LONG-DISTANCE INFORMATION
Developers, planners from Down Under go Downtown
Melbourne, Australiaarea urban planners and developers soaked in Memphis communities from Harbor Town to Broad Avenue over two days to get ideas for dealing with their own issues back home.
A group of Melbourne, Australian-area urban planners and developers soaked in Memphis the past two days to get ideas for dealing with their own issues back home.
Which could be humbling to Memphians considering that The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Melbourne as the world’s most livable city.
The group of about 20 toured Sears Crosstown, Overton Square, Broad Avenue, Beale Street Landing, Harbor Town and Downtown on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to see Clarksdale, Miss., downtown redevelopment, as well as to New Orleans, New York and Chicago.
The travelers represent two organizations, the Urban Development Institute of Australia and the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Memphis was their Memphis host.
The New Urbanism design of Harbor Town most impressed Steve Copland, a town planner in Melbourne, and Tony De Domenico, executive director of the Urban Development Institute of Australia.
Asked what he liked about the Harbor Town mixed-use development on Mud Island, Copland said, “Everything.” But he cited the densely sited houses pulled close to the streets, the mix of uses and mix of renters and home owners. “I thought it was just sensational. That whole New Urbanist movement, we don’t have probably any real good examples in Australia ... Hasn’t taken hold.”
De Domenico cited Harbor Town’s lush landscaping, proximity to the Mississippi River and “its ambience generally.”
Julie Reid was so struck by the progress made toward redeveloping the long-vacant Sears Crosstown building that she plans to follow the project closely at crosstownmemphis.com.
She’s general manager of city development for Whitehorse, a Melbourne suburb of 160,000 people.
Whitehorse has a rundown historical building or district, similar to Crosstown, that “lacks vibrancy and the life we really need in that location,” she said. One of the reasons is concern about crime, Reid added.
What she learned from the Sears Crosstown tour is the effectiveness of partnerships among organizations that want to improve their community.
“A lot of private involvement is impressive to me,” she said. “I’m impressed that people involved here have the community in mind. People in Melbourne really value community.”
After 24 hours of flying, some of the group headed straight to FedExForum Monday night to catch the Grizzlies-Spurs game, then closed down B. B. King’s nightclub on Beale.
They f inished their Memphis leg on Wednesday with a tour of several Downtown apartments developed by the Henry Turley Co.
Turley Co. president Jason Wexler led the tour, telling the Australians that before Downtown’s redevelopment many people wouldn’t dare to walk along a nearly deserted Main Street.
“A lot of buildings were rotting away and pretty much on the cusp of being lost forever,” Wexler said.
The steady restoration and adaptation of historic buildings and sensitive new construction have made Downtown the place to be, especially for young professionals, Wexler said. Downtown apartments are in demand.
Laughter broke out among the tour-takers when they spotted the $12-a-day rate for parking in a Downtown garage.
“We would pay up to $80 to go to a two-hour meeting” in downtown Melbourne, said Jennie Jones, a town planner. “So if we go to a downtown meeting, we get a tram or taxi, or walk.’’
They followed Wexler around The Cornerstone, Barbaro Flats, Main Street Flats, Radio Center Flats and Van Vleet Flats.
As Wexler led them to a rooftop patio for apartment dwellers, De Domenico told him, “This looks like one of the apartments in Milan.”
“I take that as a compliment,” Wexler responded. “Thank you.”