MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A site that was home to two troubled night clubs is on the way out, and there’s a new hotel getting ready to take over the spot at the back door of Beale Street.
The vacant building at 380 Beale that housed the former Plush Club and Club Crave is being demolished and a hotel is being built in its place.
Club Crave was deemed a public nuisance and shut down just after Christmas in 2012, following a Christmas Eve murder and an investigation by undercover officers revealed drug use and sales, as well as robberies and aggravated assaults.
That’s not even where the troubled past stops. The spot used to be known as the Plush Club, and during that time, police were called to the club 100 times in one year.
Even with such a dark cloud floating over the place, people like Beau Dameron hate to see the building go.
“A hotel is more convenient, but I’d rather see the old buildings than a nice, brand-new hotel,” Dameron said.
He thinks the building could have been turned into something else instead of changing the historic look of downtown.
“I think preservation in the downtown areas of any city is important,” he said.
John McCrackin, a visitor from Ireland seeing Beale Street for the first time, thought it would be great to wake up to the sights and and sounds of the musically historic avenue.
“Next time we are back, that will be great because we will be right in the center of Beale Street to stay instead of walking,” McCrackin said. “Open your window and listen to the music, that is what I want.”
He also said he thinks there’s enough hotels in the area.
“You look around, it looks like there’s already a couple of hotels around here,” Dameron said.
WREG reached out to Turkey Creek Hospitality, the company that is building the hotel, but we have not yet heard back.
