Originally the main street of the Binghampton township, Broad Avenue served as the major commercial thoroughfare for the Binghampton neighborhood until the early-2000s extension of Sam Cooper Boulevard rerouted the street’s heavy traffic and shuttered most of its once-successful businesses. Beginning in the late 2000s, a concerted effort was made to reimagine the area as a thriving arts and entertainment district. Today’s Broad Avenue, which is classified as Memphis’ first mixed-use district, is a hotspot of artisan shops, nightlife and some of the city’s best eats and drinks with a focus on the local.
While many community members and organizations often have great ideas for community development projects, the reality is there is not enough money available to fund everyone's vision. Last year, Community LIFT’s Empowerment Fund paved the way for improvement and beautification projects across the city, but a new study shows that much more funding is needed to keep momentum from those projects moving forward.
After being forced to move locations several times over the past nearly 20 years due to consistent growth of her business, entrepreneur Karen Adams is redeveloping her own building at 647 Madison Avenue in the Edge District into a permanent space for Karen Adams Designs.
Propel, a business accelerator for existing minority-owned businesses, is launching its next cohort in the midst of several new city-backed initiatives intended to boost the wealth and diversity of the Memphis economy.
Community cohesion is the focus for Community Lift as it begins the application process for this year’s round of micro-grants for its Empowerment Fund, now in its second year.
A $26 million investment in Binghampton over the next 30 years will help facilitate major growth, and residents are making sure those investments keep the neighborhood affordable so they see that success.
Based on its work on the Wolf River Greenway Trail and protection of lands related to the aquifer and our clean water supply, Memphis-based Wolf River Conservancy took home the award for Conservation Organization of the Year at the recent Tennessee Wildlife Federation (TWF) 53rd Annual Conservation Achievement Awards in Nashville.
A new guerilla marketing campaign popping up around town from the Memphis Public Libraries (MPL) is helping to build awareness of the diverse and growing range of free programs offered at local public libraries.
Locations around the city for the first 60 bike stations of the Explore Bike Share program have been announced, and the nonprofit has plans more stations and bikes for 2019 and 2020. The 600-bike system, which spans from Downtown, South Memphis, and Cooper Young to Orange Mound, Overton Square, and Crosstown, is moving towards a launch later this spring.
A partially blighted 1940s industrial warehouse on Broad Ave. in Binghampton will be transformed into a $50 million mixed-use project over the next several years thanks to a new partnership between local multifamily specialist James Maclin and retail guru Bob Loeb of Loeb Properties, who recently formed 3D Realty to focus on multi-purpose developments.
Community leaders, residents and volunteers from local businesses braved the cold on Monday and took to the streets to clean up blighted properties in neighborhoods across Memphis for the second annual MLK Days of Service.
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