Mixed-use development bringing shopping, residences to Southaven
A new mixed use development is coming to Southaven, set to be located near Silo Square in the Snowden District.
Southaven’s Planning Commission unanimously approved the application for Crossover, a 12-acre planned development on the east side of Getwell Road, north of May Boulevard, on Jan. 30.
Mixed-use developments blend multiple uses, such as residential, commercial and entertainment, into one space. Crossover will be located near Silo Square, a 228-acre mixed-use development that broke ground in 2018. Both developments are near Snowden Grove Park.
Is this development going to directly compete with Silo Square?
Southaven’s city planning director, Whitney Choatcook, isn’t worried about the competition between the two developments, despite their close proximity.
“One of the big differences between Silo and Crossover is that Crossover kind of takes on a more modern look versus the traditional main street look that Silo has,” Choat-cook, said. “I don’t feel like they are going to be competing, more so picking up on the type of environment that you want to be in. So some people that want that main street feel head to Silo, these people will be more of the modern-style development.”
The main-street feel of Silo is purposeful. Developer Brian Hill has said the intention of Silo Square was to create a town square, like Oxford or Collierville has.
“We never wanted this to feel like a mall,” Hill said about the development in April. “I’ve turned down chain after chain after chain, wanting to be in Silo. And I just won’t lease to them. I want to build Silo with a bunch of mom and pop businesses.”
What will the residential side of Crossover look like?
On the residential side of Crossover, there will be studio lofts on top of commercial buildings, loft buildings and walk-up flats.
“So it’s a four story building and each building has two stories to it and they also have the brownstone design where they’ve got the patios,” Choat-cook said about the walk-up flats. “Something similar to what you see in the Northeast.”
The flats are something that Southaven doesn’t have right now, Choat-cook said.
There will be a lot of greenspace for the residential area, including a dog park and elevated pool system, and the office and commercial aspects will be up front.
What kinds of businesses will be in Crossover?
“Obviously that’s all speculative right now,” Choatcook said about the types of businesses that will be built. “I don’t know if I can say specifically what they want, but they are trying to orient a lot of the shopping environment over there to the residents, just for them, and the remainder of the commercial environment they want to kind of cater to the sports and recreation stuff to kind of bank off of the soccer fields across the street and the baseball complex and all that.”
Choat-cook said that businesses itemized out included yoga, pilates, a nutrition store and a barber shop – stuff that residents could just walk out of their homes and use.
The appeal of having a walkable community might be part of the reason mixed-use developments have been on the rise recently, both in the Midsouth and across the nation. In Memphis, Crosstown Concourse is also an example of a mixed-use development and there are a few in Desoto, with the Cascades, a 170-acre development in Olive Branch, breaking ground in September 2021.
When will Crossover be built?
The development is still in the master plan stage and is set to go before the Southaven Board of Alderman on Feb. 21. Once the development gets approved by the board, the specifics will be set for what the developers are able to do and individual site plans and designs for each building will have to individually approved. Choat-cook said people should “see dirt moving relatively soon.”
“I like it. I had a lot of people who were a little leery about the fact that you already have Silo across, and you definitely don’t want them competing against each other, because you want everyone to be good neighbors and you don’t want to split that demographic,” Choatcook said. “I like the way they came in, and even though they’re similar in some ways, there’s a lot of differences between the two, and I think they are going to complement one another, so that was important for us.”