Podcasts about Crosstown Concourse

"That is what records are, they are just evidence or proof that someone was here, that they had a statement, and that they left a mark on this world." Curious about the journey of Crosstown Concourse's radio station? Dive into the vision of the founders Jared "JayB" Boyd and Robby Grant, the history of the station, and learn what role dialogue plays within that rich history. NOTE: This episode originally aired in October 2024. Resources mentioned in this episode include: WYXR "Meanwhile in Memphis" on WYXR Crosstown Arts WFMU from New York WWOZ from New Orleans The Daily Memphian Beale Street Caravan The University of Memphis' The ROAR WYXR = The Reimagined WUMR Crosstown Concourse Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" New Memphis Embark New Memphis Events The Link Up Memphis TEDxMemphis DJ Spanish Fly The Black Keys Raised By Sound Fest Power the progress of New Memphis and WYXR This episode is made possible in partnership with Independent Bank.

Todd Richardson, the CEO of Crosstown Concourse, joined Eric Barnes on this week's episode of “The Sidebar” to talk not just the new venue but also all kinds of new happenings in and around Crosstown.

Host Marvin Stockwell talks to City Leadership executive director John Carroll at his Crosstown Concourse office. The two explore how the nonprofit helps recruit, catalyze and develop leaders at every level to help Memphis grow and thrive.

In honor of National Southern Food Day, Chris Herrington put Southern transplant Eric Barnes to the test on this week's edition of Sound Bites, a hit-the-road edition recorded at Crosstown Concourse.

The WYXR festival and fundraiser is December 2 at Crosstown Concourse.

