An estimated 3,000 people visit Crosstown Concourse each day, most of them working for or a customer, client or patient of one of the building’s tenants. There are also more than 260 apartments on the property as well as a high school that just opened its doors for its first class of 125 freshmen.
In addition to all the people who visit Crosstown daily since it opened in August 2017, there is also a steady stream of people showing up to do freelance assignments or to work remotely from their employer’s or home office.
Shannon Little left her job in marketing with the Huey's restaurant chain in Memphis to start her own solo marketing and social media venture. Such ventures at first glance might seem like a dime a dozen, leaving her with a task that had to be addressed before meeting with her first client.
She now handles marketing and social media efforts for several small businesses and is able to juggle all the tasks that go with that because she took the time to form a plan for herself at the very beginning.
"Define your target audience, your offerings and what value those offerings can bring to that audience," Little said, "My business became stronger, and my processes more streamlined, when I was able to define those terms."
The Edge Alley is officially open. I stopped by the coffee shop/cafe/workspace/shopping spot in The Edge District last weekend for a look around and some java.
The Edge District is the area around the intersection of Marshall and Monroe (near Sun Studio) on the, well, edge of Downtown.
The “Alley” isn’t a literal alley. It’s just a space in the building next door to High Cotton Brewing, and essentially it’s a room with smaller rooms all around it.
Edge Alley has opened its doors at 600 Monroe Avenue. It features a small restaurant with a coffee roaster and coffee bar, as well as four retail spaces, all under one roof.
Edge Alley will act as its own community development engine — each of its retail tenants will be given one-year leases, after which they will be encouraged to move out and into their own storefronts within the Edge neighborhood.
Adjacent to Edge District third-place pioneer High Cotton Brewery, Edge Coffee Co. is at the center of the space, surrounded by four glass-enclosed retail bays. You can look across the big L-shaped bar at the back of the shop to see a big open kitchen and coffee roasted on site. Two long, wooden community tables are at the center of the room, with a colorful green booth along one wall. Natural light pours in from a window at the center of the ceiling, which, with the building’s near floor-to-ceiling front windows and white subway tile interior makes for a bright, engaging environment.
Microretailers, meant to be an incubator of sorts for start-up retail businesses that might move on to more permanent spaces, include My Heavenly Creations (organic bath/body products), Paulette’s Closet (clothing), HWD Goods (home décor) and the familiar to many 901 Shop (Memphis- and often Grizzlies-themed gear from T-shirts to mugs to more).
Even though the focus in the Memphis Medical District is often on incremental development, one of the neighborhood’s more unique projects is about to take a big step forward. Edge Alley, the Medical District’s mixed-use coffeehouse/micro-retail incubator concept, has formalized its inaugural lineup of tenants and expects to set a grand opening date soon.
My Heavenly Creations, Paulette’s Closet, HWD Goods, and 901 Shop were chosen as the first retailers to complement the in-house coffee roaster and café, which will be located in a century-old former chrome-plating shop next to High Cotton Brewery on Monroe Avenue.
The Edge's District's new cafe/coffee roaster/community space/retail incubator officially opens in a couple of weeks. But, today MBJ is giving readers a sneak peek.
Chef and restaurant consultant Timothy Barker, along with Phil Massey, co-owner of High Cotton Brewing Co., partnered on the project located next door to High Cotton, at 600 Monroe Ave. The nearly 100-year-old building once was home to an ironworks facility, an auto upholstery business and a chrome plating shop. The interior design has subtle odes to its auto history, including a banquette that was custom-designed to look like the backseat of a Cadillac.
