Petition aims to save historic local church
Summer Avenue facility could be redeveloped
If the early plans pan out, the Highland Heights United Methodist Church property along Summer Avenue near Highland Street could be redeveloped into new apartments, retail space and a gas station.
The property includes several buildings spanning nearly 3 acres at 3476 Summer Ave. The property was purchased recently for $700,000 by Rafat Khmous and Talaat Khmous, J. Max Hamidi of Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates said. Hamidi represented the buyers in the sale.
The redevelopment plans were first reported by the Memphis Business Journal.
Since then, Christina Crutchfield, community coordinator for the Heights Community Development Corp., launched a Change.org petition aimed at preserving the church property. The oldest building on the site was built more than 100 years ago.
As of Wednesday morning, nearly 3,000 people had signed the petition.
As people signed the petition, they shared stories of attending church services and baptisms and even meeting their future spouses on the campus of Highland Heights United Methodist Church.
“We don’t want a gas station,” Crutchfield said, not mincing words. Still, she added, the opposition is about more than just derailing a gas station plan.
“One, that physical structure served as a place of worship, parts of it, for over 100 years,” she said. “Two, from an urban planning lens, it’s in the DNA, the footprint and the urban fabric of the neighborhood.”
Crutchfield pointed out that it is one of three historic churches at three major intersections in the neighborhood. The two others are on Holmes Street and National
Street near Summer Avenue.
“On the three corresponding intersections, you have these three beautiful church buildings welcome you and are kind of like the gatekeepers welcoming into the community from our three major ways to access the community,” she said.
The church closed last summer after seeing its congregation shrink drastically over the span of several years, Crutchfield said.
‘We are not that heartless’
Hamidi said the plan for the property is still in its very early stages. It would be more than a year before any change would happen.
Along with the gas station, he said the new owners would also like to see between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet of retail in addition to an apartment building. It’s too soon to estimate the size of the apartment building or the number of units, he said.
Even though change is coming to the area, Hamidi said the goal would be to preserve as much of the campus as possible.
“We are not that heartless to go ahead and demolish a century-old building just because we want to put a gas station in there,” Hamidi said.
He added that the new owners have not yet met with architects to make formal plans. That step will be necessary to understand the structural integrity of the building and to determine what can be saved.
Crutchfield, who has not yet met with Hamidi or the new property owners, said the Heights CDC is not opposed to all change. Their main hope is to see a project that keeps the look and feel of the community intact. For her, that means finding new uses for the existing buildings, not tearing them down and replacing them with something new
Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738.