Today's guest is Armstead Jones.   Armstead is a Strategic Real Estate Investing Advisor at Real Estate Bees with over ten years experience in commercial real estate. Join Sam and Armstead in today's episode. -------------------------------------------------------------- Intro [00:00:00]   Armstead Jones' background and journey in real estate [00:00:56]   Approaching city council and government for project funding [00:03:23]   The housing market and recession indicators [00:10:39]   Foreclosure and delinquency rates in multifamily properties [00:11:41]   Office vacancy and the future of remote work [00:19:11]   The concept of mixed-use buildings [00:21:32]   The example of Crosstown Concourse [00:22:50]   Closing [00:23:48] -------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Armstead: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginethinktank/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armsteadjones/ Web: https://www.imaginethinktank.com/itt-store/p/re-engineering-baltimore-real-estate   Connect with Sam: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/ Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com   SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f -------------------------------------------------------------- Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: Armstead Jones (00:00:00) - Is once the community has bought in. Then the politicians are bought in because the politicians serve the community. Right. The community is going to bat for you. They're supporting your project. Everything down to when construction starts, you know, those nosy neighbors will make sure people aren't breaking in your house, right? So you've engaged the community, you talk to them, you went to their meetings, you studied their plan. You've actually put together a thoughtful response and a proposed project to them. And then they're able to then go champion that for you to kind of make it easier.   Sam Wilson (00:00:35) - Welcome to the How to scale commercial real estate show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big. Armstead Jones is a strategic real estate investing advisor at Real Estate Bees with over ten years of experience in commercial real estate. Armstead, welcome to the show.   Armstead Jones (00:00:56) - Welcome. Thanks for having me, Sam.   Sam Wilson (00:00:58) - Absolutely. The pleasure's mine. Armstead There are three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90s or less.   Sam Wilson (00:01:03) - Can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now and how did you get there?   Armstead Jones (00:01:07) - I started with an idea in my apartment that I could use real estate to build wealth. Then I decided I need to get an education for building wealth. So I took a job paying less work in the state housing department in the state of Maryland, and then also then went and worked at the economic development arm for the city of Baltimore. Learned everything I could, real estate. And that took me to where I am now. Currently doing large scale projects, residential, commercial, transit oriented development, land development. So, you know, it's taken me a very long way.   Sam Wilson (00:01:42) - Wow, that's really, really cool. What are some of the things, some of the skills you learned in the state housing Department and what was the other other job you said?   Armstead Jones (00:01:52) - Baltimore Development Corporation, we call it BDC.   Sam Wilson (00:01:55) - Okay. I bet you learned a lot about the way to navigate those organizations from the private. Now that you're on the private side.   Armstead Jones (00:02:06) - Well understand. I understand what we call both sides of the table. Right. So understand the government side of it that helps push through economic development projects that can add jobs and tax bases. Um, and also that, you know, there is a need for affordable development as well. Not all individuals can afford market rate or luxury. So what it also then showed me is how the money moves. Um, you can't just go to the government with an open hand and say, give me, give me, give me. There needs to be a P3 or a public private partnership and needs to be some leverage on your end on why you need this money from the government. And normally it's what I call the it would not happen, but for this investment from the government. So, you know, when you start to look at those things, you can identify what it's just a straight market rate deal that you don't need any government kind of subsidies in. And then what deals need help. They need get financing.   Sam Wilson (00:03:08) - Got it. Got it. What were what were some of the when you walked away from that? Some of the things that you see that people typically get wrong when they are approaching the city council or whoever else it may be when they have a project in hand.   Armstead Jones (00:03:23) - Several things. One, they've never talked to the community, right? You can't do community development if you have not engaged the community. Um, second they come in with. I know what's best for the neighborhood, right? It's never about what I know is best for the neighborhood. It's about working with that neighborhood because they might have a nonprofit or a CDC that can leverage grant funds that can help you with your project. And thirdly, some people come in and just throw money, right? Yeah, I'm going to do this. This is going to happen. But I want the government to give me money. Why? Like you're not making a compelling, compelling argument on why the government who are the stewards of taxpayer dollars giving you money for a project that essentially does not need it? Um, and that's that.   Armstead Jones (00:04:14) - But if not for statement, right? If not for the government to step in. You won't get the desired outcome of jobs, right? This office building, convention center, you're building arena. Right. If not for the government stepping in and doing it for the long term investment. Right. The 20, 30 year projection of jobs and taxes and piggyback taxes. Um, and a lot of people just come in with the thought, well, my project doesn't work, so need money from the government to make it work. And that's not how it works at all.   Sam Wilson (00:04:49) - Right. I can only imagine one of the things you mentioned there was talk to the community. What does that mean? What's a practical way to do that?   Armstead Jones (00:04:55) - Um, first thing, you should attend a community meeting. Um, get to know who's in your community. Who are you serving? Right. Those residents know people. So if they're, you know, if there's a master plan, you should go to whatever area you are.   Armstead Jones (00:05:11) - You should go to that planning department and find a master plan, vision plan, urban renewal plan, and look at it for the neighborhoods you want to work in, right? We would like homeownership on this strip. We would like commercial on this trip. And nine times out of ten, those master plans are prepared by third party individuals that are architects and traffic people. And they're they're literally telling you the best places, right from a 10,000 foot view of what you should try to do in these areas. And then those community people then get engaged and they're like, yeah, we want houses here. We want to we want a grocery store here. Okay, well, if grocery stores are, then your thing. You didn't set up a time to talk to the community association about what you propose to do. Right? Always use the word proposed because you want them to feel like they are engaged with you and they are helping to make those decisions in those communities as well. But if not, you know, you go in and you don't do that, it you know, it will it will ruffle feathers and it will slow down because the the rolling ball effect or the snow, you know, the the snowball going down the hill, it's once the community has bought in, then the politicians are bought in because the politicians serve the community.   Armstead Jones (00:06:30) - Right. The community's going to bat for you. They're supporting your project. Everything down to when construction starts, you know, those nosy neighbors will make sure people aren't breaking in your house. Right? So you've engaged the community, you talked to them, you went to their meetings, you studied their plan. You've actually put together a thoughtful response and a proposed project to them. And then they're able to then go champion that for you to kind of make it easier.   Sam Wilson (00:06:59) - That's really, really good advice. And there's very few people actually I've had on the show that probably have as in-depth, in-depth of an understanding as you do as to how that functions. I mean, because that's it's it sounds like it's as much art as it is science.   Armstead Jones (00:07:17) - Yeah.   Sam Wilson (00:07:18) - Exactly, exactly. Figuring out how to do this. And and I think one of the things I hear in all of this is that you just need to budget in a lot of patience in a lot of time.   Armstead Jones (00:07:28) - Correct development is different than investment, right? Say that all the time.   Armstead Jones (00:07:33) - So my company outside of real estate bees is a imagine think tank. We do development, but we also do investment. Right. Development is the concept that I see a vision and I'm going to carry that vision on my back and tell us complete. But I'm the first person putting in sweat equity and money equity, and I might be the last person to see my money back right? This return that I got. But it might take 2 to 3 years. But you know, just using numbers, you saw a deal, you put 50 in and three years from now it's worth, you know, I don't know, half a million of better. Right. But you didn't realize that profit until then. Investment is passive. You're trying to either by cash flowing assets or you're someone who buys and then fixed eventually. But, you know, that's why you just got to you got to know which one fits better and development just takes a while. So anybody starting a business and you're doing real estate development, get some rentals.   Armstead Jones (00:08:34) - I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of singles all the time, right? Especially if you're trying to do other things. If you're managing those yourself, you know how to do the work yourself. You're personable yourself. Great, right? Get you a couple of those. Make that your full time, you know. You know, you'll never work a day in your life, but you know, if you're investing, investment is the concept that my money needs to now work for me.   Sam Wilson (00:08:58) - So no, I like that. I like that a lot. You know, there's a lot of things in the economy right now. People are worried about. There's talk of recession. There's talk of this. There's, you know, just a lot of uncertainty. What does this look like from I mean, are there some leading indicators maybe of a changing just kind of changing grounds? Are there permit polls? Are there like what do you see on the I guess, more on the on the city planning side of things that could be leading indicators or lagging indicators? I guess either way you want to look at that of kind of where we are.   Armstead Jones (00:09:31) - Um, so there's a couple of pieces of data that you can look at. I know we've seen massive layoffs, but these aren't from the companies that kind of employ the middle to lower market. Um, these are your financial firms. Your tech firms. These people were making six figures. Hopefully they got a nice nest egg. They probably realistically have 6 to 12 months worth of money sitting around to cover themselves. So we're not looking at a rising unemployment number because those same individuals who had that kind of capital or probably investing in or, you know, trading something or doing something else to make income currently. Um, you'll see and I'm saying this in Baltimore, permits are slowing down, right? So the reason is because everybody's finance was locked in before the Treasury started hiking rates. So now they're going back and have the, you know, what they call a horse trade, right? Like horse trade and get a new term sheet. And now that interest rate on that new term sheet has made, you know, the debt to service ratios, you know, unbearable.   Armstead Jones (00:10:39) - So you're going to have deeper pocket people having to go out further. Right. Waiting for the market to turn. But we're not going to go into a recession. I think the Treasury and the Fed did. Correct. Right. Like they they raised interest rates to catch up to inflation. We've now caught up to the supply chain issues we were having in 2020. Right. So mostly right outliers here and there. You know something, a spike. But, you know, building materials are pretty much flattening out the labor cost because permits are slowing down. So labor is getting cheaper. I see subs going to primes and saying, hey, um, you know, you got some work next month. Oh, remember, put in that bid for this. I can take 10%, 15% off of that. If you give me the job now, I'll take it. Um, so you're seeing some of that, But there's no recession, right? A recession indicates a slowdown for, um, continual periods, right? Continual quarters.   Armstead Jones (00:11:41) - We haven't seen a slowdown. We have seen people putting people with capital of putting their money back in the bank, and they're waiting for everybody else's tsunami to rise. Right. So they have the money to kind of buy everyone out. I think what we'll get worst case scenario on the real estate side is that you'll see a lot of these class-A and even newly value added class B apartment multi families. Start to get foreclosed on. Delinquency rates are going up. People had a lot of money saved on Covid because they weren't going anywhere. Just ordering Amazon. Right? Maybe some GrubHub, maybe some Uber eats type stuff. Now everyone is back to vacation, right? They're buying clothes. Think about the clothing market. Slow down. Because why would I buy clothes if I got to sit in the house? Right? Like I'm not purchasing things. So now people are spending money on consumer goods. They have less savings. We're seeing delinquency rates go up. And a lot of these multifamily people haven't landlords or property owners haven't really given people mercy.   Armstead Jones (00:12:45) - They're just like, Oh, we can get it right now because there's a housing shortage. So your normal transition is you get an apartment one day, you make a decision to buy a home, whether it's because you got married or you're ready to own one. And people can't buy homes now. So multifamily has just been jacking up their rents. Right? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? And we're going to hit a point where people can go somewhere. We're going to see the multifamily wash out. So my thing is, anything over 120 units, you need to start realizing what you can do to set yourself apart in the marketplace. You're.   Sam Wilson (00:13:22) - That's really interesting. Would you say that even even in light of the Fed hiking rates and in light of the fact that the residential housing market is still apparently fairly hot?   Armstead Jones (00:13:35) - It's still fairly hot because the number one thing and we when was at the State Housing department we did a research like project on this. Right. What makes people buy homes.   Armstead Jones (00:13:47) - Right. And it's normally life changing decisions. I moved for my job and I want to buy home where I'm moving to. I got married, so we're buying a home. I had kids. We need more space. So I'm buying a home. I got divorced. I need less space. Right? I need to buy a home. I'm living with my significant other whether we're married or not, and we separate. I need to find somewhere to live. I end up buying a home. Right? It's normally life changing decisions that make people do that. And people. People who have it and who are still financially sound are still in the market looking for great opportunities for their American dream to buy a home with the white picket fence. But we have limited inventory. So because of that, the prices still can remain high. But you're seeing days on market increase, right? When we were in 2027 to 14 days, you had multiple offers, you had people paying over list price and then covering the difference in the appraisal and the list price in cash.   Armstead Jones (00:14:51) - We won't see those days ever again.   Sam Wilson (00:14:54) - Right? Yeah, that was that was a wild, wild time. Let's go back to I guess we talked a little bit about, you know, the the Class A and B, you think that's going to suffer? Because I'm just see if I can articulate what you said. You said class A and B is going to suffer because they've been raising rents so much over time or so much recently that people are going to start looking for other places to go. But how I guess maybe I missed this in your answer. But if the residential housing market is still hot, it seems that that would then feed that class A and B value add multifamily property. Does that make sense?   Armstead Jones (00:15:32) - So you what you're saying is those individuals should be moving their homes. All right. Right.   Sam Wilson (00:15:37) - Right.   Armstead Jones (00:15:39) - There's a lack of inventory. And so as soon as the Fed raise rates, I'll give you a case study. Someone in Maryland before the Fed raised the rates and they were given out these two and 3%, you could afford a half $1 million home in the county right now that the rates have gone up.   Armstead Jones (00:15:59) - You're saying payment is probably 400 to $600 more depending on how expensive to home is, Right. Right. That affordability gap when it comes to a monthly payment kicks a lot of people out of contention for the half $1 million home now. So now you have to find a 400,000 or 350 and it has less bedrooms. You already have three kids. You need a five bedroom, you're looking at a four, you're hesitant, you can do it. You could pull the trigger, you could become that that property owner. But a lot of people are now very picky. Right. They're like, Oh, don't even like white cabinets. And I'll be paying way more than I have to. And it's not even in the neighborhood I want, but this is the only inventory in the market, so I'll just sit on my hands until I find what I want, right? So it's not feeding it quick enough. So what you're getting is people are like, all right, I really can't afford this rent, but I can't afford to go anywhere, right? So if they can't go anywhere, they end up staying.   Armstead Jones (00:17:02) - But, you know, delinquency rates go up. And once we do figure out that levy that opens the door. All the property owners are going to do for the foreseeable future is give away one month free, two month free, $500 gift card, some beats, headphones. We'll give you free parking for three months. Right. They stuck concession in you right. To make it seem like it. But essentially they're hurting so they're giving away what they can in order to market and advertising people.   Sam Wilson (00:17:33) - Right. Right yeah and we haven't even in the stuff that we own, we haven't seen that yet. But you know, that's that's certainly something to keep keep our eyes on. We start seeing that happen happen on a on a more widespread basis.   Armstead Jones (00:17:49) - Are they above 120 units.   Sam Wilson (00:17:52) - Yes. No, that's a that's that's mistaken. One one's I don't own much multifamily on two multifamily assets but one's 106 and one 246. So yeah, one one's above it.   Armstead Jones (00:18:04) - Yeah. The 106 would probably always be okay that 240 unless it's just in an area where there are no units like in Baltimore.   Armstead Jones (00:18:10) - At one point we had 5000 apartments in the pipeline to be delivered. Right? So it's all about market saturation. So depending on where you are, if you are the asset in that submarket, you're fine, right? But if you if you're competing and you need to figure out what your edge is, that's when people start doing the month free, the two months free. Come get this gift card. They just try to market themselves differently than all the other product around them because it's too much competition.   Sam Wilson (00:18:41) - Too much competition, something else to look for. Absolutely. One one last thing I want to chat about here is since since you seem to have a front row seat to all the different asset classes and how they're performing and of course, you know, again, being being part of the state housing Department, I'm sure you saw a lot of really unique things. What where are we with the office vacancy? I mean, everybody I'm talking to you from New York City to I mean, all the way across the country, office is generally vacant.   Sam Wilson (00:19:09) - What what are we going to do about that?   Armstead Jones (00:19:11) - Um, office is going to be vacant for the foreseeable future. Um, one as a business owner, now that I know that my employees can be emailed at 6:00 after work hours because they're on their computers and their home. I don't care if you take an hour and a half lunch break. Really don't care, right? Do whatever you please. Right. I now don't also need this monument to myself of office space in my kingdom where I've hired, you know, my throne of of individuals. Right. So now everybody can hop on a zoom. Uh, Microsoft teams, We can come up with action items. I don't care if you do those action items at 10:00 or 11:00 at night. Right? As long as it's in my inbox by eight. Right. Long as you're on the call by 10:00 the next morning so we can discuss it. Right. We're starting to see that functional and flow works without having a brick and mortar location. With that said, we've built a lot of monuments, right, to a lot of wonderful people who have created jobs and help with economic development.   Armstead Jones (00:20:17) - Right. Help people put food on the table. So we're going to see a lot of conversions of those spaces, right? You're going to see, um, and that was a concept and I can't remember the name of it, but you do a mixed use building, but mixed use in a sense, like. You got affordable housing or workforce housing and with some market rate housing and with some office space and with a community center or a restaurant on the top, some commercial at the bottom, a maker space, you're going to take all these different pieces and they have a model for this. In Philly, they took an old school and they gave every. Every business got a classroom. Right. Every business then could sell out of their classroom. But because this building, it was half 1,000,000ft² of some crazy number. Right. They also then use the the ground floor as like a marketplace. So Fridays, it was activated. Saturdays it was activated, Sundays it was activated. And all of the same tenants who you had up here are coming down here to sell their stuff and they're bringing people to the building.   Armstead Jones (00:21:32) - And you're mixing up the uses, not just this is a Bank of America building. They've taken 60% of it. There's a law firm here, an accounting firm here, a title company here, know it's going to be a mixture of uses in one building, right to the point where you could take an office building and you could produce the stuff upstairs to be brought downstairs to ship out loading docks. Right. Like we never thought about the concept that you could reuse that building and repurpose it. We just didn't need a whole bunch of land and some tractor trailers and you need manufacture and need some rail. Not everything needs that. Right? Right. Like we talked about manufacturing of raw material, like we're talking making t shirts and stickers and, you know, products that can be sold in the local economies. Right. Same way we see the coffee boom. Right? Every city has a signature coffee shop and several in some places, and they all get picked up by Trader Joe's and all the grocery stores and all the corner stores and mom and pops.   Armstead Jones (00:22:35) - Same concept, right? Producing these items locally, using these buildings, repurpose them. And then you've got workforce housing. Oh, wow. I can work where I live. It it you know, it goes back to that concept. Live, work and play.   Sam Wilson (00:22:50) - Yeah. No, that's a really cool concept. There's a there's a project here in Memphis that is called the Crosstown Concourse. Same idea. It was an old. Well, this is a massive undertaking, but it was an old Sears distribution facility. The same idea what you're talking about. I mean, there's everything from a school to doctor's offices to, you know, there's there's workforce housing, there is a condos there, there's swimming pools, there's workout facilities. I mean, you name it, It's I mean, you really if you didn't ever want to leave the concourse, you really wouldn't have to. I mean, everything you want is right there. So it's kind of cool. It'd be interesting to see, you know, as people as people pick up this inventory in the right markets and turn it into into higher and better use to things such as what you're describing.   Sam Wilson (00:23:34) - Absolutely. Love it. Armstead it's been a pleasure having you on the show today. If a listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to ask about your book. You can tell us about that as well. What's one of the best ways to do that? And if you can tell us a little bit about your book.   Armstead Jones (00:23:48) - Uh, elevator pitch on my book, Re-engineering Baltimore Real Estate. I'm an engineer by trade, so always re-engineer everything. I do like to kind of back into it. So the book just gives you resources. If you were to develop in the Baltimore area, why you should develop in the Baltimore area with strategies you could put together, and then from there, you know where to go out, who to pick, um, those kind of things. So just an introductory guide to kind of helping you get started. Um, that book is available on my website. Dot imagine think tank.com, um, also available on my Instagram which is imagine think tank.   Armstead Jones (00:24:35) - Um same thing for Facebook. Imagine think tank. Um, and you can just it's a digital download you go download it. Um, feel free. If you got questions, you can always contact me. I'm one of those people. You got a question or two? I have no problem answering it. But if you need an essay worth of questions, I will send you my consultation link. Um, so that you can ask me all you want. Um, I do consulting work a lot, so, you know, all the way from hedge funds to pension funds. You know, they need someone to kind of explain to them the Baltimore market at a high level. That's exactly what re-engineering Baltimore real estate does. It explains it to you bare, bare bones. What Baltimore real estate is, why you should invest, what are you looking for? And here are all the resources that you have available to you in order to get that done.   Sam Wilson (00:25:24) - Fantastic. Armstead, thank you so much for coming on the show today.   Sam Wilson (00:25:26) - Of course, we'll include all of that there in the show notes. I do appreciate your time.   Armstead Jones (00:25:31) - No problem. Nice to meet.   Sam Wilson (00:25:32) - You. Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode. Today's guest is Armstead Jones.   