It’s early yet to tell clearly what definitive improvements to the economic development process there will be as a result of months and months of concerns, angst, and controversy about how to turn around our community’s poor economic performance.
There are indications that the final “answer” after a circuitous journey may actually be to a more defined working relationship between EDGE, Greater Memphis Chamber, and local government that is essentially what it was 30 years ago when the Memphis and Shelby County Industrial Development Board and the economic development office within the Office of Planning and Development were the predecessors to EDGE.
That’s not a criticism, because after all, back then, our economy was much stronger. FedEx was expanding employment exponentially, International Paper had moved most of its headquarters in 1987 to Memphis, and about the same time, AutoZone opened its first store.
Things were on the upswing, and it was hard to imagine at the time that we would ultimately come to the place where we are today, attracting no serious attention when companies consider moving their headquarters, depending way too much on low-wage, low-wage jobs, and mired in an economic trend line that lags behind cities and regions we used to outpace.
Getting Issues To The Surface
The current discussion about improving economic outcomes has seemed too focused on programmatic tweaks and the impulse to smooth over conflicts that have brought core problems to the surface where they have been too infrequently debated in the past.
Instead, this time, the honest debate of recent months brought the workings of the “system” to where they could be seen and evaluated. For too long, they have been kept below the radar where those in the know and with influence got the equivalent of preferential treatment as taxes were shifted to homeowners and small business owners.
Thirty years ago, what was noteworthy was the hand-in-glove way that key players in the economic development program worked together. There was a political competition between the city and county mayors but it worked to everyone’s advantage as mayors were directly and constantly involved in the recruitment of new jobs and businesses, making sure his counterpart did not outshine him.
It was common for the mayors to get on the telephone or on a plane to woo potential investments, and the county mayor traveled multiple times to Japan at a time when our community led the state in the recruitment of Japanese businesses after setting that as a priority.
Power of Shared Agenda
The Memphis Jobs Conference in 1979-1981 was created in the face of an economic lethargy not unlike the one today, but out of the community coming together to set an agenda to turn around the economy came a new determination to work together and to aim higher and bolder. There was also a well-understood agenda that was shared by the entire community along with the belief that if we were to succeed, we had to act on the principle that we were all in this together. This was backed up with a specific plan of action with prospects, strategies, and stated responsibilities for each of the leaders in the process.
It was also the time when the PILOT program became more aggressive and the matrix for bringing more discipline to the program and for determining each tax freeze’s length was established. It was a more rational time with no such thing as the so-called retention PILOTs and their fallacious economic impact reports and there were no PILOTs that could be renewed for different tenants of the same warehouse.
At the time, it was said that the PILOT program was a necessary evil but a temporary one that would be scaled back as the workforce improved. Unfortunately, workforce development never received the attention it needed and program after program failed for various reasons, chiefly for their failure to break through with the kind of breakthrough thinking that was required for change.
In addition to a plan of action, there was a framework and well-stated philosophy for what was being done. We expect that in the coming weeks the economic planning under way will articulate that kind of construct, because to achieve the principles set out in the framework agreement and to transform this economy, it has to.
No Margin for Error
Most of all, we hope that the honest appraisal begun by the Greater Memphis Chamber will continue, because we can’t lose sight of this central fact: we have no margin for error and the consequences of failure relegate this community to the list of also-rans that couldn’t compete in today’s complex and competitive environment.
That’s where Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s obsession with measurable, data-driven performance measurements come in. There is not a part or service of city government that isn’t being measured today in a process of setting goals, measuring them relentlessly, and making decisions on strategies and spending as a result.
This context has been missing from economic development for way too long, and while much of the joint agreement between elected officials, EDGE, and the Chamber seems more incremental in nature, if done right, this emphasis on data can be the change that augurs a disruptive innovation.
That’s because city government has never set goals for economic growth, much less set the data points to measure if they are being met. This may not seem like much to most people, but it is a major advancement in the thinking of local government, which has failed to set a context that defines success or failure.
The First Step
The armistice agreement between government, chamber, and economic development agency is not as bold as we need, but hopefully, it will treated as a first step to produce more accountability and ambition in the system.
To do this, the data that drives decision-making and the metrics evaluating results must be tied to over-arching goals that challenge everyone and require us to do more to reach them. For example, it is not enough to set a measurement of creating x number of jobs. Rather, it has to be more defined: x number of new jobs that pay a living wage, x number of new jobs created by start-ups, x number of STEM and tech jobs,s x number of new jobs in minority businesses, x number of new minority businesses, x number of new start-ups, etc.
