- (female announcer) Production funding for Behind the Headlines is made possible in part by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

- New investments in downtown tonight, on Behind the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm joined tonight by Chandell Ryan, president and CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission.

Thanks for being here again.

- Thanks for having me.

Good to be here.

- Absolutely.

Along with Bill Dries, reporter with The Daily Memphian.

We'll talk about all kinds of things tonight.

We'll talk about the hotel downtown, we'll talk about investments, a bunch of state money that's come in, small things around restaurants and storefronts and programs you're trying to do, but I thought I'd start with, since it's been such a topic for so many years, the declining crime rate, right?

I mean, Chief Davis was at City Council recently and had data that January, February of 2026 compared to a year ago, there were 48% fewer incidents of violent crime.

This is citywide.

- Yes.

- Motor vehicle theft's down 68% from a year earlier.

Downtown can get a bad reputation around crime, but, you know, there's been crime throughout Memphis.

What are you seeing, feeling, what numbers do you track in terms of those kind of comparable numbers happening downtown in terms of incidents?

- We track the same kinds of numbers that Chief Davis mentioned at Council meeting, but we track 'em for the North Main precinct specifically.

And we actually just had a safety meeting yesterday, where police came in and just talked to us about the numbers.

I think for car theft, we were down even higher than that, like over 70%.

And we're seeing our crime overall down.

It's just under 50% as well for downtown.

Downtown is very safe.

We're starting to see perception shift in our downtown about, like, the downtown experience, and we're really happy about that as well.

- Is that really what it takes?

I mean, I think, you know, people just have to feel it.

They can hear the numbers, they can hear us talking about it, they have to have a good experience at a restaurant, at a game, at a event or something.

- I totally agree.

If you are experiencing a good time and you don't have an incident, you know, that you have to hear about, I think that absolutely change the perception.

And I know that with the command center and all of the cameras that are around and what we're seeing happen in our area around the decline in crime, it just absolutely speaks to how people are feeling about it and just seeing more people out on the street, which, I think, is also happening.

- Has the, I mean, this is a heated topic, but I have to ask, you know, has the Memphis Safe Task Force and its various elements, Guard, ICE, all the federal other law enforcement, has it been a good thing?

- I think the fact that crime has declined is just great for Memphis, period.

And the fact that crime has declined downtown is a net positive for everyone.

So yeah.

- Is there a sense, again, we'll move on to other things.

I'm sorry, this is just where I started 'cause it's been so top of mind for people.

Is there any unintended consequence, negative consequence of, say, having the Guard walk around?

Tourists see that, or people who haven't been downtown, and they think, "Oh, what should I be afraid of "if there's, literally, the National Guard in fatigues walking around?"

Can that have an unintended consequence for perception?

- For us, I feel that when people have seen the Guard, I haven't seen really any incidences of people feeling alarmed by it.

I've seen people speak to them, wave to them and feel fine about it.

So I haven't really seen that kind of reaction- - Yeah.

Yeah.

- Myself.

- Let me bring in Bill Dries.

- Spring is coming up, that means Beale Street's busy season.

And I think we've had a couple of years now of having specific plans around Beale Street.

What have you learned from that and what from that is applied to this coming spring there?

- Yeah, so spring came early this year.

It's been warm for quite a while now.

So we've already started the measures that we normally put in place.

Normally it happens somewhere around April, right after St.

Patrick's Day, but we've sort of started early with our MPD partners.

Colonel Penny has already started putting those measures into place.

And we also beat after the season, and we talk about things that happen and talk about how we can better prepare for the next year.

Like for example, there was one area near 2nd and Beale where we just didn't have great camera coverage.

So we worked with the area business to cut down the trees, add some more cameras, so now we have better eyes from the command center to watch that space a little bit better.

So those kinds of things are some measures that we put in place to make sure that everybody can come and just have a good time.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- In terms of a long-term plan for Beale, where is that at?

- Yeah.

So right now, we are in the middle of going through what will happen with the state funds that were received.