Armstead is a Strategic Real Estate Investing Advisor at Real Estate Bees with over ten years experience in commercial real estate. Join Sam and Armstead in today's episode. -------------------------------------------------------------- Intro [00:00:00]   Armstead Jones' background and journey in real estate [00:00:56]   Approaching city council and government for project funding [00:03:23]   The housing market and recession indicators [00:10:39]   Foreclosure and delinquency rates in multifamily properties [00:11:41]   Office vacancy and the future of remote work [00:19:11]   The concept of mixed-use buildings [00:21:32]   The example of Crosstown Concourse [00:22:50]   Closing [00:23:48] -------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Armstead: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginethinktank/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armsteadjones/ Web: https://www.imaginethinktank.com/itt-store/p/re-engineering-baltimore-real-estate   Connect with Sam: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/ Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com   SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f -------------------------------------------------------------- Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: Armstead Jones (00:00:00) - Is once the community has bought in. Then the politicians are bought in because the politicians serve the community. Right. The community is going to bat for you. They're supporting your project. Everything down to when construction starts, you know, those nosy neighbors will make sure people aren't breaking in your house, right? So you've engaged the community, you talk to them, you went to their meetings, you studied their plan. You've actually put together a thoughtful response and a proposed project to them. And then they're able to then go champion that for you to kind of make it easier.   Sam Wilson (00:00:35) - Welcome to the How to scale commercial real estate show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big. Armstead Jones is a strategic real estate investing advisor at Real Estate Bees with over ten years of experience in commercial real estate. Armstead, welcome to the show.   Armstead Jones (00:00:56) - Welcome. Thanks for having me, Sam.   Sam Wilson (00:00:58) - Absolutely. The pleasure's mine. Armstead There are three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90s or less.   Sam Wilson (00:01:03) - Can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now and how did you get there?   Armstead Jones (00:01:07) - I started with an idea in my apartment that I could use real estate to build wealth. Then I decided I need to get an education for building wealth. So I took a job paying less work in the state housing department in the state of Maryland, and then also then went and worked at the economic development arm for the city of Baltimore. Learned everything I could, real estate. And that took me to where I am now. Currently doing large scale projects, residential, commercial, transit oriented development, land development. So, you know, it's taken me a very long way.   Sam Wilson (00:01:42) - Wow, that's really, really cool. What are some of the things, some of the skills you learned in the state housing Department and what was the other other job you said?   Armstead Jones (00:01:52) - Baltimore Development Corporation, we call it BDC.   Sam Wilson (00:01:55) - Okay. I bet you learned a lot about the way to navigate those organizations from the private. Now that you're on the private side.   Armstead Jones (00:02:06) - Well understand. I understand what we call both sides of the table. Right. So understand the government side of it that helps push through economic development projects that can add jobs and tax bases. Um, and also that, you know, there is a need for affordable development as well. Not all individuals can afford market rate or luxury. So what it also then showed me is how the money moves. Um, you can't just go to the government with an open hand and say, give me, give me, give me. There needs to be a P3 or a public private partnership and needs to be some leverage on your end on why you need this money from the government. And normally it's what I call the it would not happen, but for this investment from the government. So, you know, when you start to look at those things, you can identify what it's just a straight market rate deal that you don't need any government kind of subsidies in. And then what deals need help. They need get financing.   Sam Wilson (00:03:08) - Got it. Got it. What were what were some of the when you walked away from that? Some of the things that you see that people typically get wrong when they are approaching the city council or whoever else it may be when they have a project in hand.   Armstead Jones (00:03:23) - Several things. One, they've never talked to the community, right? You can't do community development if you have not engaged the community. Um, second they come in with. I know what's best for the neighborhood, right? It's never about what I know is best for the neighborhood. It's about working with that neighborhood because they might have a nonprofit or a CDC that can leverage grant funds that can help you with your project. And thirdly, some people come in and just throw money, right? Yeah, I'm going to do this. This is going to happen. But I want the government to give me money. Why? Like you're not making a compelling, compelling argument on why the government who are the stewards of taxpayer dollars giving you money for a project that essentially does not need it? Um, and that's that.   Armstead Jones (00:04:14) - But if not for statement, right? If not for the government to step in. You won't get the desired outcome of jobs, right? This office building, convention center, you're building arena. Right. If not for the government stepping in and doing it for the long term investment. Right. The 20, 30 year projection of jobs and taxes and piggyback taxes. Um, and a lot of people just come in with the thought, well, my project doesn't work, so need money from the government to make it work. And that's not how it works at all.   Sam Wilson (00:04:49) - Right. I can only imagine one of the things you mentioned there was talk to the community. What does that mean? What's a practical way to do that?   Armstead Jones (00:04:55) - Um, first thing, you should attend a community meeting. Um, get to know who's in your community. Who are you serving? Right. Those residents know people. So if they're, you know, if there's a master plan, you should go to whatever area you are.   Armstead Jones (00:05:11) - You should go to that planning department and find a master plan, vision plan, urban renewal plan, and look at it for the neighborhoods you want to work in, right? We would like homeownership on this strip. We would like commercial on this trip. And nine times out of ten, those master plans are prepared by third party individuals that are architects and traffic people. And they're they're literally telling you the best places, right from a 10,000 foot view of what you should try to do in these areas. And then those community people then get engaged and they're like, yeah, we want houses here. We want to we want a grocery store here. Okay, well, if grocery stores are, then your thing. You didn't set up a time to talk to the community association about what you propose to do. Right? Always use the word proposed because you want them to feel like they are engaged with you and they are helping to make those decisions in those communities as well. But if not, you know, you go in and you don't do that, it you know, it will it will ruffle feathers and it will slow down because the the rolling ball effect or the snow, you know, the the snowball going down the hill, it's once the community has bought in, then the politicians are bought in because the politicians serve the community.   Armstead Jones (00:06:30) - Right. The community's going to bat for you. They're supporting your project. Everything down to when construction starts, you know, those nosy neighbors will make sure people aren't breaking in your house. Right? So you've engaged the community, you talked to them, you went to their meetings, you studied their plan. You've actually put together a thoughtful response and a proposed project to them. And then they're able to then go champion that for you to kind of make it easier.   Sam Wilson (00:06:59) - That's really, really good advice. And there's very few people actually I've had on the show that probably have as in-depth, in-depth of an understanding as you do as to how that functions. I mean, because that's it's it sounds like it's as much art as it is science.   Armstead Jones (00:07:17) - Yeah.   Sam Wilson (00:07:18) - Exactly, exactly. Figuring out how to do this. And and I think one of the things I hear in all of this is that you just need to budget in a lot of patience in a lot of time.   Armstead Jones (00:07:28) - Correct development is different than investment, right? Say that all the time.   Armstead Jones (00:07:33) - So my company outside of real estate bees is a imagine think tank. We do development, but we also do investment. Right. Development is the concept that I see a vision and I'm going to carry that vision on my back and tell us complete. But I'm the first person putting in sweat equity and money equity, and I might be the last person to see my money back right? This return that I got. But it might take 2 to 3 years. But you know, just using numbers, you saw a deal, you put 50 in and three years from now it's worth, you know, I don't know, half a million of better. Right. But you didn't realize that profit until then. Investment is passive. You're trying to either by cash flowing assets or you're someone who buys and then fixed eventually. But, you know, that's why you just got to you got to know which one fits better and development just takes a while. So anybody starting a business and you're doing real estate development, get some rentals.   Armstead Jones (00:08:34) - I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of singles all the time, right? Especially if you're trying to do other things. If you're managing those yourself, you know how to do the work yourself. You're personable yourself. Great, right? Get you a couple of those. Make that your full time, you know. You know, you'll never work a day in your life, but you know, if you're investing, investment is the concept that my money needs to now work for me.   Sam Wilson (00:08:58) - So no, I like that. I like that a lot. You know, there's a lot of things in the economy right now. People are worried about. There's talk of recession. There's talk of this. There's, you know, just a lot of uncertainty. What does this look like from I mean, are there some leading indicators maybe of a changing just kind of changing grounds? Are there permit polls? Are there like what do you see on the I guess, more on the on the city planning side of things that could be leading indicators or lagging indicators? I guess either way you want to look at that of kind of where we are.   Armstead Jones (00:09:31) - Um, so there's a couple of pieces of data that you can look at. I know we've seen massive layoffs, but these aren't from the companies that kind of employ the middle to lower market. Um, these are your financial firms. Your tech firms. These people were making six figures. Hopefully they got a nice nest egg. They probably realistically have 6 to 12 months worth of money sitting around to cover themselves. So we're not looking at a rising unemployment number because those same individuals who had that kind of capital or probably investing in or, you know, trading something or doing something else to make income currently. Um, you'll see and I'm saying this in Baltimore, permits are slowing down, right? So the reason is because everybody's finance was locked in before the Treasury started hiking rates. So now they're going back and have the, you know, what they call a horse trade, right? Like horse trade and get a new term sheet. And now that interest rate on that new term sheet has made, you know, the debt to service ratios, you know, unbearable.   Armstead Jones (00:10:39) - So you're going to have deeper pocket people having to go out further. Right. Waiting for the market to turn. But we're not going to go into a recession. I think the Treasury and the Fed did. Correct. Right. Like they they raised interest rates to catch up to inflation. We've now caught up to the supply chain issues we were having in 2020. Right. So mostly right outliers here and there. You know something, a spike. But, you know, building materials are pretty much flattening out the labor cost because permits are slowing down. So labor is getting cheaper. I see subs going to primes and saying, hey, um, you know, you got some work next month. Oh, remember, put in that bid for this. I can take 10%, 15% off of that. If you give me the job now, I'll take it. Um, so you're seeing some of that, But there's no recession, right? A recession indicates a slowdown for, um, continual periods, right? Continual quarters.   Armstead Jones (00:11:41) - We haven't seen a slowdown. We have seen people putting people with capital of putting their money back in the bank, and they're waiting for everybody else's tsunami to rise. Right. So they have the money to kind of buy everyone out. I think what we'll get worst case scenario on the real estate side is that you'll see a lot of these class-A and even newly value added class B apartment multi families. Start to get foreclosed on. Delinquency rates are going up. People had a lot of money saved on Covid because they weren't going anywhere. Just ordering Amazon. Right? Maybe some GrubHub, maybe some Uber eats type stuff. Now everyone is back to vacation, right? They're buying clothes. Think about the clothing market. Slow down. Because why would I buy clothes if I got to sit in the house? Right? Like I'm not purchasing things. So now people are spending money on consumer goods. They have less savings. We're seeing delinquency rates go up. And a lot of these multifamily people haven't landlords or property owners haven't really given people mercy.   Armstead Jones (00:12:45) - They're just like, Oh, we can get it right now because there's a housing shortage. So your normal transition is you get an apartment one day, you make a decision to buy a home, whether it's because you got married or you're ready to own one. And people can't buy homes now. So multifamily has just been jacking up their rents. Right? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? And we're going to hit a point where people can go somewhere. We're going to see the multifamily wash out. So my thing is, anything over 120 units, you need to start realizing what you can do to set yourself apart in the marketplace. You're.   Sam Wilson (00:13:22) - That's really interesting. Would you say that even even in light of the Fed hiking rates and in light of the fact that the residential housing market is still apparently fairly hot?   Armstead Jones (00:13:35) - It's still fairly hot because the number one thing and we when was at the State Housing department we did a research like project on this. Right. What makes people buy homes.   Armstead Jones (00:13:47) - Right. And it's normally life changing decisions. I moved for my job and I want to buy home where I'm moving to. I got married, so we're buying a home. I had kids. We need more space. So I'm buying a home. I got divorced. I need less space. Right? I need to buy a home. I'm living with my significant other whether we're married or not, and we separate. I need to find somewhere to live. I end up buying a home. Right? It's normally life changing decisions that make people do that. And people. People who have it and who are still financially sound are still in the market looking for great opportunities for their American dream to buy a home with the white picket fence. But we have limited inventory. So because of that, the prices still can remain high. But you're seeing days on market increase, right? When we were in 2027 to 14 days, you had multiple offers, you had people paying over list price and then covering the difference in the appraisal and the list price in cash.   Armstead Jones (00:14:51) - We won't see those days ever again.   Sam Wilson (00:14:54) - Right? Yeah, that was that was a wild, wild time. Let's go back to I guess we talked a little bit about, you know, the the Class A and B, you think that's going to suffer? Because I'm just see if I can articulate what you said. You said class A and B is going to suffer because they've been raising rents so much over time or so much recently that people are going to start looking for other places to go. But how I guess maybe I missed this in your answer. But if the residential housing market is still hot, it seems that that would then feed that class A and B value add multifamily property. Does that make sense?   Armstead Jones (00:15:32) - So you what you're saying is those individuals should be moving their homes. All right. Right.   Sam Wilson (00:15:37) - Right.   Armstead Jones (00:15:39) - There's a lack of inventory. And so as soon as the Fed raise rates, I'll give you a case study. Someone in Maryland before the Fed raised the rates and they were given out these two and 3%, you could afford a half $1 million home in the county right now that the rates have gone up.   Armstead Jones (00:15:59) - You're saying payment is probably 400 to $600 more depending on how expensive to home is, Right. Right. That affordability gap when it comes to a monthly payment kicks a lot of people out of contention for the half $1 million home now. So now you have to find a 400,000 or 350 and it has less bedrooms. You already have three kids. You need a five bedroom, you're looking at a four, you're hesitant, you can do it. You could pull the trigger, you could become that that property owner. But a lot of people are now very picky. Right. They're like, Oh, don't even like white cabinets. And I'll be paying way more than I have to. And it's not even in the neighborhood I want, but this is the only inventory in the market, so I'll just sit on my hands until I find what I want, right? So it's not feeding it quick enough. So what you're getting is people are like, all right, I really can't afford this rent, but I can't afford to go anywhere, right? So if they can't go anywhere, they end up staying.   Armstead Jones (00:17:02) - But, you know, delinquency rates go up. And once we do figure out that levy that opens the door. All the property owners are going to do for the foreseeable future is give away one month free, two month free, $500 gift card, some beats, headphones. We'll give you free parking for three months. Right. They stuck concession in you right. To make it seem like it. But essentially they're hurting so they're giving away what they can in order to market and advertising people.   Sam Wilson (00:17:33) - Right. Right yeah and we haven't even in the stuff that we own, we haven't seen that yet. But you know, that's that's certainly something to keep keep our eyes on. We start seeing that happen happen on a on a more widespread basis.   Armstead Jones (00:17:49) - Are they above 120 units.   Sam Wilson (00:17:52) - Yes. No, that's a that's that's mistaken. One one's I don't own much multifamily on two multifamily assets but one's 106 and one 246. So yeah, one one's above it.   Armstead Jones (00:18:04) - Yeah. The 106 would probably always be okay that 240 unless it's just in an area where there are no units like in Baltimore.   Armstead Jones (00:18:10) - At one point we had 5000 apartments in the pipeline to be delivered. Right? So it's all about market saturation. So depending on where you are, if you are the asset in that submarket, you're fine, right? But if you if you're competing and you need to figure out what your edge is, that's when people start doing the month free, the two months free. Come get this gift card. They just try to market themselves differently than all the other product around them because it's too much competition.   Sam Wilson (00:18:41) - Too much competition, something else to look for. Absolutely. One one last thing I want to chat about here is since since you seem to have a front row seat to all the different asset classes and how they're performing and of course, you know, again, being being part of the state housing Department, I'm sure you saw a lot of really unique things. What where are we with the office vacancy? I mean, everybody I'm talking to you from New York City to I mean, all the way across the country, office is generally vacant.   Sam Wilson (00:19:09) - What what are we going to do about that?   Armstead Jones (00:19:11) - Um, office is going to be vacant for the foreseeable future. Um, one as a business owner, now that I know that my employees can be emailed at 6:00 after work hours because they're on their computers and their home. I don't care if you take an hour and a half lunch break. Really don't care, right? Do whatever you please. Right. I now don't also need this monument to myself of office space in my kingdom where I've hired, you know, my throne of of individuals. Right. So now everybody can hop on a zoom. Uh, Microsoft teams, We can come up with action items. I don't care if you do those action items at 10:00 or 11:00 at night. Right? As long as it's in my inbox by eight. Right. Long as you're on the call by 10:00 the next morning so we can discuss it. Right. We're starting to see that functional and flow works without having a brick and mortar location. With that said, we've built a lot of monuments, right, to a lot of wonderful people who have created jobs and help with economic development.   Armstead Jones (00:20:17) - Right. Help people put food on the table. So we're going to see a lot of conversions of those spaces, right? You're going to see, um, and that was a concept and I can't remember the name of it, but you do a mixed use building, but mixed use in a sense, like. You got affordable housing or workforce housing and with some market rate housing and with some office space and with a community center or a restaurant on the top, some commercial at the bottom, a maker space, you're going to take all these different pieces and they have a model for this. In Philly, they took an old school and they gave every. Every business got a classroom. Right. Every business then could sell out of their classroom. But because this building, it was half 1,000,000ft² of some crazy number. Right. They also then use the the ground floor as like a marketplace. So Fridays, it was activated. Saturdays it was activated, Sundays it was activated. And all of the same tenants who you had up here are coming down here to sell their stuff and they're bringing people to the building.   Armstead Jones (00:21:32) - And you're mixing up the uses, not just this is a Bank of America building. They've taken 60% of it. There's a law firm here, an accounting firm here, a title company here, know it's going to be a mixture of uses in one building, right to the point where you could take an office building and you could produce the stuff upstairs to be brought downstairs to ship out loading docks. Right. Like we never thought about the concept that you could reuse that building and repurpose it. We just didn't need a whole bunch of land and some tractor trailers and you need manufacture and need some rail. Not everything needs that. Right? Right. Like we talked about manufacturing of raw material, like we're talking making t shirts and stickers and, you know, products that can be sold in the local economies. Right. Same way we see the coffee boom. Right? Every city has a signature coffee shop and several in some places, and they all get picked up by Trader Joe's and all the grocery stores and all the corner stores and mom and pops.   Armstead Jones (00:22:35) - Same concept, right? Producing these items locally, using these buildings, repurpose them. And then you've got workforce housing. Oh, wow. I can work where I live. It it you know, it goes back to that concept. Live, work and play.   Sam Wilson (00:22:50) - Yeah. No, that's a really cool concept. There's a there's a project here in Memphis that is called the Crosstown Concourse. Same idea. It was an old. Well, this is a massive undertaking, but it was an old Sears distribution facility. The same idea what you're talking about. I mean, there's everything from a school to doctor's offices to, you know, there's there's workforce housing, there is a condos there, there's swimming pools, there's workout facilities. I mean, you name it, It's I mean, you really if you didn't ever want to leave the concourse, you really wouldn't have to. I mean, everything you want is right there. So it's kind of cool. It'd be interesting to see, you know, as people as people pick up this inventory in the right markets and turn it into into higher and better use to things such as what you're describing.   Sam Wilson (00:23:34) - Absolutely. Love it. Armstead it's been a pleasure having you on the show today. If a listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to ask about your book. You can tell us about that as well. What's one of the best ways to do that? And if you can tell us a little bit about your book.   Armstead Jones (00:23:48) - Uh, elevator pitch on my book, Re-engineering Baltimore Real Estate. I'm an engineer by trade, so always re-engineer everything. I do like to kind of back into it. So the book just gives you resources. If you were to develop in the Baltimore area, why you should develop in the Baltimore area with strategies you could put together, and then from there, you know where to go out, who to pick, um, those kind of things. So just an introductory guide to kind of helping you get started. Um, that book is available on my website. Dot imagine think tank.com, um, also available on my Instagram which is imagine think tank.   Armstead Jones (00:24:35) - Um same thing for Facebook. Imagine think tank. Um, and you can just it's a digital download you go download it. Um, feel free. If you got questions, you can always contact me. I'm one of those people. You got a question or two? I have no problem answering it. But if you need an essay worth of questions, I will send you my consultation link. Um, so that you can ask me all you want. Um, I do consulting work a lot, so, you know, all the way from hedge funds to pension funds. You know, they need someone to kind of explain to them the Baltimore market at a high level. That's exactly what re-engineering Baltimore real estate does. It explains it to you bare, bare bones. What Baltimore real estate is, why you should invest, what are you looking for? And here are all the resources that you have available to you in order to get that done.   Sam Wilson (00:25:24) - Fantastic. Armstead, thank you so much for coming on the show today.   Sam Wilson (00:25:26) - Of course, we'll include all of that there in the show notes. I do appreciate your time.   Armstead Jones (00:25:31) - No problem. Nice to meet.   Sam Wilson (00:25:32) - You. Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.  

