Downtown building restoration plan revived, first phase could be completed this fall
A plan to restore 376 S. Main, formerly the Smith Discount building, has reemerged.
Joel Lyons originally received an $80,000 Center City Development Corp. Exterior Improvement Grant in August 2020 to help fund the project, but the grant has been canceled according to the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) project database. DMC-incentivized projects have to deliver within a certain window in order to keep the incentives.
Now, the project has returned, and its first phase could be delivered this fall, according to Colby Mitchell, a senior project manager at Self + Tucker Architects, which is overseeing the project.
Memphis-based Self + Tucker was the designer of the project back in 2020 and remains involved with the project this time around.
Lyons' development team has filed for a renewal for a Certificate of Appropriateness to go forward with the project, a requirement in Memphis for buildings within historic districts. The 376 S. Main building was originally constructed in 1910.