And we're really excited about the improvements that will happen to infrastructure and enhancements that will happen with the camera network, or security just around that area.

First and foremost, that's going to change the look and feel of the area.

And I think that's the first step in the City deciding how they will move for what's next for Beale.

- Right.

And you've now got the Downtown Command Center in place up and working there at Peabody Place and B.B.

King.

You know, when we talk about cameras, it's like someone watching, but it's also pretty important, I think you found out, to have that command center physically close to that, right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Having the command center, people actively watching every day to try to prevent incidents from happening has been a game changer.

We know that a lot of cities want to have an asset like this, and they're moving into this, and I think we're fortunate that we already have something like this in place, but I hear all the time about how MPD is able to get out in front of incidents that happened in order to let the people know and communicate to anyone who would come downtown that this is not the place, period, for if you wanna come down and, you know, have bad behavior.

- The DMC runs Beale Street, has for quite a while now.

What's gonna happen with the storefronts?

What's new in that area?

- With the storefronts, right now, we really are more so focused on the infrastructure.

So the storefronts, I think that's a conversation for later, but right now, we're focused on just enhancing the safety features that are along the areas around the street and on the street, improving lighting, improving streetscapes, and just creating an experience that is safer.

If it's safer, then it'll be more welcoming, and then we can welcome more people into the space.

So I think that's the first step.

- And that, Bill mentioned you talked about this state money, there was $74 million that was allocated or granted, I think at the end of last year.

- Yes.

- So you're working closely with the City.

I think John Zeanah, who's been on the show, who's the- - Absolutely.

- I keep calling him the infrastructure czar, but I don't, I forget what his- - It's a good name.

- It's a good name.

All right, we'll do that.

- Community enhancement.

- Community enhancement.

Infrastructure czar in community enhancement, John Zeanah, talked about also trying to, you know, linking Beale Street to the Forum better over even to AutoZone Park.

- Absolutely.

- There's some traffic flow.

Like, anybody who's been to a Grizzlies game or, I think, with Tigers too, there's a lot of cones that get put, there's a lot of traffic redirection.

I think a lot of that stuff will be made more permanent- - Permanent.

- Or it can come and go as games and other events are happening.

So it's not just cameras and not just security, it's also just making that a more walkable, connected space.

Is that fair?

- That is fair.

And I know we're talking about 74 that was awarded to us, but totally, it'll be $100 million that we'll spend in the area.

And yes, you're absolutely right.

We are studying the traffic flow.

We are looking to have more permanent bollard systems, you know, so that we don't have all of these construction barricades and just the inefficiency of bringing all that out and taking it all back up, you know, over a time period.

It's just, we have a better use of, a better way for us to, you know, make that safety possible.

- I don't how much of this you can talk about.

We've reported over the years that the City and the Grizzlies have been working on a long-term extension, the lease to keep the Grizzlies in Memphis.

And all these things are things they've talked about.

They don't generally talk too much on the record, but they kind of get the word out that they want, you know, safety enhancements, you know, a more clean and updated experience on Beale Street.

How much does that, how much did the Grizzlies and the lease influence the decision making you're involved in on these questions?

- So in executing this grant, we work with the City really closely on that.

And, you know, the City is leading those conversations with the Grizzlies.

I think just personally that these things are very important to, you know, the experience around them.

And of course, since that's near them, it should absolutely be something that they're concerned about.

- And I should always remind people who aren't as close to it as we are, the Grizzlies not only manage, you know, they have the team there, but they manage the FedExForum.

So every concert that goes through there, every, you know, truck show, anything that goes through there is managed by the Grizzlies.

And so it's not just the games and so on.

- Absolutely.

- Let me switch a bit.

We were talking a bit before the show, and you were on maybe six, eight months ago, and you just started this program with bringing in a service that's cleaning and planting and working on, it sounds small, but for anyone who's downtown often, I'm downtown quite a bit- - Yeah.

- And friends are, it's really showing.

