Union Row: New renderings and site map sharpen vision for Downtown Memphis development

When the first phase of the Union Row development is complete, apartments will line Danny Thomas Boulevard between Union Avenue and Gayoso Avenue in Downtown Memphis. 

The plans are shown in new renderings and a site map released to the public during a kickoff celebration Thursday evening.

The apartments curve around Union and Gayoso and stretch west for about half a block, wrapping around a parking garage and leaving room for retail and green spaces. 

Starting at the edge of the apartment building and retail on Union Avenue and continuing west to Fourth Street, two hotels will frame another apartment building and an office building will rise on the west side of Fourth across from AutoZone Park.

More retail is planned near the corner of Fourth and Gayoso with another garage and another office building just east of that along Gayoso.

Northeast of everything will be "The Lid," an urban park that stretches over Danny Thomas between Union and Monroe avenues.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE:Developer Kevin Adams aims to 'make a transformational project' in Downtown with Union Row

While the elements of the project are in line with promises developer Kevin Adams made when it was announced in November, new renderings offer a clearer vision of how the pieces will come together to transform a long-neglected swath of Downtown Memphis.

Adams said demolition could begin as soon as late October. Once the demolition is complete infrastructure work will begin by the beginning of the second quarter of 2020 and buildings will follow.

"At least one of the garages will be one of the first things to start and also the hotels. We've got those pretty much wrapped up," Adams said. "Hotels, the garage and then the wrapped apartments will be the first to start."

The first phase of the project represents just over half the $950 million budget. That will bring 310 hotel rooms between two hotels, 711 apartments between several buildings, 250,000 square feet of Class A office space plus another 120,000 square feet of lab office space.

Start Co., an entrepreneurial incubator has partnered with Union Row to attract small start up companies into the lab space which will have have technology and flexible space needed by business looking to grow in Memphis.

Start Co. will move from its current Downtown office in the Lokion building to take over at least 14,000 square feet of the new Union Row development, president Andre Fowlkes said Thursday.

The project will also bring about 50,000 square feet of retail space and parking for more than 1,600 cars.

Adams has not yet revealed information about who will occupy the rest of the office and retail space or the hotels. 

Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.