Demolition

2005 as a potential skyline-changing development at the southeast corner of Beale and Riverside. Past iterations have included multiple towers with residential, retail, hotel and offices.

Carlisle said the roof was removed from 275 S. Front on Monday so a crane could assist with removal of the equipment stored inside. “You couldn’t even get into the building because of all the stuff they had stored there,” Carlisle said.

Once the roof was removed, he said, there was nothing holding up the building’s walls.

Fleischer and Alexander, Memphis Heritage and others "want to see it saved,'' Fleischer said. "Apparently there are no plans in place for the actual property itself, according to what we know. If there are no plans for construction then why tear it down?''

The 20,400-square-foot warehouse is "part of the fabric of the warehouse district here on South Front and South Main,'' Fleischer said. "If you look around it's what you see. These buildings have been here for over 100 years and it is part of the fabric of Downtown Memphis.''

Fleischer acknowledged that preservationists have little leverage to save 275 S. Front. The building is not on the National Register of Historic Places. "They can do whatever they want with it. We don't want to see that happen, obviously,'' he said.

Carlisle Corp's Front Street Devco bought that building, the vacant corner lot to its south and the old William C. Ellis & Sons Ironworks and Machine Shop nearby at 241-245 S. Front. The latter buildings are on the National Register, which does not protect them from demolition.

The developers plan to use at least 241-245 S. Front as part of the One Beale development that includes a high-rise apartment building and parking garage.

Chance Carlisle told The Commercial Appeal recently that his company was still evaluating plans for the Ellis site.

In November, he told the newspaper, "The property bought from Ellis & Sons meets a strategic need for us in solving parking and other uses previously unavailable to us... It gives us the flexibility to incorporate all the components we have talked about effectively into the design."

Originally derailed by the recession, One Beale was proposed in 2015 as a 30story apartment tower and adjacent hotel. The project was delayed as the developers sought a way to incorporate a parking garage into the plan.

Buying the Ellis properties nearly doubles the riverfront footage for One Beale, enlarging the footprint to almost six acres. The extra space allows designers to make another master plan for the property, Carlisle said last fall.

"It would be a shame if Carlisle Corp. tears down the entire block that houses the historic Ellis and Sons Machine Shop to extend the footprint'' for One Beale,'' Alexander said in an email. "But that seems to be their intent as they are busy cleaning out all the buildings. There is no rational reason to to demo these buildings, or their acquisition of 275 S. Front, especially given the fact they do not have a final design drawn up at this particular point in time.''

Asked how confident he was that there wouldn’t be a vacant lot left permanently at 275 S. Front, Carlisle said, “We didn’t buy the property to sit on it forever.”

Downtown Memphis Commission president Terence Patterson said the agency doesn’t favor taking down buildings without immediate plans for a site.

“It is our policy to promote preservation whenever possible," Patterson said. "In principle, and as evident by our actions and approvals, the Downtown Memphis Commission believes in adaptive reuse and renovation rather than demolition. It is our position that vacant lots are not in the best interest of Downtown. The DMC does not support the demolition of any structure without active and elevated plans for the property.”

Patterson said the commission continues to have “ongoing discussions with Carlisle about the scope of One Beale. The project has seen multiple iterations, as is often the case with developments of this magnitude, and we anticipate continuing to work with them for the best possible outcome for this project and our Downtown.”