MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Residents near downtown’s One Beale construction site are upset over the noise coming from the site, and they’re not alone in their frustrations.
The head of the One Beale high rise project said the overnight work had to happen at odd hours. The construction zone was in full-swing around 1 a.m. Thursday while hundreds of people in the tower next door were trying to get some sleep.
WREG saw dozens of complaints from people living nearby who said all that work kept them up all night, and it’s not just the noise.
“If you’re not facing Beale, you’re impacted by the lights, even if it’s not the noise,” Jennifer Booker said.
Booker has a newborn and lives next door. She said even a heads-up about the overnight work would’ve been nice.
“No formal notice or public notice to allow us to understand that construction would be happening at that hour, much less ongoing,” she said.
Chance Carlisle, CEO of Carlisle LLC, the development group spearheading the One Beale Project, explained Thursday why crews worked through the night.
“Today, we executed a 16,000-square-foot concrete pour, which started a little after midnight,” Carlisle said.
He said the project, lasting about 16 hours, needed to be continuous with 94 construction trucks bringing in nearly 850 yards of concrete. Working overnight meant the least disruptions.
“We have all the applicable permits that we need,” Carlisle said. “We keep hearing these rumors of special permits that we need. We’ve done all of our due diligence, we have two excellent contracting firms. We remain compliant.”
Carlisle said they do their best to let neighbors know about upcoming work.
“I am very empathetic for them,” he said. “I really do fully appreciate that having construction sometimes in your neighborhood is annoying. Bear with us. Quite frankly, we are very proud of saying, ‘Memphis has momentum,’ and this is a little bit of that price of momentum.”
There will be more night time work soon, as there needs to be at least a dozen more concrete pours, but none near the magnitude of last night.