“To champion a cause, you have to reboot your fundamental belief in the goodness of people, and that goodness will win out. Because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, resources, people show up that you could not have imagined in a million years. There is power in beginning. The minute you decide to commit, all make and manner of support materializes out the ether that you could not have predicted. To me, that's a marvel.”  That's Marvin Stockwell, discussing his own passions and how forces come together once someone or a group takes on new causes. This June and into early July, Marvin is taking his Champions of the Lost Causes podcast on the road with his son and daughter, through the Southwest, the Pacific Coast, the northern Rockies and the Great Plains, to explore and discover people and their passions for taking on causes around the country.  SB 30 host Mark Fleischer sat down with Marvin on Friday, June 2nd, just a couple of days before the trio's road trip was set to begin, to talk about how it came about and how he hopes it plays out, and what he hopes to discover along the way. Recorded on the 7th floor of Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee.

"We've been working with the consultants that helped reimagine Crosstown Concourse. We had some of the same braintrust working with us. It wasn't too long ago that people said ‘that will never happen,' and I hear some of the same voices saying this (the Coliseum) will never happen – I've heard it for eight years. Honestly, the Crosstown project was a much much heavier lift than this would be comparatively.” That's Coliseum Coalition co-founder Marvin Stockwell, during the March 15 press conference to rally support to save the historic Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Coalition also made public a detailed development plan for its revitalization, a plan that included Coliseum structural data compiled based on the results of two separate assessments, “including the city's own assessment,” Stockwell said. “Now that we know all that we know – culminated in this plan – now we know conclusively that this building is in excellent shape. One of the summary conclusions of this plan is that the Mid-South Coliseum is restorable,” Stockwell said. “These are the same people that said Crosstown Concourse was restorable and it turns out they were right. I trust that summary in intel.” Join host Mark Fleischer for this exclusive, on-location StoryBoard 30 episode that includes the full press conference held on the north steps of the Mid-South Coliseum. Read the full story in StoryBoard Memphis here, Community leaders rally support and call on city council to review revitalization plans.