In other words, the more specific, the better. There should be defined measurements like closing the income gap between races, increasing the median incomes, decreasing the poverty rate, and increasing the number of good-paying jobs held by African Americans.
Generalized metrics that do not require us to stretch or strive to achieve them are essentially useless. All data is not created equal (just as any job is not a good job). Generalized data tempt us to see all positive movement as progress but only carefully defined data are pivotal to defining progress.
Coupled with these kinds of indicators should be some others: attraction and retention of college-educated workers, attraction and retention of young professionals, better educational outcomes, higher high school and college graduation rates, and more.
The Price for Lack of Urgency
This web of intersecting measurements flesh out economic development more fully and can drive us to see the connections that we have not made in the past.
In truth, everything in a city is connected. David Ciscel blogged on one aspect of this Friday when he made the point that better jobs push workforce to get better, and he has previously blogged about how low incomes can actually thwart investment and in turn discourage the kinds of innovation that we need for economic expansion.
We have arrived at a precarious place that demands our best efforts and best thinking. Since we started this blog in 2005, we have been writing about the head winds that we have failed to acknowledge, particularly those about the competitive advantages of talent, technology, and tolerance.
We are paying today for the lack of urgency that has characterized our community’s economic development for the past dozen years. That more than anything is what any agreement, plan, or way forward must have.
Finding Our Niche
We begin with the acknowledgement that it will not be easy. Today, cities that already have wealth, opportunity, highly educated workers, and high salaries attract more of them. These cities are increasing their competitive advantages in today’s economy. Between 2010-2017, nearly half of the U.S.’s total employment growth took place in just 20 cities, particularly high-paying tech jobs.
As a result, the Memphis region has to combat two kinds of inequity. One is the income inequality here but there is also the inequality from the widening gap between our community and these 20 major urban centers.
Here’s the thing: the workers needed to drive transportation, logistics, and distribution – our economic answers in 1981 – are not the workers who drive our economic future. That’s why the ultimate challenge, not just for the future but for the present economic development planning, may take decades to overcome.
It requires us to bring more intellectual capital to our planning, to think more innovatively, and to invest smarter and better, because in a country where the rich are getting richer, we have to carefully identify our competitive niche and how we can reach it.
It’s not like we haven’t done it before. Now we need to get damn serious about doing it again.
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There has never been any sense of “urgency” about anything in this sleepy, backward city. Memphis is so screwed up. Bad decisions were made decades ago. Our current mayor is wesk. In fact we don’t have any real leaders in Memphis. The city and region will continue to decline and is paying the price for those errors for decades to come. Our labor force is not up to par and it takes generations to improve worker skills. Even Fred’s is going to move it’s hesdquarters to Texas. Who can blame them?
Delcina: Just a tip for you. Anytime someone uses absolutes in writing, his/her credibility drops to zero. I do agree that our leadership has been quite insular and lacking metrics for determining if their efforts are succeeding or failing but to say that we don’t have any real leaders is a bit extreme.
Great article SMC! You nailed it, but then again you nailed 12 years ago when I first moved here. Maybe our leadership is starting to listen to you AND acting on what you have written about. Bring on the data!….quality data.
Aaron:
Thanks for the kind words and your regular encouragement. And thanks even more for being the kind of concerned, involved, and engaged citizen who is working every day to make Memphis better.
SMC – Great blog and yes, there have been improvements of late. A more connected, data-driven, overseen and openly discussed economic development process will be better for taxpayers. But while, I am in sync with Aaron on most things, I am out of sync with him on the use of of absolutes in some cases. Like, there has been Absolutely no sense of urgency in this town regarding economic development. In fact, I don’t believe the recent work would have happened if the door had not been kicked in on the whole complex by informed citizenry.
While there are legitimate criticisms for elected officials, in defense of them, they have been historically saddled with one big elephant in Memphis Corporate Community Leadership. Listening to same people and the wrong people has not worked. Business leaders are not economists and they should not be relied on so heavily as such.
And yes, its a bit early yet to know if we have definitive improvement or just musical chairs going on. After all, we still lack a definition for economic development. Great Blog !
Thanks SMC, we’ll keep pushing together. Joe: I suppose there ALWAYS exceptions . LOL! I still disagree with you. There has been a sense of urgency, but the message has been largely ignored or gotten lost.
Aaron, no problem on the disagreement. I just have not seen a sense of urgency on Real economic development like workforce, transit, site development, small business. Help me understand your view of the lost message….
