MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It has been around since the 1960s, and it looks old.
“Would you want this in your community?” Sara Lewis asked.
“It is an eyesore and a threat to their neighborhood,” Julian Bolton said.
Neighbors said the building at 271 Alston Avenue was falling apart.
“Forty-nine years old, vacant for decades, and crumbling,” Bolton described.
People living in the French Fort community said they have been in and out of court for months trying to get the owner to get rid of the building.
“No one should have to pay taxes in this city and look across at an abandoned hotel and watch people have sex. No,” Lewis said.
“They don’t want it in their neighborhood. We don’t want it on our neighborhood,” George Warr said.
The battle seemed to be a case of the blame game.
The neighborhood is blaming the owner while the owner is blaming the state.
“It’s TDOT that has dragged their feet and caused me to not be able to find the funds,” Lauren Crews, owner of Desoto Pointe Partners and South City Ventures, said.
Crews has owned the property for 10 years.
He claimed no one will invest money into the property until the Tennessee Department of Transportation finalizes plans for a road alignment in the area.
It was a so-called excuse that some city leaders said is not good enough.
“For 20 years, black people had to endure this as they keep their lawns manicured and tried to keep their senses about them,” Councilwoman Janis Fullilove told WREG.
“I’m working with the city, and maybe there is some way. I feel very confident about it that we can collaborate, and they can do something different for the building — it may be that we tear it down,” Crews said over the phone on Sunday.
Crews is expected in court on Tuesday, but the hearing may be postponed as his company continues negotiations with the Strickland administration.