I mean, it is there.

And talk about what that, how much that cost, what they're doing and what they're focused on.

- Yeah, so that service costs us a little bit over $2 million to have the ambassadors in our downtown space.

So we've got cleaning ambassadors, we have special projects, we've got safety ambassadors.

And really, they are there to beautify, they're there to clean, they're painting poles, they're removing graffiti, they're removing stickers.

So they do a lot.

And you're absolutely right.

We were ramping up at the time when I first came, and now, we're starting to really see a lot of the results.

There are a lot of plants.

Like, I think when I was here last, I talked about 4500 plants that have been planted at that time.

We're about to get into our planting season, so there'll be even more plants that you'll start to see popping up downtown.

And I think the work that they're doing is fantastic, and we're really excited to have them on the team.

- We talked before, and I wrote the number down for you 'cause I had paper and you didn't, it was 281-91-46.

People can literally text that number and say, "Hey, I'm seeing something bad over here," and that group will try to be responsive and let them know if it's been fixed.

- Absolutely.

So we're really happy that we have, inside of the command center, we've got dispatchers that are there.

First of all, they're watching cameras.

They're looking also being ancillary to the services that the police are providing.

So there are things that they can do to help relieve pressure from what police have going on.

But with that, you can absolutely call them or you can text them about issues that you're seeing, and they'll even text you a picture back and let you know that it's been resolved.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Bring Bill in.

- You've also got a program that is working on storefronts to get a small business owner in there at least for a temporary basis.

And I think one of the first ones was an art gallery.

- Yes.

We have several.

So we've got our Open on Main program, we have about six spots where we will pop up a business.

There's an art gallery.

We were really excited to get that there because it's really close to where the Memphis Arts Museum will be.

We thought that would be good synergy.

And there are a few others like Jasper Day Spa.

They're a part of that program.

The record store was a part of it, and now they have their own lease.

So that's the goal, hopefully, that can stick and stay.

Or it's just really good to have new experiences in downtown.

So we now have our Table Ready program, where there's one more location that we have, and it's going to be a restaurant.

So it'll be our second restaurant location.

- And when you say Table Ready, you've still got a lot of the infrastructure still in there, so, in essence, that's ready to go.

- It's absolutely ready to go.

So the owner of the business can come in, they really have, the plate is set for them just to plug in and go and start with their business concept.

So hopefully we'll have someone identified soon.

That program is, right now, we're looking for someone to fill a space.

- You talked about the art gallery, the Memphis Art Museum set to open in just a few months there- - Yeah, yeah.

- That block between Monroe and Union Avenue, and it really changes the scenery downtown.

- Yeah.

- How do you calculate what something like that, the effect it has on downtown as a whole?

- Man.

So we're just really, so we're really at a point where we're planning for them to come into our ecosystem.

So we're having meetings, we're thinking about how they can plug into just the overall ecosystem of downtown.

And we've had conversations about what that would bring, the numbers that they are bringing, where they currently are, and we think it'll be more so being right there on the riverfront.

So we do believe that it will be the next game changer for our downtown.

- And it's also on that row, on the bluff, so you're looking at ways of blending it in with the Cossitt, for example.

- Absolutely, yes.

Linking it in with the Cossitt, even linking it in to Main Street, just making sure that people understand that it is there and it's an amenity and an asset, linking it to the Civil Rights Museum even, just ensuring that people understand that this is a new part of our ecosystem, and you can travel among all of these places and have just a wonderful experience in our downtown.

- The streets, we talked before about the money of streetscapes and lighting and so on all around Beale, that was the target for that money, but the roads downtown are in pretty bad shape.

And what is the status on that?

I mean, is that where you just call John Zeanah and Paul Young every day and remind them of potholes?

I mean, is it, or there are a lot of streets that need attention in Memphis, and some have been dealt with and some haven't, but how do, you're focused on downtown, how do you get that prioritized?