Joe: I wish I could be as generous as you are about elected officials’ roles. They delegated the power to waive $800 million in taxes to various boards without insisting on checks and balances to measure success and ensure accountability for the public’s money. Development interests have had an outsized influence in local government and elected officials let this continue as long as campaign checks continued coming.
I agree with you about CEOs not being economists, but elected officials still treat them as if they are experts on economics, workforce, etc. Sadly, when there are conversations about what to do and what the plan for the future should be, the experts outside of the business community – think academia, think tanks, and nonprofits – are regularly excluded from the meetings.
I don’t see the distribution based economy of Memphis ever changing too much. The warehouse economy with its low paying and seasonal jobs isn’t going to morp into something requiring high education or high tech employees. Even FedEx is diversifying with cargo hubs and distribution centers in other key cities. Intl Paper has never had a huge presence here apart from the headquarters staff. I’m not very optimistic about the future state of the economy in Memphis. Most people constantly moan but are content with the sorry state of things.
Meanwhile:
https://newrepublic.com/article/152190/amazon-scammed-americas-hurting-cities?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=111218&utm_source=TNR+Newsletters&utm_campaign=7a2248f89e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_04_daily_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_50cc843886-7a2248f89e-63892965
Meanwhile:
https://newrepublic.com/article/152190/amazon-scammed-americas-hurting-cities?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=111218&utm_source=TNR+Newsletters&utm_campaign=7a2248f89e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_04_daily_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_50cc843886-7a2248f89e-63892965
The NY Times and Washington Post had articles about this recently. It seems that several of the cities that made the cut of 20 finalists for HQ2 will also get a lot of new jobs in the form of regional offices and more Amazon facilities. If only Memphis had even made that cut, but we were never in the race for HQ2.
Bottom line is that Amazon now has obtained (for free) all the data and information it would ever need about America’s leading cities for business. A very clever move I’d say.
SMC – You are right on elected officials. But elected officials get scrutiny while the Memphis Corporate Community Leadership complex has escaped rigorous scrutiny which has been where my primary line of inquiry resides. My theory is that deficient elected official leadership is rooted in a deficient corporate community leadership complex which weighs heavy on elected official performance.
BREAKING NEWS.
Amazon has just announced that it will add 5,000 new jobs in a new complex to be built in downtown Nashville. This announcement comes as part of the HQ2 announcement. It will occupy several building in the huge Nashville Yards development downtown that is now under construction. Congratulations to Nashville!
Quite a huge prize for Nashville. 5000 jobs at around $150K each. The Tennessean says it will be Amazon’s Operations Center for Excellence and responsible for the company’s customer fulfillment, transportation and supply chain activities. This should be a very good fit for the already booming city and much easier to absorb. Congrats to our state and to Nashville
I thought Memphis was the prime place for all things related to logistics and supply chain?
Wonder if we were even looked at?
This really hurts but glad Amazon is investing in Tennessee
The State’s news release says this is the largest jobs announcement in Tennessee’s history. It is projected to add 13,000 total jobs, or 1.6 jobs in addition to the 5,000 high paying Amazon jobs coming to downtown Nashville. This is in addition to the several Amazon distribution centers already operating in Middle TN.
And just now Ernst & Young (E&Y) has also announced 600 new jobs for downtown Nashville.
Wow!
Worth remembering what it takes to get in fight for the coveted projects —
What did Amazon say it was looking for?
A: In its Request for Proposal, Amazon listed its main requirements as these:
• A metropolitan area with more than 1 million people.
• A stable and business-friendly environment.
• A location that can attract and retain strong technical talent.
• Access to good mass transit.
• Access to an international airport.
• The presence and support of a diverse population.
• Excellent nearby colleges and universities
In major Ernest and Young announcement, here’s what they said they were looking for:
We looked at 18 cities before settling on Nashville,” said Dan Thibault, a partner at EY. “Factors we looked at were access to an educated workforce, and a large number of students with both business and IT skills. We’re recruiting from a wide variety of schools. We can also retain talent because people want to stay here, especially young professionals.”
Memphis can never compete with boom cities like Nashville. We don’t have the higher education institutions or job talent. Ours is st the opposite end of the scale. Perhaps we should go all-in on vocational and technical skills education.
Self inflicted wounds by Memphis Corporate Community Leadership by not investing in economic but real estate development and wealth transfers is the problem. Not getting Amazon or being on the top 20 list is not the problem but it is a problem that we have focused on everything in our so called “economic development” efforts other than what is on the attribute list of Amazon and for that matter Ernst.
