Memphis

In December 2014, the Goldman Sachs made a $36.5 million investment to finance the reuse of Memphis’s historic Sears Roebuck & Co. distribution center, warehouse, and retail store into an integrated mixed-income, mixed-use facility. The master tenant equity investment was made as part of the federal Historic Tax Credit program.

The project will include a restoration of the property’s exterior and a thorough renovation of the interior space. Upon completion, Sears Crosstown will offer approximately one million square feet of residential, retail and commercial space—including ground-floor retail, six levels of office space, and 269 rental apartment units, 20% of which will be affordable to tenants earning 80% of area median income.

Capitalizing on three of Memphis’ strongest community assets—arts, education, and healthcare—the project will create a unique “vertical urban village,” one of the largest planned historic adaptive reuse projects in the state’s history and a national example for progressive mixed-use development. It will be anchored by a purposeful collective of tenants who will predominantly serve low to-moderate income communities and individuals. 

The renovation and restoration is expected to create nearly 1,000 construction jobs, and once it opens, the building will be home to 1,317 jobs, including 877 net new full-time-equivalent positions.

A dense and active Sears Crosstown is expected to serve as a catalyst for revitalization and economic development in the surrounding Crosstown neighborhood. In turn, a newly vibrant Crosstown neighborhood is expected to connect Memphis’s Midtown and the rest of the center city region.