The heart of the Crosstown neighborhood sits at the intersection of Watkins Street and North Parkway. In fact, it can’t be missed. The 1.5 million-square-foot Crosstown Concourse was constructed in 1927 as a Sears flagship location. Shuttered in the early 1990s, it has been recently reimagined as a mixed-use, vertical village with apartments, businesses, nonprofits, restaurants, health services, and more cohabitating in the same building. The neighborhood is also boasts some of the city’s most beloved bars and restaurants and is a popular social and creative destination with ventures like Amurica, Crosstown Arts, and the OAM podcast studio.
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.
The New Wing Order food truck will hit the Memphis streets in September, and entrepreneurs Cole Forrest and Jess McDonald hope their new venture could lead to opening a brick-and-mortar location in the next couple of years.
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 cafe supported by natives of Syria, Sudan and Nepal will soon launch in Crosstown Concourse.
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.
Black Lodge, a staple for renting hard-to-find movies in Midtown for more than a decade that shut down several years ago, is making its big comeback by late spring in the Crosstown area with an innovative new approach. The new 8,000-square-foot location at 405 N. Cleveland Avenue will include a massive 30,000-plus film library, along with a fast casual restaurant, a retro and console gaming arcade, and film and event space.
The need for a tech workforce is growing, and Memphis is playing catch-up by offering certification courses to adults as well as coding and programming workshops for students.
Local gourmet popsicle makers MEMpopS are expanding again, this time with a new brick-and-mortar location opening in March in Collierville along with a beefed up mobile fleet for events across the area.
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