COGIC-Owned Hotel Rains Concrete Down on Memphis Street

The Chisca was DONATED to COGIC and tax abatements were afforded them as I recall due to the church being such a valuable part of Memphis past and current economic life, meanwhile they pressured the city to provide complimentary convention transportation on dozens or hundreds of MATA busses, free nightly parking, a 10% booking fee for every hotel room the church handed over on lists as well as required purchase of ads by the city and hotels in their Convocation magazine, and other attempted fees and suggested donations to various leaders of the church. Some church leaders in the old days would buy up blocks of rooms in local hotels, particularly close in Downtown hotels, for delegates at a regular rate and sell them to the incoming church members at a premium, then sit back silently as the media quoted the overcharged Saints saying the Memphis folks were overcharging them for their rooms. Yearly would come the threats that if this city wouldn't do more for them they would take their convention to another city. All that is water over the dam, but today the current problem is a hulking, unimproved, dangerous eyesore of a building sitting in the center of an area which now pulls hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world yearly to see where Rock n Roll started. Unfortunately the space in which Dewey Phillips played Elvis's records over and over while Elvis watched until his fame spread all over the world, is owned and neglected by COGIC. Most of those English, Austrailian, Swedish and African visitors see the billion dollar upgraded projects and buildings around the Chisca, then wonder why Memphis lets the area of the hotel colapse and become dangerous. I'm sure they wonder what Elvis would think. I certainly think that all who talk to our visitors should explain that this is the way the Church Of God In Christ want the world to see their founder's city and that this is a section of their administrative offices. COGIC, you should be humiliated!

A lot of people in memphis started seeing cogic true face in recent history and they began to lose their welcome. Realizing this they took their big convention somewhere else. Good riddance. Now they need to keep it up and sell off any ties they have in memphis and leave completely.

If COGIC hasn't found a use for this building in all these years, then, I doubt that they ever will. It's best to bring it down before debris falls on someone's head. There is a trolley stop right there and the possibility of someone getting seriously hurt isn't worth trying to preserve history. I get a little nervous every time I have to walk around there, because of the abandoned building and fear of getting mugged. Now, I have to worry about stuff falling from the building.

I am very familiar with COGIC's continuing saga over its property along South Main. I have seen at least two different renderings of "plans" for the Chisca-to-Vance stretch of buildings that looked impressive but went nowhere. As a South Main "brat" and former tenant who worked with a property management firm gave up on COGIC as a reliable landlord, I have little confidence that the COGIC leadership has the will or expertise to develop this property without finally either selling it or turning the planning/execution over to a success oriented developer. I lost confidence in COGIC's care of the Chisca some years back after seeing ice flows coming out of the upper floor windows during an ice storm because of a failure to properly winterize the building. I was stunned! This was once one of the most elegant hotels in the Mid South that hosted celebrities, housed TV/radio stations, and put on grand events. What a pity!

They need to do something about it before someone gets hurt or personal property gets damaged. I believe the real reason they won't redevelop is because they don't want to pay an increased property bill. What a shame that a church with a cash flow like the COGIC empire won't even try to make that property into something viable and that fits into the redevelopment that has occurred all around it.