Nashville is far ahead of Memphis and has been a while. The city metro area has about 500,000 more people in population and it is growing. Amazon’s move into the city will only accelerate their growth and others (like E& Y) will invest more as a result. Memphis has some proposed development on the table recently:
https://www.dailymemphian.com/section/business/article/1219/Grand-entrance-950M-Union-Row-proposed-for-Downtown
But there is no word on high quality jobs who may occupy proposed office buildings and what young professionals will occupy proposed apartments? What did Memphis do to try and attract the Center for Excellence to compete with Nashville? And why doesn’t a major local company like FedEx invest in its hometown by investing in downtown Memphis with a high rise office tower to help show investment in the city? FedEx must have to compete for young professional talent too as the original generation of its workers move toward retirement age. If FedEx were to invest in a downtown tower office building it’s likely that companies that service and sell to FedEx would locate near the tower as well. It would be synergistic. Restaurants and shops would have to cater to these employees, especially if their employment in FedEx’s (hypothetical) downtown tower and supporting businesses ends up causing a part of the population to live in downtown. This is what will happen even further around Nashville with Amazon’s entry to go along with HCA and Bridgestone headquarters.
Will someone please ask the city government leaders as well as business executives and civic leaders what their plan is and how they plan to compete for jobs in the future against peer cities such as Nashville? How can Nashville attract Amazon while Fred’s leaves Memphis? There has to be some serious discussion about growing the Memphis economy and attracting high paying jobs and good talent. And yes some of that has to do with the conduct of the population and the education of the citizens. It’s not one thing. It’s all tied together. And to manage all that together requires TRUE leadership and a UNITED front – because it’s not going to be easy given the state of where things are. Nashville’s success lays that bare. The contrast is stark.
Nashville is already so far ahead of Memphis that it can no longer be considered a “peer” city. The contrast is stark indeed.
Nashville has been on a major roll for almost 10 years now and the Amazon surprise announcement will further propel more the growth and development. The fit is perfect as 5000 jobs paying $150K per year is much better for the city than 25 or 50K which would overwhelm any city.
In addition, Nashville has successfully snared its downtown Ernst & Young, Alliance Bernstein is moving its headquarters from Manhattan to Nashville, Bridgestone has lured Hanook Tire… the list goes on on. Just outside of downtown there are many huge developments already under construction in The Gulch, Music Row, Germantown and West End areas. Vanderbilt University alone has several massive construction projects underway on all sides of its campus. The Nashville airport is adding new parking, concourses, a hotel and international arrivals building. BNA now has 4 times more annual passengers than MEM.
I know for certain that FedEx is not interested in building any type of tower downtown. They prefer the campuses of pristine east Memphis and are increasingly diversifying away from here. It’s close to where they live and not as dangerous as downtown.
We cannot and should not underestimate the negatives of crime. All the national publicity about Phil Tenerary’s tragic death has further tarnished the city especially our supposedly safe downtown.
The Union Row project is a real pipe dream! It is too large and not sustainable. It would compete with the Pinch area St Jude proposals, as well as all of downtown including the very suspect 100 North Main, Sterick Bldg., One Beale, scaled back convention center remodel. All are still highly questionable and unlikely to happen. Typical of Memphis big talk with little actually happening. Too many issues.
Anonymous 3:16: As we have said over and over, no city in the Southeast can compete with Nashville right now. We posted the Amazon criteria because that should be the Memphis “to do” list if we are to get into competitions for hqs.
Also, FedEx might want to check crime statistics. Downtown has a lower or as low crime rate as the areas where they are located.
The Pinch proposal is by city government, not by St. Jude’s, which is why it won’t ever get built. Much better odds for Union Row, which is private sector driven. Nothing has been done to change the pretty renderings of Pinch District into a real plan or to come up with any money. Speaking of pipe dreams.
Fred’s loss was due to Fred’s decline. Tired of talking about Nashville. They are a boom town and an unrealistic comparison for Memphis and most cities. Only want to talk about realistic comparisons and real economic development which has been outlined in the Amazon Road Map while identifying what economic development is Not. Not getting any of the Amazon new operational sites is no big deal either. The big deal is that Memphis has not been engaged in the work of economic development.
