MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It seems almost every week we’re telling you about a new development coming to downtown.
It’s exciting, but with all the excitement comes a big question: What about parking?
We caught up with Deloise McKinley walking down Main Street, right in the heart of downtown, saying on her way to get her taxes done, she has a long journey.
“About six blocks. Six, seven blocks. Yeah and I got on heels,” she said with a laugh.
She says usually that comes with the territory traveling downtown.
“You have to walk a long way to get where you need to go.”
With this week’s big news of FedEx Logistics headquarters and recently Indigo Ag making the announcements they’re setting up shop downtown, some are wondering, what about parking?
The enormous nearby Union Row project and the other big announcement this week — The Clipper, an eight-story hotel and office building moving adjacent to the FedEx location — will wipe out parking as well.
A description for the planned Clipper includes multi-level parking. An expansive $50 million parking garage is also planned that’s part of the Union Row project stretching from AutoZone Park to Danny Thomas.
The Sandfords, visiting Memphis from south Alabama, said they were a little thrown off when they were looking for a spot to park.
“Directions as to where you can and can’t park. Where the meters are. It’s just confusing,” they said.
The Downtown Memphis Commission is working to help with issues like this, doing a parking study and asking for public engagement about what is and isn’t working.
McKinley says she looks forward to implementation of the study and as more companies come she looks forward to more parking availability.
“I hope it’s not too expensive but that would be helpful.”
Of course there’s also the trolleys and scooters to help people get around as well.
And if you’re interested in that parking study, click here.