An Epic Revival in Memphis | The Crosstown Concourse

Five years ago, an improbable journey to restore and redevelop the Sears Crosstown building began.

Many doubted that one of the largest abandoned buildings in Tennessee could be transformed from a grungy eyesore into a flourishing community and cultural destination. But that’s exactly what’s happening.

The Journey began on Saturday, February 21st, with the groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment of the Sears Crosstown building, 88 years to the day after its initial groundbreaking in 1927.

Transforming a national hub for the distribution of goods into a local heart for the cultivation of well-being, Crosstown Concourse shifts focus from products to people, from commodity to quality of life. Building on three of Memphis’ strongest community assets—arts, education, and healthcare—the historic Sears Crosstown building is being preserved and redeveloped as a mixed-use vertical urban village with a purposeful collective of uses and partners. People will be living and working, learning and teaching, healing and growing well, creating and recreating, shopping and eating— like a really great neighborhood.

design_img14In contrast to typical commercial real estate projects that fit tenants into generic spaces, the Crosstown Concourse founding partners participated in a collaborative planning and development process, resulting in a place distinctly well-suited to serve their operations and missions. Moving beyond the concept of “mixed-use” where diverse tenants simply co-locate, Crosstown Concourse is a place where unique settings and uses are intimately related, interconnected and interdependent and, as a result, better because they are together. True sustainability comes from the relationships between uses, tenants, and the organizations within a space, rather than from simply coexisting.

design_img3“This is not just a building limited to the physical – the steel, the stone, and the tangible. This is a million square feet of opportunity, built on history and powered by renewal. It’s a place to collaborate because our lives are lived better when we discover together. We believe in the search for intersections, designing paths of unexpected connections that lead to experiences filled with creative force. This is not just a building; this is a beautiful passage of people, who together… are Crosstown Concourse.” – Visit the Crosstown Concourse website for more information.

Learn More about the Crosstown Concourse