I’m curious on how readers feel about the following:
Rank in order the following projects based on the criteria below
Projects –
– One Beale
– Lowes Hotel / 100 North Main
– Pinch District
– Union Row
– Mud Island development / Aquarium
– Sterick Building redevelopment
– Gibson Guitar factory redevelopment
Criteria –
– Which would bring the most economic benefit
– Which is most likely to happen
– Which order is the project most likely to occur
– Which should be the priority
– Which is the most “bang for the buck”
– Which would be the most recognizable / iconic upon completion
Sterick and 100 N Main are both too far gone and too costly to rehab. They should be demolished. Better to build new.
Union Row is much too big and can’t be sustained. It’s a seemingly copycat version the Nashville Yards where Amazon is going in downtown Nashville.
One Beale the long failed project of the Carlisle family has been planned and scaled back several times and has not materialized. Again not enough demand.
Definitely do not need another aquarium. Other cities already have them. Namely Atlanta and Chattanooga have great ones. Mud Island is very isolated but could be fixed up and made a city park and nothing more.
Pinch district is not going to happen until other downtown projects prove their worth.
Most likely a new convention center hotel Lowes is the best hope for actually happening. Need to move ahead realistically on remodel of convention center.
The Pinch development will happen, because St. Jude is involved and owns several parcels of land within that area.
https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2018/09/13/latest-stategrant-for-st-jude-expansion-brings.html
More news on the Pinch District Development:
“Across the street in the Pinch District, ALSAC will break ground on new patient-family housing in the first quarter of 2019.
Shadyac declined to provide additional details about the housing, but said residential facilities are an integral part of the holistic care St. Jude offers patients’ families.
Future Pinch District construction will include a new outpatient care center and doctor’s office”
Source:https://www.dailymemphian.com/article/1198/Exclusive-ALSAC-undertakes-digital-transformation-facing-disruptions-in-fundraising
Project Gardendale
Memphis wasn’t even in consideration for Amazon and never had a chance. In fact it had no clue Amazon was looking for a place to put its Center for Excellence. That just shows how much Memphis was out of consideration for anything major like Amazon and shows how much the city is behind in competing.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/2018/11/14/memphis-works-economic-development-plan-land-next-amazon-style-project/2002214002/
”
That’s why Nashville’s Project Gardendale looked so stark from the standpoint of Memphis. Here was Gov. Bill Haslam and Nashville’s officials secretly cobbling together a $100 million incentive package for Amazon. And here was Memphis’ leadership, talking about how to achieve economic development in a region starved for good-paying jobs.
“
Aaron: The St. Jude construction was not what was depicted on the renderings put out by City of Memphis that made the Pinch look like it was a neighborhood in Manhattan. It’s the City of Memphis part that’s not moving ahead at all. and I predict it never will.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pinch+historic+district+renderings&rlz=1C1AZAA_enUS749US749&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiljfuDndfeAhVJKa0KHWLCBV0Q_AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=920#imgrc=pRzvOkz9nfKaKM:
So exactly what drives the success of Nashville’s economic development efforts? Is it just the fact that everyone seems to want to relocate there? Is it driven by the metropolitan government, chamber or other business group. Surely the State of TN works closely with them along all with other cities across the state.
We all know that Nashville is on a roll, but the success is not only in the city, but also in surrounding areas of middle TN. Amazon already has 3 distribution centers surrounding Nashville. I thought Memphis was supposed the leader in distribution! Apparently not!!
The economic growth in Nashville, as it is in most booming places, started in the core and rippled outward. That’s happening in Middle Tennessee in an impressive, accelerated rate. Thriving regions with higher incomes and educational attainment drive growth in any area, and those indicators normally go up in suburban counties. Here, those indicators actually go down and it is the lethargy of the MSA outside Shelby County that drags down our economic performance.
As for Nashville, it’s never been about the form of government – successful cities have all kinds of governmental structures and 99% of them are just like ours, not to mention that Nashville consolidated governments more than 50 years ago so that’s not the trigger for its boom. Rather, Nashville has always emphasized one overriding quality: quality. Quality in leadership that drew on a sustained and optimistic vision for the city, and mayors who were not usually a product of the political class. Then, too it made quality investments. As we have written before, when Nashville considered a project – a park, a main library, a museum, etc – it began the conversation with the question: How can we make this among the best, if not THE best, in the U.S.? In Memphis, when we considered a project, we began with the question: How do we do this as cheaply as possible? Signs of change in this attitude can be seen in FedExForum and Redbird Stadium, but we still tend to do it. We look at parks and think, how can we improve these as cheaply as possible and we do the same when we look at the riverfront. Nashville became the city that it aspired to be…and so did we. We bet heavily on cheapness. Nashville bet on quality. Clearly, it’s quality that pays in today’s knowledge economy.
