A day in the new life of Crosstown Concourse
Predawn at Crosstown Concourse(Photo: Tom Bailey/The Commercial Appeal)
We know, the Crosstown Concourse grand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in.
We decided to spend a day there to see what it's like.
Crosstown Concourse is not to be just another a mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet or such a physical improvement over the vacant, blighted hulk that the Sears distribution center had been.
More:Crosstown Concourse boosts Memphis's office sector
"Better together'' is the redevelopment's catch phrase. Crosstown Concourse aspires to create a kind of mojo among tenants and visitors.
The idea is to use art, performances, programming, and even the design of the building's public spaces to have tenants and visitors engaging each other, to be in relationship.
More:Yours & Ours: Crosstown Concourse flows with art
They call this 10-story building a "vertical urban village.'' So we spent a day looking for the glue that makes a village.
It sounds a bit Utopian. But E.M. Forster called for this kind of thing a century ago in his book about human connection, "Howard's End.''
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon.Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."
5:10 a.m.
The "YOURS" sign on the parking garage is illuminated but static. At some point, they'll have the "Y'' turn on and off. A clever way of expressing how inclusive Crosstown Concourse intends to be. This building is both yours and ours.
6:15 a.m.
About 20 people are exercising in the Church Health YMCA, on the third floor off the West Atrium.
The Y's Tisha Schauer works behind the desk. The place already enjoys a sense of community, she says.
"Just the convenience of coming after work, before work, on your lunch break,'' Schauer says of the residents who get a free Y membership and some Concourse office workers who have corporate memberships.
"There is a great sense of community because you see the same people every day,'' she says. "And then you just develop relationships over time.''
7:20 a.m.
"It definitely already happens,'' French Truck Coffee's Jess Ajoc says of the "better together'' experience among Concourse tenants.
She's retail services manager/head barista for the coffee shop in the Central Atrium.
"We run out of towels all the time, and Farm Burger runs out of towels all the time,'' Ajoc says of the new restaurant nearby. "So we share our towels.''
She offers another example. "There's a party this weekend for the grand opening. Crosstown Brewery hasn't opened yet and hasn't got a physical space yet. So they are going to come store some of their stuff for the party here until then.
"So we've always had like a real easy way of helping each other in small ways,'' she says.
French Truck Coffee's Jess Ajoc pours" width="540" height="405" />Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - French Truck Coffee's Jess Ajoc pours a iced coffee inside of the shop's Crosstown Concourse location. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. Crosstown Concourse is not to be just anotherÊa mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
The good vibes among tenants happens because the Concourse is "a great project,'' Ajoc says.
"Everything that has come together is because of many different people coming together and putting their passion into this place,'' she says after pouring some coffee. "So we want it to succeed and we want our businesses to succeed and it only will help if we work together.''
9 a.m.
A Grinder Taber & Grinder construction crew today is putting finishing touches to the 4,000 square feet Christian Brothers University is leasing on the fourth floor, across the Central Atrium from Crosstown High.
Bright yellow wall panels distinguish two of the main rooms: The “living room’’ work space and back classroom, where huge north-facing windows let sunlight stream in.
Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Paul Haught, Vice President for academics and student life with Christian Brothers University, shows off the entrance room of their new space within the Crosstown Concourse. The construction company should turn the space over to CBU by the end of the day. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
The construction company should turn the space over to CBU by the end of the day, says Paul Haught, academic vice president.
It’s a safe bet CBU will have strong relationships with its neighbors, not only the high school, but with Church Health Center, Southern College of Optometry and others. “We got interested in this because of partnerships in particular with educational institutions,’’ Haught says.
More:Crosstown High School lands surprise $2.5 million grant
CBU’s education majors will work with Crosstown High students in preparing to be teachers and be exposed to cutting edge educational approaches planned for school, Haught says.
Other CBU programs, like health care management, will partner with neighboring tenants like Southern College of Optometry and Church Health.
9:45 a.m.
Martin Damien Wilkins, guest director for Hattiloo Theatre, emerges from one of Crosstown Arts’ 12 studio apartments for visiting artists. They’re called “live spaces.’’ The artist work spaces are to be finished by October.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, resident has lived in the big building only two days, but already has stories about the atmosphere here.
As he entered an elevator Tuesday, a fellow passenger said “Welcome to the building.’’ And a man who works in the building asked Wilkins, “What do you think about living in the building?’’
“I think there’s already an awareness and excitement of the community that’s being developed here,'' he says.
10 a.m.
The tony lobby of Focal Point – the eye clinic where Southern College of Optometry provides care and trains its residents and interns – could easily mesh with Saddle Creek, Germantown’s upscale retail center.
Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Dr. James Venable, vice president for clinical programs at Southern College of Optometry, stands inside of Focal Point, the eye clinic where Southern College of Optometry provides care and trains its residents and interns. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. Crosstown Concourse is not to be just anotherÊa mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
Highly designed with sleek furniture and displays, the waiting area and display room even offers free coffee from French Truck Coffee.
