Developers propose surface parking lot for Hotel Chisca

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Paul Morris | Downtown Memphis Commission

A crane begins removing the boarded windows from the long-empty Chisca Hotel.

Ryan Poe

Staff writer- Memphis Business Journal

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The team behind the $24 million Chisca Hotel redevelopment in Downtown Memphis has asked for site plan design approval for a new 144-space parking lot next to the historic building.

Main Street Apartment Partners LLC, a group of developers led by the local Carlisle family, is proposing to put the surface lot on the block east of Chisca, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Pontotoc, and Mulberry Street and Second Street. The block was previously a surface parking lot.

The current plan calls for the permanent closure of that section of Mulberry to marry the lot to the Chisca at 272 S. Main St., which will have 161 apartments at last count and commercial space. The Office of Planning and Development has ruled that the street has already been closed by the city.

That part of the plan has raised the hackles of the Downtown Memphis Commission staff, who have recommended that the board not allow the street closure, in keeping with basic urban design theory, to "strengthen pedestrian connections."

The developers are scheduled to present their proposal Nov. 5 to the Downtown Design Review Board.

Ryan Poe covers commercial real estate; transportation and logistics; construction; and Downtown Memphis. Contact him at rpoe@bizjournals.com.