- So one of the things we've done that's come out of our downtown action plan is we've created a downtown action team, and it's a partnership with us, with the City of Memphis, different agencies under, well, different departments under the City, MLGW, MATA.

And we're all talking about infrastructure and how we can repair, improve, and enhance or elevate the infrastructure that's currently there.

And streets is definitely a part of that.

You may see right now there's some striping that's being done because some of the lines are faded, so the City is going through and making those improvements.

Around the museum, you'll see some new streetscapes that would come up because of that.

So we're trying to, we're trying to hit it as best we can, understanding the financial limitations of that.

- We have Paul Young coming up actually in a week or two, so we'll talk to him about that and a whole lot of other things, obviously, when we get him on here.

But what about homeless issues?

Unhoused folks, transient folks?

- Yeah.

- It's a problem in the whole country.

I travel a ton.

This is not unique to Memphis.

In fact, Memphis is dramatically better on this front than many other cities.

Do you work with the Hub?

Do you work with some of the other agencies?

I mean, I've heard from some people that they feel like it is really improved.

I mean, obviously there was a point in COVID when there weren't a lot of people downtown.

It was pretty rough.

It was pretty rough everywhere, I mean, most cities.

How do you work on those issues?

- So we have a partnership with the Hospitality Hub, and we also have a relationship with Alliance Healthcare.

So what we do is about twice a month, we will go out and we will have Alliance Healthcare, we'll have Hospitality Hub and our ambassadors, and we'll walk around and try to get individuals into services, you know, to help them to be removed from the state of being an unhoused individual and get them into, you know, permanent housing.

So that, I think, helps.

If someone's having a mental issue, we have Alliance Healthcare that can make a call on whether they really need to be removed because they're just not in a healthy state.

So I think that helps.

And just our relationship with the Hub overall I think helps.

- We have about eight minutes in show and run through a bunch of things we haven't gotten to.

But one is, any progress on the trolley?

Trolley is not your responsibility.

Whether or not you like that or not, I don't know.

You can answer that question, but- - Oh, my gosh.

We desperately, desperately need the trolleys back.

We are a fan of trolleys.

Trolleys or railcars or whatever they are, we definitely need them back.

We're thankful to MATA for the rubber, I can't say the word right now, the rubber-wheeled trolleys.

We're thankful to have those, but really, I hear from businesses often on how it impacted their business when we lost them.

So I'm fighting, I'm advocating and looking at interesting ways that maybe they can come back and just having those conversations with MATA.

And they wanna see them back too.

- And that mainstream line actually was the most, I don't know if it was profitable, but it was the most revenue-generating of all the lines, buses, trolleys or anything.

- Yes.

Highest used.

- Yeah.

One more, and I'll go back to Bill here.

Beale Street Landing and the cruise ships, it's been off and on.

Sometimes the cruise ship people, they're docking south of here, or north of, south of Memphis or north of downtown, and they're coming in on buses.

You don't control Beale Street Landing and the cruise ships.

That's, what, Riverfront Development, but what's the status there?

- They're still coming, and my understanding is whenever the water is, the river is too low, they'll go to these other docks, but they're still coming into the core of downtown and going to Beale Street and other restaurants around.

So, yeah, they're still coming, and we're glad to have 'em.

- Bill.

- A bit about conventions.

Obviously the City's about to start renovations on the Sheraton, but what is our convention business like?

- Yeah.

I'm really excited, first of all, about the Sheraton coming and the role that we're able to play to help.

Our conventions, we just had the Farm and Gin.

We just had another big convention.

Gosh, the name of it just escaped me, but it brought a lot of people downtown.

It was great to see people with lanyards just walking the streets along the Main Street pedestrian mall.

So having those conventions are absolutely necessary for our ecosystem in downtown.

And I think, you know, the last few conferences have been excellent and been great for us.

- But obviously having that hotel up and running at full capacity is going to help because the convention feedback can actually be pretty blunt at times.

- Absolutely.

We've known for years that the Sheraton has been an issue with our convention, our ability to attract conventions.