You can’t tell if the patients are sent over from Church Health – which provides health care to the working poor – or are full-pay clients. And that’s just the way Dr. James Venable wants it. He’s vice president for clinical programs at Southern College of Optometry.
The college came to Crosstown Concourse because it outgrew its clinical space on its Madison Avenue campus, because of its partnership with Church Health, and to be more convenient for up to 13,000 to 14,000 patients a year who will be served by the clinic.
More:Church Health YMCA cuts ribbon
In turn, coming to the Concourse lets the college train its interns and residents in an "inter-professional'' setting where there are other health care disciplines being practiced, he says.
“We kind of call it a walls-down clinic. You’re not quite sure where Southern College of Optometry begins or ends and Church Health begins or ends and that’s exactly what we wanted,’’ Venable says. “Everyone could receive care regardless of the type of insurance or their socio-economic level.’’
11 a.m.
Healthy-bread bakers Sheri McKelvie and Symone Johnson are helping to straighten up the Church Health kitchen, and later today will make a supply run to Kroger and Lit, then prepare the bread starter – flour, water and yeast – for tomorrow’s baking.
They’ll bake from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
They bake mostly whole wheat bread twice a week. “It is healthier,’’ McKelvie says of whole wheat. “The mission of Church Health is to live a healthier life. Instead of eating white flour you’re eating whole wheat, which is better for you.’’
bread bakers Sheri McKelvie" width="540" height="405" />Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Healthy-bread bakers Sheri McKelvie and Symone Johnson show off a couple loaves of bread they made inside of the Church Health kitchen. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. Crosstown Concourse is not to be just anotherÊa mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
Their work includes delivering 24 loaves each week to Curb Market grocery across the hall, helping forge yet another relationship among tenants.
‘’As more people get in the building we’re selling out quicker at Curb,’’ McKelvie says. “The one we sell the most now is cinnamon raisin bread.’’
The name of their Church Health bread-making operation: Whole Heart Bakery.
11:30 a.m.
The tour doesn't take long -- the fourth-floor space for Temple Israel Crosstown is just 1,200 square feet -- but it's meaningful.
A day in the life of Crosstown Memphis Tom Bailey/The Commercial Appeal
The rectangular area is a comfortable, sunny, living room-type space with a view looking south, a TV, tables and chairs, and a smaller, private room for counseling and meetings.
Associate Rabbi Katie Bauman of Temple Israel points to the white-stone veneer near the entrance.
"This wall of Jerusalem stone is a visible and tangible connection to our Temple Israel location (in East Memphis),'' she says, referring to the main synagogue. "We have the same wall in our entryway when people walk into Temple Israel. It’s a reminder this is a Jewish space and we’re grounded in our tradition.''
The congregation's return to Crosstown -- it was rooted in the neighborhood before moving to East Memphis 41 ears ago -- is much more than symbolic.
Associate Rabbi Katie Bauman of Temple" width="540" height="405" />Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Associate Rabbi Katie Bauman of Temple Israel shows off their new Crosstown Concourse location. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. Crosstown Concourse is not to be just anotherÊa mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
More:Coming soon: 'Temple Israel Crosstown'
Just Tuesday night, a small committee of young Jewish residents of Midtown and Downtown met here to plan a speaker series at Temple Israel Crosstown. "Where we would draw from the partners of Crosstown to come in and present on what their organizations are doing and how we as people of faith and conscience can be part of that work,'' Bauman said.
Like everybody else at Crosstown Concourse, she said, "we're here to be connected to the broader Memphis community. This great view that we have and the glass on our doors remind us that we’re really a part of this better-together vision.’’
Noon
Seven people from across the Concourse filter into the Church Health chapel for an unusual faith experience with senior pastor Byron Fitchpatric of the new Crosstown Church.
Byron Fitchpatric, senior pastor" width="540" height="405" />Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Byron Fitchpatric, senior pastor of the Crosstown Church of Memphis, leads a walking bible study group that holds a normal bible study for thirty minutes inside of the Church Health chapel before walking around the Crosstown Concourse campus and talking about their challenges and goals. Fitchpatric and the attendants were starting a new six-week bible study called walking with Paul. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
He's leading a 30-minute Bible study titled "Walking with Paul'' before they head outside to talk further about the topic while walking about a mile together. But before he starts the lesson, Fitchpatric tells the group that the weekly Bible study is designed for both spiritual and physical health.
He urges them to increase their vegetable consumption by three servings a day and the water they drink by 24 ounces.
12:30 p.m.
Philipp von Holtzendorff-Fehling is outside his organic, vegetarian restaurant, Mama Gaia, sitting at a picnic table and eating a copia pita with oven roasted vegetables.
Mama Gaia helps other tenants, and other tenants help Mama Gaia, he says.
