Could a Starbucks work in Whitehaven? Yes
“There’s a problem with the children growing up and leaving the community, instead of them coming back and becoming a part of it. That’s a significant downfall for the entire Whitehaven community.” Yvonne Nelson president of the Whitehaven Community Development Corporation
Back in May, Whitehaven had a chance to welcome a development that would create jobs, but at the risk of crushing the character of the surrounding neighborhood.
That was when Elvis Presley Enterprises wanted to convert the old Graves Elementary School into a 3D printing factory in the middle of the Mccorkle Road neighborhood – an old, middleclass neighborhood near Graceland.
EPE was seeking to have the site rezoned from residential to light industrial, so that it could put 1,000 jobs there paying $15 an hour. But residents protested that it would wreck the character of the community, as well as open it up to future, undesirable industrial uses.
The project was ultimately scrapped. But for people like Yvonne Nelson, president of the Whitehaven Community Development Corporation, that battle reflects how Whitehaven is always fighting to keep out things that tear it down, while struggling to get things that lift it up.
And one of the things that would lift it up would be a Starbucks.
For many communities, a Starbucks symbolizes being in the mainstream of American life, as opposed to being on the margins. For Whitehaven, which has endured the exodus of anchor stores like Macy’s, Jcpenney and others from Southland Mall in recent years, many feel the national coffee chain would inject hopes of a revival.
“It would boost community pride,” said Nelson, who also said she’s heard rumblings of a Starbucks possibly coming to Whitehaven.
“It’s still a great community, but with the white flight we lost a lot of the sitdown restaurants and with the recent kitchen fire at China Inn [on Elvis Presley Boulevard] that lessened the opportunities we had for a sit-down meal.”
But what must be in place for a Starbucks to come to a neighborhood?
Like Whitehaven, its neighbor to the north, Raleigh, suffered similar retail losses. But when the city developed the $45 million Raleigh Springs Civic Center, developers found an abandoned spot nearby, once home to a grocery store, to build a new development - The Marketplace. It will bring new eateries and amenities to the area.
One of those amenities will be a Starbucks – the first in Raleigh.
“The Raleigh Springs Civic Center was the catalyst for a lot of the development on Austin Peay Highway,” said Rhonda Logan, the Memphis City Council representative whose district includes Raleigh. “The Amazon Fulfillment Center, Nike, Methodist Hospital, they are all in that area …
“There is also a lot of community engagement and involvement, and a lot of it is people who are reimagining Raleigh.”
But will Whitehaven, which already draws business traffic solely from the tourists who visit Graceland, have to wait for a new development, or a revamped mall, to get its first Starbucks?
Not necessarily. That’s because Starbucks is looking to open 100 new stores by 2025 in underrepresented communities, said Jessica Conradson, national spokesperson for Starbucks.
Starbucks ventured into struggling, urban communities in the late 1990s, after retired NBA star Magic Johnson partnered with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to build 105 stores in those locations.
Through partnerships and other tweaks, such as adding pastries such as sweet potato pie to its offerings, the stores did so well that Starbucks bought Johnson’s stores in 2010. It has since pushed to open stores in neighborhoods within cities such as Ferguson, Missouri, the site of riots after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.
The stores Starbucks has been building in many struggling areas are known as community stores, Conradson said.
They are developed through the cooperation of community leaders and non-profits such as United Way in places where youth unemployment is high, and where a Starbucks store can help boost the economic fortunes of the area, as well as provide an amenity.
In the 38109 and 38116 zip codes that encompass Whitehaven, the unemployment rate of 16 to 19-year-olds is around 28 to 35 percent, according to census data.
“We just opened a store in Anacostia [a poor Washington, DC neighborhood] and Prince Georges County [Maryland],” Conradson said. “What we know is that we create jobs, and we have a college achievement plan [for the workers]
“We also work with local contractors, and in many community stores, we hire local artists to do murals inside the stores, so there’s some local element, so you’re raising awareness for that artist and that company.”
Conradson also said each community store has a designated community space for community meetings – something which further cements its place in struggling neighborhoods.
The idea that Starbucks could employ youths in Whitehaven would likely help keep some of them there – which is something Nelson would like to see.
“There’s a problem with the children growing up and leaving the community, instead of them coming back and becoming a part of it,” she said. “That’s a significant downfall for the entire Whitehaven community.”
But best of all, Starbucks would, unlike the proposed 3D printing factory, be a development that would enhance the character of the community.
“I spend a lot of my time fighting against the new developments they’re putting in Whitehaven, like a self-storage unit in the middle of a former megamarket, and a blood plasma center at the old CVS on Elvis Presley,” Nelson said.
Maybe a Starbucks could be a catalyst in changing that.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee at 901568-3281, tonyaa.weathersbee@commercialappeal.com or follow her on Twitter @tonyaajw.