Memphis Airport & Graceland neighborhoods upgraded...

[franny]

I saw this on EIN...
I wonder when they will get around to making these upgrades...

franny

Memphis Airport & Graceland neighborhoods to be upgraded in the future.
Memphis business leaders including EPE are interested in improving the area near the Airport/Brooks Road corridor. Part of the reason is nearby Graceland which brings an estimated 600,000 visitors to the area every year. While the neighbourhood around Graceland is middle- to upper-middle class, the drive from the airport to Graceland -- particularly along heavily travelled routes like Brooks and Elvis Presley -- is dotted with empty, outdated and decaying buildings.When Robert F.X. Sillerman, who paid $100 million for an 85 percent stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises in late 2004, visited Memphis last year to tout his vision for an improved Graceland, he wanted assurances that the city would do its part to improve the area.
"It needs to be because we have around 600,000 people, for the most part getting off at the interstate at Brooks and Elvis Presley, making their way down to Graceland," said Jack Soden, president and CEO of EPE. "Every step of the way they have to be going, 'Surely we're lost?'
"A lot of them have this vision of Tara and they're coming down Elvis Presley Boulevard saying, 'It can't be here.' But, you know, Graceland tends to save the day."
EPE has been buying property along Elvis Presley Boulevard in anticipation of making millions of dollars worth of improvements to the area. "We've got an ownership group with very deep pockets and significant intention to invest in the future of the Elvis legacy," said Soden. "If we make Graceland as big a draw as we think it can be, we are going to suffer if we don't control the doughnut of land around us."
"We've been working and made some incremental benefits," said Dexter Muller, senior vice president for community development at the Chamber. "What we've realised is we've got to step it up a notch."

[EP75]

The neighborhood changes will take years to upgrade. But I expect the changes at Graceland to begin shortly, before the end of the year at least. I think if this was not the big 30th anniversary and a money pot to take in financially, then I would assume that they would have begun the changes already. I think they are waiting to get August out of the way then BOOM, the changes will begin to take shape. I can't see them waiting years to make them. It would be a financial loss that they cannot afford.