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After many news stories, blog posts and neighborhood protests, Mayor Wharton, on Thursday, announced that demolition of the abandoned apartment buildings and houses in the Washington Bottoms area would proceed with haste.
One of many dilapidated buildings in the area
Briefly, this large piece of Midtown property, roughly bounded by Poplar on the north, Cleveland on the west, McNeil on the east and Court on the south, was purchased by developers with fabulous plans of revitalizing the area with a big box store (Target. Target?), other retail, and some nice housing. The developer WSG knocked down a few structures, then abanonded the remaining buildings to vandals, neglect and fire. WSG defaulted on their loan and was foreclosed by mortgage holder, Lehman Brothers, also in financial trouble, who erected a shabby fence around the property and continued the neglect. More details in Bianca Phillips’ story in the Flyer.
Track hoe ready to get to work
Today the gates bear the sign of Memphis Wrecking Company. We will be watching the progress of the demolition and restoration of the property. Hopefully we will see a nice green space until developers make their next move.
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We Midtowners can keep on dreaming about being able to buy decent underwear, cute bed and bath items, and toys for the kiddies, west of of East Parkway at our very own big-box department store. The vast urban area roughly bounded by McNeil, Poplar, Court and Cleveland was to be the site of not only a big-box store, but upscale high-density urban housing, and other mixed use community-enhancing goodies promised by the developers.