For example, his restaurant held a fundraiser for Church Health, and Church Health helps him get the word out about the nutritional value of his food. He and Jimmy Lewis, owner of French Truck Coffee, have been talking recently about how they can work together to support both businesses.
"You try to move the needle together,'' he says. "We're in this together. It's very unique. I don't think if you're in some mall somewhere that you get too close to people who have a shop next to you, or other tenants. This is really a bigger family in a way.''
Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Donna Palmer, a dining room and beverages employee at Mama Gaia, smiles while talking with customers. Palmer has lived near the Crosstown Concourse building for 16 years and now can count the 324 steps it takes her to get to work. ÒThere used to be no place to go in the neighborhood,Ó she said. ÒSometimes I walk through here now and get all teared up.Ó The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
1 p.m.
Dr. Scott Morris, founder and head of Church Health, went with young doctors in training this morning to assess the development of 3-year-olds at Church Health's Perea Preschool.
Now he has just eaten lunch outside at Mama Gaia with the new rector for Calvary Episcopal, Rev. J. Scott Walters, and is about to lead the monthly staff meeting that starts at 2 p.m. and will end with all 200-plus staffers singing together.
Crosstown Concourse's "better together'' approach stems from the belief that isolated people do not feel closer to God or grow in faith, but through relationships with others, Morris says.
Buy PhotoAugust 16, 2017 - Dr. Scott Morris, founder and head of Church Health, leads a all employee meeting inside of a meeting room in their new Crosstown Concourse location. "The whole idea of 'better together' is we'll create a greater opportunity to care for more people by working together," Morris said. The Crosstown ConcourseÊgrand opening is not until Saturday, but at least 23 of the 37 announced tenants are already moved in. Crosstown Concourse is not to be just anotherÊa mixed-use commercial building, and not just because it's so big at 1.1 million square feet. (Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)
"I'm also certain that's true about health. Nobody's health is made better by being on stair-stepper with headphones. That in and of itself is not enough. I also think now that is true about any type of corporation, any type of organization. You can't fulfill your mission alone,'' Morris says, sitting in his small, third-floor office.
Church Health, which had occupied scattered 13 buildings before consolidating into Crosstown Concourse, could have raised money and built its own building. "It would have been successful. It would absolutely have been easier. It would not have been better,'' he says.
"The whole idea of 'better together' is we'll create a greater opportunity to care for more people by working together.''
So, for example, a YMCA operates next door as Church Health YMCA, to where some Church Health patients advance after physical therapy. Church Health also partners with Southern College of Optometry's Focal Point eye clinic. "We share space, we share staff, we share experience,'' Morris says.
Because young doctors in residency at Church Health form relationships with young teachers from the building's Memphis Teacher Residency, both budding professionals can serve children in a more holistic way, he says.
3 p.m.
Scott Tashie, who on Monday opened the I Love Juice Bar in the Concourse, already has been trading his branded T-shirts for those of other businesses in the building.
Buy PhotoScott Tashie (Photo: Tom Bailey/The Commercial Appeal)
"The idea of bringing all the different businesses like a burger place, juice bar, a healthy restaurant, a grocery store, a dentist office, a gym, and living quarters -- all this in one -- it felt like we were getting an opportunity to be part of something innovative, new, kind of futuristic,'' he says. "Sign us up.''
Tashie is all in with the "better together'' goal. "My wife, Rebecca, and I were talking about it. How can we really work with all the people in here? It's like a built-in customer base... You usually don't get an opportunity like this... You don't get that type of synergy anywhere...
"It's the Crosstown Concourse community.''
4:15 p.m.
Some jokingly call Bradley Wilford the mayor of Crosstown Concourse. The Commercial Advisors executive works full-time as the building's property manager. Today, he's overseeing about 100 people who make the place run and prepare the property for the grand opening.
Buy PhotoBradley Wilford (Photo: Tom Bailey/The Commercial Appeal)
They include 50 on the janitorial staff, 25 full-time security guards, a once-a-week landscaping crew, 10 maintenance workers, as well as vendors that provide services.
On Wednesday, the staff is in full-swing readying for Saturday's ceremony. Everything from completing security plans to finishing landscaping, and touching up paint to cleaning windows, all while helping more tenants move in before the big ceremony.
"We have a dentist upstairs that's coming on board, a dermatology clinic that's trying to get opened up, restaurants that are trying to get opened up, all at the same time,'' Wilford says.
"It's like an aircraft carrier. Our dock is very active. We have a steady flow of people coming in as well as visitors and a couple hundred construction workers every day.''
When applicants interview to work on one of the Concourse crews, Wilford says, "We want them to all understand the mission. It doesn't matter if it's janitorial staff, it doesn't matter if it's security... The mission of change that Crosstown is trying to apply to this area. And Memphis as a whole.
"I think you have to be committed to wanting to make Memphis better to be here at this building,'' he says.
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