The Downtown Memphis Commission hosted the State of Downtown program Oct. 26, highlighting topics such as safety, tourism, development and culture in the heart of Memphis.
The talked also shined a light on major improvements and investments coming to Downtown.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, Shelby County Mayor Mickell Lowery, DMC President Chandell Ryan and others spoke at the Halloran Center, highlighting progress in attracting new businesses and supporting existing ones, encouraging investment, and keeping Downtown "clean, vibrant, welcoming and safe for everyone."
Ryan set out to refute much of what Memphians might have heard about the state of Downtown.
"You may have heard that nobody comes downtown anymore," Ryan said. "When downtown came back from
the pandemic however, ours came back faster than some of the biggest [cities] in the country. By 2023, Downtown Memphis was at 87% of pre-pandemic foot traffic.
"You may have heard Downtown offices are emptying out. Office vacancy was 14.7% in 2019, and in 2025, 15%. And that is below the national average of 19%. And downtown lease rates grew almost 28%."
In total, about $6.4 billion is currently in the development pipeline of Downtown Memphis, according to the DMC.
Young and Lowery both took time to go over their specific goals for Downtown. For Young, success starts with making sure people continue to live there. While Memphis as a whole has seen population loss, Downtown has continued to grow to over 24,000 people, up 1.3% from 2019, Young cited.
Young also mentioned the city's goal of building 10,000 housing units in Downtown, which he called a "really, really important goal."
"Over the past 25 years our city has lost about 35,000 people," he cited.
"My goal as mayor is to make sure we're moving our population into a growth trajectory, and in order to do that you have to have a diverse range of housing options. Downtown offers an attractive way of living for our young professionals, aging demographics ... to have a vibrancy right outside your door, restaurants and all of the night life. So having housing units built in our Downtown means that we're going to be able to have growth and opportunities for the individuals that want to choose Memphis."
Safety key in drawing people
Young also said safety is at the core of retaining the Grizzlies for another generation, and credited the Downtown command center's 24/7 group of officers and Blue Suede Brigade members monitor cameras as a factor in that perception.
"Downtown being our living room and our billboard, we have to make sure it's safe," Young said. "If you're bringing people in from out of town ... if you live in other parts of the city, we want you to come down and patron the restaurants and have a good time, and safety is at the core of that. And not just actual safety, you also need the perception of safety. Things around you have to be brighter, vibrant, more people walking around."
Beale Street revamp, ongoing transformative projects
Improving the appeal of Beale Street is top of mind for Lowery as well.
"We've all grown to love Beale, but we all know it should be much more. It can be much more," Lowery said. "It needs to be a place where there's tourism and shopping and restaurants and everything else. We're talking about other hotel occupancy as well. We need more rooms and more hotel space in downtown to attract all these great things that are going to be happening here."
Major projects were highlighted, including the new 4,500-capacity Grind City Amp venue and the Memphis Art Museum, which is nearing its December opening. Forty-three total DMC-supported projects have opened since January 2024.
"Public and private investments happening in Downtown right now equal a billion dollars into our culture," Ryan said. "These are places that make Memphis feel like Memphis, makes us proud of who we are."
Those investments center around Beale Street, with Ryan teasing a facelift for the iconic cultural hub and shovels in the ground next year. The nearby FedEx Forum is also set to receive additional exterior and interior renovations starting early 2027.
A plethora of cones, barrels and barricades around downtown in the coming year, but Ryan, holding an orange construction cone in the air, encouraged people to keep visiting while that very visible growth continues, even if traffic might get a bit messy.
Deep culture no match for other cities
Ryan said Memphis was recently part of a national study with the International Downtown Association, which found that, "few emerging downtown's can match the depth of Memphis's cultural brand or the concentration of nationally significant historic places within such a small share of the city."
There is plenty of room for growth and hurdles (or cones) to jump, but Downtown Memphis's foundation is strong, Ryan said.
"Think about the opportunity we have in our Downtown space," Ryan said. "That's why more than 22 million people came Downtown last year. Our culture did that. Our community did that. And it can't be copied and you can't buy it. It's authentically Memphis."
Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering Dining, Retail and Real Estate in the Memphis area. You can reach him at jacob.wilt@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: State of Downtown talk highlights growth, upcoming projects in Memphis