On this episode, I'm joined by Todd Richardson, President at the Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative, to hear how he's using his experience in both the arts and hospitality to cultivate a thriving, connected local community. Todd's background in the arts has given him a passion for both individual expression and human connectivity. To him, that's the purpose of both the arts and hospitality: to bring people together. The Crosstown Concourse is a manifestation of that passion, where arts and entertainment venues live side-by-side with healthcare facilities, restaurants, retail stores, offices and apartments, all in one complex. Todd calls it a vertical village because it functions as its own community where people of all kinds live and work together seamlessly. It's an outstanding example of how hospitality organizations can help to create meaningful human connections. Todd Richardson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-richardson-933137160/ Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative - https://crosstownconcourse.com/ Crosstown Concourse Documentary - https://youtu.be/FoZ9OV54v2E Sears Crosstown in Memphis: From Catalogues to a Concourse - https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467147996 Crosstown Case Study - https://www.rudybruneraward.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/RBA-Pub2019_BOOK_FINALhq_CrosstownConcourse.pdf Crosstown Arts - https://crosstownarts.org/ Chris Cano - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismcano/ Upshift - https://www.linkedin.com/company/upsh%C4%B1ft/ If you enjoyed today's show, please leave a 5-star review. For more information and links to all of the resources mentioned in today's episode, visit HospitalityLeadersPodcast.com #hospitality #Foodservice

