News
Date: July 26, 2016

3 future tenants plan $3.5M build-out of spaces in Crosstown Concourse

Three future tenants of Crosstown Concourse filed building documents this week showing they plan to spend more than $3.5 million total to build out their spaces.

The teacher-training organization Memphis Teacher Residency will spend the most, $1.7 million, of the three organizations going into the renovated Memphis landmark.

Documents show a pair of Memphis philanthropies, Poplar Foundation and Pyramid Peak Foundation, plan a project in which they would spend $1.3 million.Separately, Tech 901, which offers training in information technology, plans to spend $573,000, according to the documents.

Memphis Teacher Residency offers an alternative certification program with Union University of Jackson, Tennessee. The program allows budding teachers to get a tuition-free master’s degree in return for a three-year commitment to teach in impoverished neighborhoods.

“For recruiting young college graduates to move to Memphis, it’s going to be a very attractive area,” Larry Ray Reed said of Crosstown Concourse. He is director of operations and finance for Memphis Teacher Residency.

Founded in 2008, the Christian-based organization has been housed in Union Avenue Baptist Church.

Crosstown Concourse is the former Sears mail-order building at N. Watkins and Cleveland that is undergoing a $200 million renovation. Its 1.1 million square feet across 10 stories will house 265 apartments atop an array of medical, art-related, educational, business, retail and nonprofit tenants.

The $200 million figure covers the building renovation. The figure does not reflect the additional tens of millions of dollars that future tenants including Church Health Center, Memphis Teacher Residency, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, ALSAC/St. Jude, nexAir and others are spending to finish out their respective spaces.

The teacher-training organization will inhabit the southeast corner of the third floor. Much of the space will comprise four classrooms for its teachers in training, but also a resource room and offices for the staff of 32 people.

The organization’s goal is to move into Crosstown Concourse in March, Reed said.

Forty-five of the 165 apartments on floors 7-10 are reserved for Memphis Teacher Residency students, who  receive free tuition for their graduate degree, as well as free housing and a $1,000 monthly stipend.

The students apprentice under an experienced teacher for their year of residency, and also take master’s coursework through Union University.

The program has 55 residents this year, and has a goal to grow to 75 next year. Most residents will share an apartment with a fellow resident. The program now houses its students in Georgian Woods apartments at 2451 Union.

1350 CONCOURSE AVE • MEMPHIS, TN • 38104 • 901.203.8300