The company redeveloping the former Racquet Club site in East Memphis is seeking to expand the amount of land being used but downsize the scope of the project.

The development group, headed by Carlisle Development Corp., submitted two filings to the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development to add four parcels while updating the size of the project. 

Known as Mid-City Memphis, the project is expected to cost from $500 million to $700 million. 

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“The expansion makes for a nicer campus,” Carlisle Development CEO Chance Carlisle said. “By acquiring additional land, we’re able to keep the same amount of programming, but we’re able to de-densify the actual mid-city core block and provide a lot better retail experience, more landscaping and natural green amenities.” 

The site, between Sanderlin Avenue and Wheelis Drive, was bought for $7.7 million by RCM Devco LLC in January 2021 after the Racquet Club closed in early 2019 and was later demolished. 

The original project was 12.5 acres, with two high-rise buildings, five mid-rises, 16 townhouses, two 250,000-square-foot hotels, 50,000 square feet of retail, 175,000 square feet of office space, surface parking and a parking garage. The residential sector was planned to be 320,000 square feet. 

Now, the development team has added four areas of development, moved one of the two hotels to one of the new areas and removed one high-rise building and the 16 townhomes. 

Carlisle said they removed the 16 townhomes and one high-rise building because they needed more parking for the retail components and relieve some of the building density. 

The new plans filed separate the now 15.5-acre development into six areas: 

• Area A: one high-rise building for an age-restricted apartment building, five mid-rises, with each building having a parking component, three retail spaces, an event lawn, two restaurants split by a pedestrian alley, one hotel and a pedestrian promenade (9.8 acres);
• Area B: surface parking and an amenity area (2.7 acres);
• Area C: office space (0.5 acres);
• Area D: parking (0.8 acres);
• Area E: one hotel that will replace the former White Station Baptist Church (1.4 acres);
• Area F: parking, retail space and a connection point to Brookhaven Circle (0.5 acres).

Areas C through F are the new additions. 

“We believe the addition of these properties will ensure that the Mid-City Memphis is a successful development by providing it access to the Brookhaven Circle entertainment district,” the letter of intent stated. 

The Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development labels the site as an Urban Center anchor, a “medium to large-sized center extending through a district where a vertical mix of uses and activities is present or appropriate as a higher-intensity anchor for a surrounding urban neighborhood.” 

Carlisle said he thinks the project’s expansion will help achieve the goal of Urban Center anchors: to draw investment toward areas that support the Memphis 3.0 General Plan. 

Inked: Updates on Racquet Club development; repurposing parts of Hickory Ridge Mall

The developer must get approval from the Land Use Control Board and, possibly, the Memphis City Council if there’s any objection at the LUCB before moving forward with the updated plans. 

Carlisle said they will break ground within the next 12 to 14 months of the plans being approved.