You could soon see more activity at the Sears Crosstown building, as the old warehouse and store is transformed.
The building will become housing and home to at least eight different businesses.
“One-and-a-half million gross square feet,” Todd Richardson said. “Put that in perspective, that’s three Clark towers and the same size as the Chrysler Building”
That also translates into nearly 23 football fields.
On the inside, you can see parts of the past frozen in time.
But soon the ten floors will be transformed.
Right now, Crosstown Arts is working to secure all of the funding and loans by the beginning of next year. Then the build-out will begin before organizations like Alsac, Church Health Center, a charter school, Rhodes College and many others move into the space.
The price tag? $175 million.
That will include changing a parking lot into a plaza with green space.
“This is going to be one of the main features of the future of the building, its going to be the main atrium,” Richardson said.
Plus, 260 apartments.
All of the work is said to create 1,000 construction jobs, and the businesses moving inside will add 875 new jobs.
They have plenty of work ahead of them, but say this project will bring Crosstown back to life.
“We are very optimistic,” Richardson said. “At the same time, it’s still an interesting economy we live in, but we are very optimistic.”
If all goes as planned, we could see construction begin as early as next spring and completion of the project two years after that.
Coordinators are asking the city of Memphis for $15 million for the project, for things like lights, paving, sewer infrastructure and other items outside the building.
