At a luncheon Thursday, businessmen and community leaders learned more about how a $37 million project will help West Memphis.
Identify the good and the bad – that’s what Bob Barber did when he helped redevelop Hernando.
He said West Memphis’ strongest assets are how close it is to Memphis and the city’s undeveloped waterfront.
“It doesn’t have to be intensively developed,” Barber said. “In fact, the waterfront on the West Memphis side is almost a counterpoint to the waterfront on the Memphis side. You’re not trying to build Memphis on this side of the river.”
Memphis developer Henry Turley suggested changing the east end of Broadway, where small businesses are spread all along the street in between blighted buildings.
“Those abandoned building would be best taken down I should think, cleaned up and left fallowed until you make up your mind…until West Memphis makes up its mind what might be good.”
Rickie Conrad lives in West Memphis. He says if government can spend money on lights and bushes near an interstate, it can create a pedestrian and bicycle boardwalk across the river.
“People don’t really see the landscaping and the lights underneath the overpass there, but you definitely see and use the bridge area.”