Host J.D. Reager checks in with three key players in the Memphis radio community on location at Crosstown Concourse. First, Robby Grant and Jared "Jay B." Boyd discuss the second anniversary of WYXR, then John Michael gives an update on 96X. backtothelight.net wyxr.org 96xmemphis.com

We're back with a special interview of the newly elected District Attorney in Shelby County, Steve Mulroy. Steve was elected on August 4th and took office on September 1st. His first week in office was marred by some of the worst incidents of crime that Memphis has seen in a long time. We discussed that first week and what it was like for him personally. Steve and his staff of more than 200 people are responsible for prosecuting every crime in Tennessee's second largest county. We talked about the priorities Steve campaigned on and how he is going about implementing them in his first few months in office. We also discussed some of his hidden talents, things you might not know about him.Recorded live in front of an audience of Just City supporters at Crosstown Concourse on September 29th, 2022.

"The album is very much about my recovery process. I started writing the songs before, and continued writings afterwards, and I think there's ... it wasn't intentional, but do I think there's a bit of a story arch there." That's musician, record producer and Memphian J.D. Reager - and creator of the podcast and record label Back to the Light - talking about his how journey through sobriety has driven his work in the local music and podcast scenes, and how his work has grown and deepened in his recovery from traumas and alcohol. Listen in as host Mark Fleischer and J.D. discuss their own shared experiences dealing with sobriety and recovery here in Memphis, and how their journeys and discoveries have informed and inspired their work. Recorded Thursday, September 22, 2022 in the main SoundRoom of the Memphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse, Memphis, Tennessee.

Host J.D. Reager talks to two musicians - solo artist and Snowglobe member Jeff Hulett, and Ra'id of Seize and Desist (formerly Negro Terror) and Audionautz - on location at the Memphis Listening Lab/WYXR Record Swap in Crosstown Concourse. backtothelight.net

Host J.D. Reager talks to musician Christopher Rubano on location at the Memphis Listening Lab/WYXR Record Swap in Crosstown Concourse about his journey from Chicago to Memphis, getting sober, starting a rock band later in life, and recording Trash Goblin's new album Bad Vibes. J.D. also spins the album's first single, "This Is Your Life Now." backtothelight.net

Todd Richardson is the President of Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative, a co-founder of Crosstown Arts, and a former professor of Art History, Criticism, and Conservation. He shared his story from childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi, to a PhD from Leiden University in the Netherlands, to the dream of redeveloping the Crosstown Concourse in Midtown Memphis.

Todd Richardson is the President of Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative, a co-founder of Crosstown Arts, and a former professor of Art History, Criticism, and Conservation. He shared his story from childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi, to a PhD from Leiden University in the Netherlands, to the dream of redeveloping the Crosstown Concourse in Midtown Memphis.

Show notes: In this solo episode I have some MSCA member/meeting news, more updates on upcoming conventions/events such as Free Comic Book Day and the Memphis Comic Expo(DonnieCon), as well as some memories of mine and Nicki's Saturday in midtown Memphis visiting The Art Center, attending MidTown Con at Black Lodge, seeing a photo exhibit at Crosstown Arts, discovering the Memphis Listening Lab at Crosstown Concourse, and shopping at The Cellar and Comics & Collectibles. Plus I talk about Antonio Johnson's Clip Studio Paint demo at the April MSCA dinner meet-up, and me sliding by 901 Comics, Goner Records, and Burke's Bookstore in the Cooper-Young neighborhood. Also feature the Little House Art Project and their current Autism Awareness art show with the Southaven Arts Council (which runs through April at the Southaven Library), the DeSoto Camera Club's latest photo display at the Hernando Library, plus other mid-south art happenings. The back-half of the episode is about a Facebook post I shared about "high functioning anxiety". I discuss my anxiety/depression/health issues. If you want to skip that part of the show, the local art/event news is at the front ("Anxiety" section begins at 40min 50sec). If you are dealing with any mental or physical issues I hope that you listen to the whole episode and that my sharing what's going on in my head and hands these days helps you. Definitely therapeutic for me to talk out loud about it. Please don't keep whatever you're going through to yourself.- talk to someone and/or seek help(988). Stay well, stay tooned, and keep drawing funny! Theme: “Silly Bank Heist” by Steve Oxen. ©2020 Fesliyan Studios Inc.– music and sound effects used by permission. Movie quotes/add. sounds - 101soundboards.com. Run time: 1hr 44min 17sec

The Rev. Joshua Narcisse is a proud native of Queens, NY, who now calls Memphis home. He is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a co-host of “The Mystic,” a monthly discussion forum on spirituality, faith, and meaning hosted at Crosstown Concourse. He currently serves as director of spiritual care at Church Health, a faith-based healthcare organization caring for the uninsured and underserved in Memphis. There he offers pastoral and spiritual support to staff and patients and coordinates interreligious programming. He is interested in the intersection of the Black church and Mysticism traditions; he is a fan of Howard Thurman, Barbara Holmes, and Richard Rohr. Narcisse is motivated by the possibilities within life-giving and God-honoring human relationships and our broader connectedness to all creation.

Commercial real estate broker Darrell Cobbins visits Memphis Metropolis to discuss the 15-year anniversary of Universal Commercial, the firm he founded 15 years ago. Darrell has played a role in a wide range of projects in the community, from helping the Crosstown Concourse developers acquire property at the beginning of his firm's tenure to most recently assisting Junior Achievement in moving its local headquarters from downtown to Binghampton. Darrell also talks with Emily about Lakeview Gardens, one of the first subdivisions built for African American homeowners, developed by his grandfather. This wide-ranging discussion also touches on the lack of diversity in the commercial real estate industry, and how intentional hiring strategies can benefit the field and the larger community. Later in the show, regular commentator Charlie Santo stops by to talk about how the urban planning profession is also facing diversity challenges and the strategies the University of Memphis is deploying to recruit a student body that is diverse not only in race but also in terms of socioeconomic status, gender identity, and more.

Panelists Isaac Daniel (Stax Music Academy), Elizabeth Cawein (Music Export Memphis), J.D. Reager (Back to the Light) discuss the past, present, and future of the Memphis music landscape. Each panelist has championed the cause of Memphis music in different ways. Recorded live on Saturday, December 4th, 2021 at the Memphis Listening Lab inside Crosstown Concourse.

Jared Boyd is the program manager for WYXR, Memphis' newest community radio station, which grew from a germ of an idea and collaboration with others to now broadcasting diverse viewpoints and an eclectic mix of music from Crosstown Concourse in Memphis. Jared's experience as a journalist and DJ also helped him work with others to make the station what it has become in its first year.

Host Jeremy C. Park talks with Phala K. Mire, President and CEO of the Women's Business Enterprise Council South, who provides an overview of their efforts and programs as a regional partner organization of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women entrepreneurs. The mission of WBEC South is to advance and enhance business opportunities between corporations and WBEs through a reputable certification program, education and professional growth. WBEC South has more than 950 certified WBEs and 50 corporate partners in the region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle. During the interview, Phala talks about their various programs, their impact, advice for women entrepreneurs, how the community can get involved in their efforts, and more.What is the Women's Business Enterprise Council South?The Women's Business Enterprise Council South (WBEC South) is a regional partner organization of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women entrepreneurs. At a national level, we have 15,000 certified women business enterprises or WBEs and 150 corporate partners who support our organization.What is the mission of WBEC South?Our mission is to advance and enhance business opportunities between corporations and WBEs through a reputable certification program, education and professional growth.We have more than 950 certified WBEs and 50 corporate partners in our region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle.These WBEs contribute $16.5 billion to the economy and create 73,000 jobs.What programs do you have to support women business owners?We have several innovative programs for women entrepreneurs at every stage of their business including:WB Collective: We launched a new co-working space in Nashville at the INK Building downtown and also have one in New Orleans. We have private office suites, conference rooms, mailboxes, event space for women executives and CEOs to connect and thrive at com.WB Marketplace: We created the largest virtual marketplace for WBEs and corporations to connect at com.Women's Business Center South: We had a grand opening celebration in Memphis for this new center at Crosstown Concourse funded by SBA. Our team provides business and finance coaching, tools and resources for WBEs to grow their ventures at org.Enterprising Women of Color: Open to ALL women-owned companies of color, offering resources, training, coaching and events for business growth at org.How can people support WBEC South?If you're a woman-owned business, we invite you to join us for our programming to build your network. If certification is right for you, we can help you with that as well.We need corporate partners who are committed to supplier diversity to join us by sponsoring our programs and, most importantly, contracting with WBEs.Check out our website at https://www.wbecsouth.org/ to sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on ways you can be involved in WBEC South.How can people find out more about WBEC South?Visit our website to learn about certification, register for events and programs at https://www.wbecsouth.org/.Recent Media Coverage:Nashville Business Journal: Coworking space exclusively for female entrepreneurs aims to facilitate collaboration and connectionCommercial Appeal: ‘A pleasure and an honor': Women's Business Center South helping Memphis entrepreneursNOLA.com: Enterprising Women of Color Business Center names new directorLearn more:Facebook:             https://www.facebook.com/WBECSouthInstagram:             https://www.instagram.com/wbecsouthofficial/Website:                https://www.wbecsouth.org/Twitter:                  https://twitter.com/WBECSouth

