It’s big, ugly, and slowly falling apart. No, it’s not Local 24’s Mike Matthews. It’s 100 North Main.
Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland needed an aspirin. “Something that’s in my craw,” he said, “… is that 100 North Main building. Do you know anything about it.”
Roland’s craw was especially cramped when he looked at the very top of the building. He was taking with the Director of the Downtown Memphis Commission, Terence Peterson, and just had to get that big building off his chest. “They done knocked out all the windows on the very top, and I mean it’s noticeable.”
It is noticeable. That round building on top of 100 North Main was once a revolving restaurant. One of the fanciest places in downtown, it was, offering great views and decent, overpriced food. Now, broken windows are everywhere. It’s not so fancy anymore.
100 North Main sits at one of the most important intersections in downtown. City leaders hate it, vandals absolutely love it.
For Downtown Memphis Commission chief Terence Patterson, it frustrates the heck out of him. “Yeah, it does,” he admits. “Look we need something to happen with that site, so it is something that we’re focused on. We know it’s a heavy lift. It’s not something that will happen over the next couple of weeks.”
Patterson says his goal is to save it, to make it something special again. “It’s taken a lot of pushing and shoving,” Patterson says, “…but we’re not going to stop. We want to make sure we move forward because it is in the best interest for downtown that something happens in a positive fashion for that site.”