So I think because people are able to see movement on the old Sheraton, what will be a new Marriott, you know, I think that's gonna be amazing to bring more conventions into downtown, and that's gonna be amazing for the businesses, and just, it's amazing for the overall experience of downtown and the density that it'll create.

- Right.

And we've had some smaller hotels open up in the downtown area, but convention and meeting planners are very specific.

They want their large conventions all in one place really, don't they?

- They do.

They really want to be, and they want proximity to the convention center.

They would love to be in one place.

And sometimes they want to flex other meetings inside the hotel, the convention center hotel.

So there's a plan right now for the convention space inside of the hotel to change to meet that need as well.

- The Sheraton is owned by a subsidiary of DMC.

Do I have that correct?

- You do.

- Yeah.

Carlisle Corporation is gonna, we've written a bunch about this, is gonna be managing it.

The construction is, hopefully, gonna begin in a year, so April, 2027.

It'll be phased so it can stay open and take 'til, I think, 2029.

The estimates aren't finalized, but as much as $250 million.

Will DMC be putting more money into the funding of this or will that be City money or how will that work?

- It's going to be City money for sure.

Our entity, it's a subsidiary of our CCDC entity is just holding it for the purpose of, you know, going through this design phase, but- - Yeah.

- The dollars will come from the City's plans.

- And again, we'll have Paul Young, the mayor on soon to be able to talk to him about that.

- Sure.

- One thing, again, this is not about picking on Memphis 'cause I travel a ton, and lots of cities have seen, I mean, I'll pick on Phoenix for a second.

They have huge office buildings, and they are just, the downtown feels like a ghost town in the middle of the week.

It's very strange.

And other cities are still experiencing that.

Portland has experienced that.

Seattle to some extent.

Offices are a challenge to get, you know, people, a lot of people work from home or they, you know, their leases were up downtown.

What kind of efforts do you have underway to try to get more people back into the office space downtown?

- So for us, we were fortunate in that we have a really high mix of residential property in our downtown space.

So we didn't see as much of a hollowing out as some of the other downtowns have.

So that's one fortunate thing that we have for us.

We still have our tools available for us, for businesses.

So we've got our PILOT tools available, we've got these things that are available to attract businesses that want to be downtown.

But I am seeing that our daytime population is starting to level up and grow up.

We've gotten about 85, 87 now percent of our pre-pandemic population that's coming, that's come back, and that's higher than a lot of major cities.

Higher than Chicago, higher than a lot of places.

So I think we're in a good sweet spot.

I do wanna see more, and we're working on that.

- Is there, we talked about blight and, you know, the ambassadors program, but, you know, some of the office buildings that, and other storefronts outside of Beale Street that are, you'll be in some cities, and you'll think that a storefront is full or the base, you know, the bottom floor of an office building 'cause they'll pretty it up in a way that unless you look closely, you realize, "Oh, nothing's in there."

But it's not an eyesore, it doesn't look sort of empty and run down.

How much attention are you able to give to that, and can you force property owners to do something with their ground floors in the way that I think other cities they're able to?

- We can't force.

We do have incentives to help for ground floor vacancies.

And we, part of our Open on Main program and Table Ready program is just about that, that is incentivizing people to do something with the space that's on the ground floor.

And then we've also had opportunities where we could come in and beautify it for them.

We have some interesting places where it looks like it's a vacant spot, but, really, there's a garage behind there, and so it's difficult.

There's a hotel, and that's really meeting space, you know?

So some of that can throw you off a little bit as well.

- All right.

That is all the time we have this week.

Thank you for being here.

We appreciate it very much.

Thank you, Bill, and thank you all for joining us.

If you missed any of the show today, you can get the full episode online at wkno.org, at The Daily Memphian or on YouTube.

You can also download the full podcast to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

As I mentioned, Mayor Paul Young coming up soon, recently had school board members on, state legislators, Steve Mulroy, the DA.

All that you can get at wkno.org.

But thanks very much, and we'll see you next week.

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