Recorded live in the WYXR 91.7 FM studios at Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, TN, this episode of Faithfully Memphis features the Reverend Jonathan Chesney, associate rector of Church of the Holy Communion, in conversation with Jonathan Dummar, dancer and choreographer at Ballet Memphis. The two explore the intersection of artistic expression and Christian spirituality, and they also discuss St. Bartholomew. View "Songs of Artful Resistance" here: https://youtu.be/94ryPXsY_dM To learn more about Church of the Holy Communion: holycommunion.org To learn more about Ballet Memphis: https://balletmemphis.org/

This month, we are sitting together in Crosstown Concourse's Green Room telling stories and jokes to lighten our moods as we exit a traumatic period of time. Life is resuming, and we are meeting it with humor and reflections from our year spent in the pandemic. We hope this episode brings you a few laughs, but more importantly, hope of bright future.

Ever wondered who built Tiger Lane, I Am A Man Plaza and Crosstown Concourse? It's Michael Hooks, Jr. and his team at Allworld Project Management. He sits down with Alan to talk about coming from a famous Memphis family, being an entrepreneur and what it takes to succeed in business today. One of the best episodes so far! For video options, click the link below. https://youtu.be/_esKbo8heks For more Ask Alan! The Podcast, click right here! https://cronelawfirmplc.com/resources/ask-alan/ AllWorld Project Management: https://allworldpm.com/

We are releasing a conversation we had with turntablist and composer Maria Chavez, and singer/songwriter and musician Christina Carter on their performance at Memphis' Crosstown Concourse in May 2018. Christina Carter's call and response with Maria Chavez's shattered records had folks heading to the stairs at Crosstown Arts spiral staircase. In this episode we hear from Christina and Maria's vision for the space in their first site specific duet. www.sonospherepodcast.com

Nate Packard is one of the owners of Bad Timing, a vintage store on Cleveland, near Crosstown Concourse. He is also a seasoned photographer. In this episode we discuss thrifting, growing up in Africa, subtle racism, and much more! Enjoy.

This week on the podcast, join Tom Vander Ark, Dr. Emily Liebtag, and Nate McClennen as they discuss their newly published book, The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education! They speak about the main themes they cover, the experiences and examples they share throughout it, and the defining principles of place-based education.   As a refresher, Emily Liebtag is the recently appointed CEO of Boundless, an organization dedicated to highlighting innovations in education. And Nate McClennen is the Vice President of Education and Innovation at Teton Science Schools where he focuses his time on how to scale the impact of place-based education through technology, innovation, design learning, rural education, and school networks. (And you already know Tom Vander Ark, the CEO of Getting Smart, if you listen to this podcast!) Join today’s conversation as the three of them speak about writing, place-based education, and their new book, The Power of Place.   Key Takeaways: [:13] About today’s episode. [1:03] Tom welcomes Emily and Nate on to the podcast. [1:42] Emily shares one of her favorite place-based education moments from the last several weeks. [4:04] Nate also shares a recent favorite place-based education moment that comes to mind for him. [6:06] Tom shares his enthusiasm about Crosstown High centered in Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Texas. [7:38] When did Emily learn about Crosstown High and the benefits it brings to students. [11:06] Emily shares the origin story of The Power of Place as well as her favorite part about working on it. [12:40] Nate speaks about his career at Teton Science Schools and how he became involved in writing The Power of Place with Emily and Tom. [13:42] Tom speaks about his experience joining the Teton Science Schools’ Advisory Board. [14:18] Nate shares his definition of place-based education. [16:15] Nate speaks about the power of place. [17:25] Emily shares why place-based education is becoming increasingly important in the global conversation. [18:51] Tom speaks about how the shift to digital and the strong focus on standards have made learning more sterile. [20:58] Nate highlights how the themes of agency, equity, and community, connect The Power of Place together. [22:24] Emily continues the conversation around the themes that connect the book and how all learners experience place in a different, unique way. [23:25] Tom shares a recent experience of his at Latitude High and the different ‘place’ can make. [24:18] Nate shares a conversation between him and Tom about the importance of how connecting to place brings everyone together. [25:22] Nate explains what local-to-global means. [27:18] Tom and Nate explain what inquiry-based relates to. [29:08] Emily speaks about why design thinking is critically important when it comes to place. [31:35] What place-based education requires. [32:54] Nate highlights important aspects of place-based education and community as a classroom. [34:34] Tom speaks about Crosstown High’s 901 Project which is a great example of using community as a classroom. [35:48] Emily gives her thoughts on interdisciplinary learning. [38:42] Nate speaks about what readers will get out of their new book, The Power of Place. [39:55] Emily provides her final thoughts on [40:52] Nates gives an update on his recent project: place network. [42:06] Where to find Nate online. [42:31] Where to find Emily online. [42:46] Tom closes out the podcast and gives his thanks to Emily and Nate for joining.   Mentioned in This Episode: The Power of Place: Authentic Learning Through Place-Based Education, by Tom Vander Ark, Dr. Emily Liebtag, and Nate McClennen Emily Liebtag Boundless Nate McClennen Teton Science Schools (TetonScience.org) Crosstown Concourse Crosstown High High Tech High Latitude High School Quote by Wendall Berry: “...our sense of wholeness is not just the sense of completeness in ourselves but also is the sense of belonging to others and to our place; it is an unconscious awareness of community…” Crosstown High - Project 901 Nate McClennen on Twitter: @NMcClenn Emily Liebtag on Twitter: @EmilyLiebtag   Get Involved: Check out the blog at GettingSmart.com. Find the Getting Smart Podcast on iTunes, leave a review and subscribe.   Is There Somebody You’ve Been Wanting to Learn From or a Topic You’d Like Covered? To get in contact: Email Editor@GettingSmart.com and include ‘Podcast’ in the subject line. The Getting Smart team will be sure to add them to their list!  

Asking "Wouldn't it be cool if...?"-type questions and getting the community to dream big was the start of re-imagining Memphis' blighted Sears distribution center. Seven years later, in August of 2017, the building was relaunched as Crosstown Concourse, a vertical urban village dedicated to healthcare, education and the arts. But it took more than dreaming from Todd and others to get to opening day, and it will take even more work for the building to fully live out its "better together" mantra and create the community impact everyone wants.

“We should be in the places where people are suffering and we should be innovatively creating communities of solidarity amidst that suffering.” Michael Rhodes In a city known for segregated churches, racist politics, and intergenerational poverty, Sarah Lockridge-Steckel and Michael Rhodes are changing the conversation and creating a new Memphis. Sarah is a Harvard and Yale alum who serves as the CEO of The Collective which provides young adults in Memphis with pathways to jobs. Michael is the Director of Community Development at Union University and the co-author of the economic justice manual “Practicing the King’s Economy”.  In this episode, learn from Sarah and Michael’s expertise on: • Past and present examples of systemic racism • Surprising Old Testament models of economic justice • The roles of government, church, and business in promoting human flourishing ABOUT PRAISE HANDS PODCAST // Each week on the Praise Hands Podcast, join Robby Valderrama and learn from creative, cross-cultural solutionists who are shaping the future of church, race, music, economics, and technology. Learn more at http://praisehands.com. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS // Special thanks to this episode’s sponsor The Church Ahead: offering resources and advice for forward-thinking Christian leaders, including City Impact Coaching, Culture Coaching, and Worship Planning. Learn more at http://thechurchahead.com. RELATED // Memphis, Tennessee, Systemic Racism, Old Testament, Justice, Economic Justice, Government, Economics, Church, City Planning, Urban Development, Economic Development, Racism, Antiracist, Union University, Yale, Harvard, Crosstown Concourse, Brian Fikkert, Robby Holt, Chattanooga, Corner To Corner, Will Acuff, Unemployment, Community Solutions, Community Activism, Job Creation, Redlining, Racial Justice, Baker Books

In pursuing the XQ Superschool grant and answering its charge to "reinvent high school," Ginger Spickler and a group of volunteers developed a vision that became Crosstown High, a place-based learning high school embedded in Crosstown Concourse in Memphis.