More of the “Amazon Effect” for Nashville’s Airport
Southwest Airlines today announced daily nonstop flights to 3 new destinations from BNA: (Burbank, San Jose, Omaha) plus increased flights to Boston 4x per day; Las Vegas 4x per day; San Diego 3 x per day; Minneapolis 2 x per day; St Louis 4 x per day. With this Southwest alone will have 133 daily departures from BNA. In comparison we have only 81 flights per day on all of the airlines serving Memphis. I would expect even more in coming months, especially more international flights. It seems like Southwest is moving a lot of service from Atlanta to Nashville.
Frank: I am hoping your wrong but based on past performance (execution of plans) you are probably right. Let’s hope for the best!
There is not a single issue that prevents Memphis from moving forward and competing with peer cities such as Nashville. Such a view is too simplistic. But I think residents and the community of Memphis MUST realize that there are a few major factors that impact and influence Memphis’ ability to compete. Two of these are crime and education. They intertwine and feed off one another. And they then trickle into the other areas. Lack of education prevents people from moving forward economically and compete in the knowledge economy. This cancer causes at best low wage job and at worse crime. Crime causes a fear of safety and a lack of investment. Lack of education also manifests itself in electing poor officials who represent Memphis communities. These elected officials lack the ability to combat crime and move the community forward and develop the city and metro area economically. Memphis desperately needs better leadership not just from elected officials but also from the business community and private sector. The community must be united in purpose if it wants to help the entire metro area for the better.
“We sink. We swim. We rise. We fall. We meet our fate together!”
~ The movie “Lean on Me” (1989):
When will we get a new convention center? The one in Nashville seems to have done wonders for it.
1. It has brought more people in to see Nashville.
2. It has spurred multiple the creation of multiple additional buildings. Their whole convention center is surrounded by hotel towers.
The Music City Center has clearly been a big driver for downtown Nashville since it opened 5 years ago. It’s an important anchor for a thriving downtown area that includes Nissan Stadium, Bridgestone Arena, a world class symphony hall plus hundreds of bars, restaurants, hotel and office towers, condos and apartments. And even more are rising every month.
Nashville is a “City on Fire” which incidentally was the theme of its successful pitch to bring Amazon to Music City. Memphis leaders could learn much for reviewing the Nashville proposal for Amazon. Link follows:
https://amazon2nashville.ecos.studio/presentations/4293/welcome#/
To answer the following question.
We will get a new convention center when we are able to attract meetings other than COGIC!
When will we get a new convention center? The one in Nashville seems to have done wonders for it.
1. It has brought more people in to see Nashville.
2. It has spurred multiple the creation of multiple additional buildings. Their whole convention center is surrounded by hotel towers.
I think we need to be careful and cautious about basing our future economic development profiles based on what Amazon “wanted”. The Amazon deal was rigged from the get go. The choice of NYC makes zero sense to me…already low, low unemployment, a crowded transit system and a shrinking affordable housing market. DC was about pure politics and we all could see that one coming, or at least I did. This Amazon bonanza was a once in a lifetime deal as most corporate HQ expansions and relocations are much smaller and look for…low operating costs, incentives, talent, access to airports / talent / clients & prospects and lifestyle (housing, low crime, parks, shopping, schools, business friendly enviro, etc.). Memphis has a lot going for it and must continue to work on the things that make us “less attractive” in a hyper, hyper competitive market.
Doug: Memphis is bidding on revamping the existing convention center. But like anything Memphis, it’s being done on the cheap.
https://www.dailymemphian.com/article/1509/Its-crunch-time-for-convention-center-overhaul-after-three-rounds-of-bidding
As Smart City Memphis (SMC) says: “In Memphis, when we considered a project, we began with the question: How do we do this as cheaply as possible?”
Compare this to what SCM says about Nashville’s attitude: “How can we make this among the best, if not THE best, in the U.S.?”
It’s VERY telling and you can see the article indicates the arguing and politics has only just begun.
The Memphis Flyer has an article on the paper’s perspective on why Nashville was chosen over Memphis by Amazon:
https://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/why-amazon-chose-nashville-over-memphis/Content?oid=18214513
Nashville is just a better educated community with more skills. That makes it more attractive for companies and people who then want to move there. This results in community investment at many levels. As a result there is more prosperity in Nashville. There is also less murders and crime. Those are self feeding cycles. Less education and skills in Memphis leads to less prosperity and more crime. And then that leads to less companies not wanting (or less willing) to invest in Memphis. Something must be done to break the cycle.