developers, elected officials, economic development professionals, Downtown workers — gathered Tuesday morning to celebrate the future of Memphis.

That building at the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Front Street sits in the middle of what will become the One Beale project, which will include high-end apartments, a full-service Hyatt hotel, an office tower and space for a restaurant, retail and events stretching 5.5 acres bordered by Beale Street, Pontotoc Avenue, Front Street and the Mississippi River.

"The community support has always been fabulous from day one, (but) I think we've been on various cycles on the belief side of, 'Is this going to happen or not?'" said Chance Carlisle, CEO of Carlisle Corp., the company behind the development.

Construction crew stand outside of the site for the One Beale Street project August 20, 2019. One man directs traffic flow.

The project, a longtime dream of his father Gene Carlisle who died in 2015, was first announced about 13 years ago. At one time, it was to be a single, 1 million-square-foot tower that hoped to alter the Memphis skyline. Later it was to be two towers, one condo and the other a hotel, but the 2008 economic crisis killed the plan.

With each delay, doubts were raised about whether the project would ever come to life. 

"To be here today puts that to bed," Carlisle said of the groundbreaking ceremony. "It's been an amazing journey; We have so much farther to go. I really do believe that Memphians are going to wake up five, six years from now and see a Downtown that is completely different and yet the same Downtown that we've always had. I think One Beale shows a way to do that."

DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS:With his father's One Beale project in his sights, Chance Carlisle sets own vision

For now, the Ellis building will remain as it is. The building will be saved but its future has not been set in stone — it will be determined in a future phase of the project.

Demolition on other parts of the One Beale site started in the spring, and machinery could be heard moving just outside as Carlisle, flanked by Mayor Jim Strickland, Greater Memphis Chamber CEO Beverly Robertson, Downtown Memphis Commission Chair Deni Reilly and others, ceremoniously shoveled dirt from a wooden trough to signify the beginning of construction.

Memphis construction workers break ground on the One Beale Street project August 20, 2019.

"The One Beale project is a long, long, long time coming and it feels really good to be here," Reilly said, adding she was glad Carlisle decided to keep the Ellis building that was once slated for demolition.

"One Beale is better, cooler and much more Memphis because of it," she said.

While Carlisle said the apartments, office space, hotel and retail that will make up One Beale are special, he thinks there is still plenty of room to grow in Downtown Memphis.

"Even with One Beale, what's going to happen on Union Row, what's been announced at the Clipper, what's been announced at the Loews Hotel and the renovation of the convention center, all things that are coming, Downtown Memphis is still a little short, a little shy of the housing that we need," he said. "We still have demand for 2,000 to 3,000 more apartments in the future. We still have demand from every study that we looked at for an additional, I'll say 200 to 600 hotel rooms."

Carlisle said he hopes to look on as Downtown Memphis continues to grow around his project, even if that means One Beale, a unicorn when it was first announced, becomes one of many.

Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.