MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis and Shelby County officials have big plans for the vacant fairgrounds, and they’re going to use taxpayer money to pay for it.
The city’s housing and community development director looks at the plot of land and sees dollar signs. Robert Lipscomb wants to build a sports complex, retail space, and hotels on the edge of Midtown. The next step is asking Nashville to borrow $230 million to help pay for it.
Taylor Berger agrees something needs to happen in this vacant space, but he has real questions about how it all is going to work.
“I think we need some more safeguards in place to make sure things don’t go wrong,” he said.
Wednesday night, he hosted a forum so Memphians can find out how this will affect them.
“We’ve got some experts on real estate, on the politics of it, on what is a TDZ?” he said.
TDZ stands for tourism development zone. This zone basically blankets Midtown. The plan would use excess sales tax from Cooper-Young and Overton Square, and pay the state back for the next 30 years. Berger calls that part of the plan scary.
“What if there is another great idea five years from now, ten years from now? There won’t be any money left,” he said.
Plus the city’s track record on these kinds of projects isn’t great.
“There are lots of examples like the Pyramid and Peabody place, where things didn’t go so well,” Berger said.
A few Shelby County Commissioners have raised some concerns about the specifics of this plan, but say they want to see something happen here. Whether or not it’s the city’s version, we’ll just have to wait and see.