COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — One of the only outdoor malls in the Memphis area is getting a facelift.
A Chicago-based realty company bought The Shops at Carriage Crossing in Collierville in March with hopes of bringing new business to the area.
Town leaders say the mall is just one piece of a booming economic puzzle.
“We've been growing about 1000 [people] a year,” said John Duncan, the Collierville Director of Economic Development. “Once you cross 50,000 population, which we have, the phone starts ringing a little bit more, and people are a little more interested in coming to your market.”
In the next few months, hotels will be built, and new locations of Staks, South of Beale, Crumbl Cookies and Chipotle are all opening in the town.
“I feel like we're really expanding,” said Laney Skinner, a lifetime Collierville resident. “We're getting a lot of new good restaurants and new shopping centers, so like, that's also good for diversity.”
She said she has no plans on leaving, and more people are wanting to join her in calling Collierville home. It’s one of the most desirable places to live in the Memphis Metro.
“We have about 110 homes for sale in the city limits of Collierville, which I got my license back in 2006, and back at that time, we had anywhere from 450 to 650 homes for sale,” said Maureen Frayser, a Collierville real estate agent.
Frayser said more people are moving to Collierville and staying.
'We have quick access to the interstate, so that's a factor that some people look at,” Frayser said. “Our school system is top notch.. What makes Collierville different is that we have room, and we have land to grow and develop.”
In the coming years, town leaders say the population is supposed to reach 80,000 people. Construction is easy to find driving around the town, but there are a few empty storefronts.
“That has more to do with the current state of brick-and-mortar retail which has been challenged due to new shopping habits,” Duncan said.
Duncan hopes with the new sale of Carriage Crossing that trend may change as well.
“We’ve got commercial development,” Duncan said. “We've got residential growth. We're not just one thing, and that diversity of economy is what's going to sustain us as we go forward.’
Carriage Crossing sold for $25 million.