This episode was recorded on location from Crosstown Concourse. Lead Pastor John Bryson and longtime Fellowship Memphis Katie Moore sit down with Sabine Langer - Founder & CEO of Global Café. The Global Café, is an International food hall, & hosts three immigrant/refugee food entrepreneurs cooking and selling an eclectic mix of affordably priced dishes from their home countries. They aim to be a gathering place to bring together guests from all different walks of life interested in learning more about different cultures and enjoying wonderful ethnic food. Check them out at https://www.globalcafé.com

Lately, the first place I take visiting friends and family is Crosstown Concourse. It never disappoints. The vendors, the gallery, the (slowly becoming iconic) red staircase, the building’s enormity, etc, eventually lead to them saying “Wow…but…what is this place?” Well in this episode we only get into the question of “What is Crosstown Arts” while scratching the surface of the rest. We chat with Caitlin Hassinger, Eso Tolson, Jenny Davis, and Joy Marseille for a better understanding of the initiative known as Crosstown Arts. Enjoy!

Everyday Life with Roquita and Sherica” NOW LIVE Jan. 05, 2018 from OAM Network at Crosstown Concourse. This Saturday morning we are having a candid conversation about Second Chances for women who have been incarcerated!

In this month's episode we highlight Sonosphere's Sound Observations series. Sound Observations is a quarterly performance and lecture series featuring experimental artists from around the nation. We were honored to host turntablist and DJ Maria Chavez, and vocalist and musician  Christina Carter of The Charalambides on May 11, 2018. Maria and Christina's site specific works took place in the atrium of the Crosstown Concourse building, an old Sears Roebuck building retrofitted for art galleries, residential and commercial spaces. The result is echoing vocals and scratchy, vinyl sounds that swirl up a red staircase to the entrance of the stage. Thanks for listening. www.sonospherepodcast.com @sonospod

Checking out the new additions to one of Memphis' revitalization spaces

In this episode of Memphis Type History: The Podcast, Rebecca has a conversation with Erica S. Qualy to learn all about the art of zines. What are they? What is the purpose? Can anyone make their own? We answer those questions and more for your enlightenment and for the annual Memphis Zine Fest that is open for all to attend!   If you're familiar with our book, you may recognize Erica's name from our chapter of the Lorraine Motel. She's actually the one who sparked Rebecca's interest in zines in the first place. So, what is a zine? A zine is a do-it-yourself publication produced in editions of less than 100. Usually it's just an 8.5x11 piece of paper folded up and stapled with whatever content you want to tell. At first, everything was cut and paste and hand-drawn, but now people have the ability to include photoshop elements. Erica states that she herself is a purist and sticks to the cut and paste method. She also gives insight on what her process is which you can hear on this episode. For example, Erica uses her own typewriter. Where did the zine start? That's a good question. Some people would consider tracing zines back to Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses written in 1517. But the fandom of science fiction works in the 1930s is what really set it off. Fans published and traded their own stories and those became known as "fanzines" the abbreviation of fan magazine and later shortened to just zine (zeen). Erica touches on some great material she researched but makes a point to call out that the zines we most commonly reference came from 70s because that was the start of newer technologies that allowed these to be easier to produce. In the 70s and 80s is when the punk scene entered influencing the voice and art of zines. Even into the 90s a lot of band used zines to produce their own voice, awareness, feminism, and empowerment. Most importantly, visit the Memphis Zine Fest! Thanks to Erica and Crosstown Arts, artists are able to showcase and sell their own zines each year during the Memphis Zine Fest. This year's fest will be Friday, July 20 at the theater stairs in the central atrium of Crosstown Concourse. It's free to attend and open to all ages from 4P–7P but bring some cash so you can buy some fun zines and support the arts. And if you're interested in becoming a zine maker (which you probably are now), you can apply to be a vendor at the event! Just visit crosstownarts.org.   For full show notes, visit memphistypehistory.com/zine

In this episode of Memphis Type History: The Podcast, Caitlin chats wtih Devin Greaney, Memphis’ very own ghost sign hunter. Sit back and relax because after this episode you’ll want to look up a bit more when you’re out and about! A ghost sign is a sign or ad created many years ago that no longer serves a purpose. Sometimes they peek out from renovated buildings, or can be found on the peeling paint of an exterior wall. In Memphis, we pass by many of these… and these are their stories. Devin introduces himself as a freelance writer and photographer. He likes writing about a variety of topics including old Memphis in particular. And then jumps into exactly what is a ghost sign because really.. why is it called a ghost sign? Whether a sign that was covered by a newer building or one that is faded, these ghost signs are signs or ads that were created many years ago and don’t serve a purpose other than peek the interests of a passerby. In Memphis, we pass by many of these. For Devin, he likes to dig into the history of these signs for local history and the story behind them. In particular, he recalls an old Dr. Pepper sign that was uncovered when a building was knocked down in ’86 on Evergreen and Poplar.  What would making a sign from that time look like? In the past, there weren’t as many sign ordinances as there are now so there was less restriction on size and colors. What wasn’t uncommon was finding a few trends through the decades on these signs based on the types of fonts used and colors. However, the best way to date these signs is to look into the history of the building they belonged to and the businesses it housed. Devin has researched many ghost sign such as Hotel Pontotoc, the Lamar Theater (hear a bit of a rumor on this landmark in this episode), and a sign for a beauty school downtown which also has a rumor that Devin talks about. Caitlin asks which are the favorites uncovered and Devin says one in particular is Goodman and Son Jewelers which closed in 1989. Located between BB. King and Second Street it had opened in 1862. He also talks about several others, including a Bassoon shop (how often do you come across a bassoon shop?), a Firestone smokestack which Devin compares to what FedEx is to us now. Though Elvis doesn’t make an appearance on this episode, we learn about how Memphis didn’t become the tourist destination that we know of it today until 1982 when Graceland opened for tours. Devin also gives us an insight into how the Heartbreak Hotel came to life in March of 83′ and how it was originally called the King’s Heartbreak Hotel and replaced a different old motel. The old painted, faded sign can still be found on the building. One sign that was able to surprise Devin was the Hickman building on 248 Madison, across the street from the YMCA. It closed in 1971 was almost lost in in 1993 fire, and in 2017 began remodeling. It’s fascinating to think about the chapters of a buildings life and how far they survive. Devin also points out one of the unique characteristics of Memphis is that this city still holds a lot of natives that can remember significant events that occurred throughout the city, whereas in other big cities where many occupants are transplants, people can’t relate to things that have happened in years past. If there’s anything you should gather from this episode, it’s that we shouldn’t keep things from the past just for the sake that they’re old. If they don’t serve a purpose, or are an eye sore, what is the point? Some things are better left re-purposed, like Beale Street when it revamped in 1983. People made comments about how it wasn’t the same Beale Street from the 30s but it really can’t survive to live like the 30s. At some point, we need to think practically about what parts of historic properties remain. Crosstown Concourse is a good example of this. What other types of stories does Devin have to share about the uniqueness of this city? There’s a spot on the floor that is damaged and the Broom Closet, located in South Main. Story goes, in 1918, officer, Edward Broadfoot goes in to investigate something and was shot down in the store. The blood soaked the ground and that spot remains on that floor. Devin also talks about other historical markers with stories many are unaware of. It’s a good list, so make sure you take a listen. However, there is ONE historical marker that Devin does NOT approve for a reason that you probably wouldn’t guess.

This week on We Are Crosstown we interviewed Chris Terrill, Executive Director of Crosstown High School, a new high school opening in the Crosstown Concourse building in Memphis, TN. We continued the study of the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California. Crazy Love explores how God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts — it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same. This week we discussed Chapter 3 “Crazy Love”. Next week we will discuss Chapter 4 titled “Profile of the Luke Warm”.

This week, we celebrate the opening of The  Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, TN. We discuss "Insecure," the ending of "Valerian and Laureline," and get a little political. WE welcome Congressman Steve Cohen; Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell; and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland to the show. We discuss the recent events of Charlottesville and the confederate statues that still stand. Editors note: Only live audio of the interviews was available, and are unedited in their entirety, this episode is around 3 hours long. 

On this week's show, Chris Herrington and Jennifer Biggs discuss the food options in and around Crosstown Concourse. Bob Mehr and John Beifuss join Chris to talk about the 2017 class of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, the BBC's new list of the 100 Best Movie Comedies, and what's happening in Memphis this weekend. 

On this week's show, Chris Herrington and Jennifer Biggs discuss the food options in and around Crosstown Concourse. Bob Mehr and John Beifuss join Chris to talk about the 2017 class of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, the BBC's new list of the 100 Best Movie Comedies, and what's happening in Memphis this weekend. 

Listen in as your host Bill talks again with Jake Tittle after living three months in the new Crosstown Concourse, Memphis Tennessee.

Join Your host Bill D as he talks to Jake Tittle on the occasion of his 25th birthday and the eve before moving into the new Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee.

Alexandra and Taylor talk about the the Crosstown Concourse construction, Supervalu's interest in an Uptown location, possible changes to how Shelby County spends contract dollars, federal shutdown of the Warren and Tulane apartment complexes and more.Help support the show by making any regular purchase @ theoamnetwork.com/amazon