The question of the week centers on the future of the Fairgrounds.
Soon, a master plan for the Fairgrounds will be released. Already, we know this much:
• Libertyland is history.
• The Mid-South Fair needs to find a new home.
• The Mid-South Coliseum’s future is questionable, even in a city that finds it next to impossible to raze antiquated arenas.
• Kroc Center will be built, albeit with limited sensitivity to its connections with adjacent neighborhoods and potential neighbors on the site.
• Henry Turley, downtown developer extraordinaire, lobbied the Tennessee Legislature for tax incentives for his concept of the site, which apparently include big box retail.
• Memphis HCD Director Robert Lipscomb insists that no decisions about the site have even been made and finds himself coping once again with the unexpected, whether its an announcement about a new stadium or tax incentives.
• Some suggested uses center on mixed use, others on a youth sports complex and others on greenspace.
Hopefully, all of this is not a harbinger of things to come, because on some days, it seems that the Fairgrounds will become home to everyone’s latest idea – a residential project here, Kroc Center there, retail here, parking there – but no cohesive vision that produces a unified development or a functioning neighborhood with strong, sensitive, and positive ties to Cooper-Young.
So, with all of this in mind, what do you think the future of the Fairgrounds should be? And what do you see as the greatest obstacles to it taking place?
