State of Downtown report details Memphis development in city core

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) released its annual State of Downtown report on Monday, with figures on development, jobs, office vacancies and crime.

Downtown Memphis is home to 24,000 people, including Tylor Nelson, a school teacher who moved to the 38103 ZIP code two years ago.

“It’s peaceful,” Nelson told Action News 5, “Even with the bad stigma that everybody says it has…living downtown is very nice...waking up every morning seeing the beauty, seeing the construction and even seeing the development that’s happened."

Development plans

DMC President Chandell Ryan, quoting urban planner Jane Jacobs, said, “Designing a dream city is easy. Rebuilding a living one takes imagination.”

Ryan added, “Downtown momentum is no longer automatic; it takes work.”

The $9 billion Neural Nexus mixed-use project on Union Avenue, announced by the Greater Memphis Chamber in December 2025, promised thousands of new apartments and hundreds of new hotel rooms, but it isn’t happening now.

Ryan said $6.4 billion in other developments are still planned.

Some of the biggest projects include renovating 100 N. Main, the tallest building in Memphis, and the city-owned Sheraton Hotel, now called the Memphis Riverline Hotel.

Two historic buildings downtown are slated for renovations: The Sterick Building at 8 North B.B.King and The Falls Building, at 22 North Front Street.

Jobs and office vacancies

The International Downtown Association calls downtown Memphis an “emerging district” in its 2026 Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities study.

IDA says downtown supports 68,000 jobs, or 18% of the city’s workforce, including AutoZone and First Horizon headquarters along with Memphis City and Shelby County governments.

Office vacancies downtown are still high after the pandemic. CBRE data shows the rate rose to 17.6% in Q3 of 2026. Vacant or boarded-up buildings are visible all along Main Street.

Finding tenants is a key priority for Memphis Mayor Paul Young.

“Because downtown is the living room,” he said at the DMC event, “It is the shared space. It’s the only neighborhood that’s everybody’s neighborhood.”

Crime Downtown shows decrease

The DMC also reported downtown crime has dropped 28% since last year.

For Nelson, the two years he has lived downtown have been the safest in the 12 and a half years he has lived in Memphis.

“I haven’t had to deal with as much as I dealt with when I lived in East Memphis or even in Midtown. So I could say even staying here, downtown to me, has been a lot safer area than where I was,” Nelson told Action News 5.

Affordability Improves

Affordability downtown has improved according to real estate experts at Rent.com. The site found the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Memphis is $1,150, down 9% year over year.

According to Redfin.com, the median sales price for a house downtown is $187,000, down 18.5% from the same time last year.

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