Highland Tower Downgraded to Low-Rise

[cdarr]

According to this article in the Memphis Business Journal, neighborhood opposition groups chopped the proposed 12-story highrise for the UofM area down to a 6-story building:

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/sto.../22/story5.html

I guess it's their neighborhood, but it's not like they don't already have highrises in that area. Nor is that stretch of Highland a quiet suburb or a historical district.

[sleepy]

The neighborhood on the west side of Highland is the Buntyn historic district, not that the designation is what killed the 12 story building.

I'm not really disappointed they're not building a 12 story there. I just want to see some development which enlivens the street.

[bluff2085]

Yeah I don't really understand the opposition either. Between Poplar and Southern there are several buildings (4 or 5 I think) on Highland in the 10-15 story range. Though I agree with you Sleepy street-level activity is the real issue. Maybe some of the opposition to this building's height came from what it suggested as far as future buildings in the area are concerned (6 stories a better trend setter?) I don't know, just speculating, since it seems like putting a 12-story building there wouldn't be offensive.

[Psalm 91]

I don't know, just speculating, since it seems like putting a 12-story building there wouldn't be offensive.

I don't know either. Memphis is not Mayberry............why can't some of our fellow Memphians just be happy with the development and not have an aversion to it?

[cdarr]

There is already a 10-story highrise, Wesley Highland Towers, just 1,000 feet to the north of this project. Maybe this scaled-down building would work better with the new mixed-used project slated for the site of Highland Street Church of Christ, across the street and one block north. I was just hoping to see something else added to the East Memphis skyline.

A little Trivia about Wesley Highland Towers...it is now elderly housing, but it was originally built in 1967 as the "Highland Towers" dormitory for Memphis State. They are actually twin, perpendicular towers. Another set of identical dorms was constructed at the same time on Central, called "Central Towers". Turns out, they overestimated the need for dorm space and Highland Towers was sold to the Wesley Foundation, a Methodist group. Central Towers was later renamed Richardson Towers and remains a dorm today.

[bluff2085]

This building is coming along nicely and should be completed within a few months. A 12-story would have been nice too, but this is good infill nonetheless. Anyone know what retail will be in the ground floor?

Also, here's the link to the 5-story laurels condos, which are being constructed down the street at the corner of Highland and Central...

laurel condos