An Old Building Gets a New Purpose
Memphis is a city that has added to its unique charm by the creative re-use of some amazing historical structures. While not as big as Crosstown Concourse or as visible as the Bass Pro Pyramid, the Tennessee Brewery for decades was a Memphis landmark that many loved, but nobody could save.
In 2015, developers proposed making the castle-like building perched on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River the centerpiece of an ambitious, $42 million mixed-use development that covers 2½ acres where the brewery complex once sprawled.
And to announce that idea, they wanted to bring the building to life for a while to help people envision what could be. Thus was born Tennessee Brewery: The Revival. The developers tapped Resource to program eight weeks of live music for one of the city’s most inventive and successful happenings. Using mostly acoustic, roots-oriented acts, Resource artists entertained the young, hip crowds each weekend in an environment that felt less like downtown Memphis than a ruin bar in Budapest.
The resulting rebirth of the building has been nothing less than transformative, and the first tenants moved in January 2018.
