Airport area redevelopment moves ahead

[Memphis77]

Glad to hear that there's finally a new hotel opening this August on EP Boulevard and Winchester. It's hard to believe that Graceland has been opened to the public for 26 years now and still the only hotel in the entire area is the 128-room Heartbreak Hotel which EPE owns. Hopefully the planned convention center and hotel that EPE is going to develop will be something like the Hard Rock Hotel or Gaylord Resort. Something like that would be beneficial in bringing more tourists and attractions to the Graceland/Airport area. But they can't invest in something along the lines of a resort style hotel until they remove the bad influences around the area first, such as rundown businesses, apartment complexes and homes.

[James Owen]

Glad to hear that there's finally a new hotel opening this August on EP Boulevard and Winchester. It's hard to believe that Graceland has been opened to the public for 26 years now and still the only hotel in the entire area is the 128-room Heartbreak Hotel which EPE owns. Hopefully the planned convention center and hotel that EPE is going to develop will be something like the Hard Rock Hotel or Gaylord Resort. Something like that would be beneficial in bringing more tourists and attractions to the Graceland/Airport area. But they can't invest in something along the lines of a resort style hotel until they remove the bad influences around the area first, such as rundown businesses, apartment complexes and homes.

[Memphis77]

EPE has already bought a substantial amount of property around the vicinity of Graceland, including the apartment complexes. It's really a matter of moving the tenants out of those buildings before they begin tearing them down. One of those complexes (Royal Oaks/Forest View) is already fenced off and vacated, and I would suspect the former Southern Hills apartments to be vacated in about a couple of years depending on the economy.