While the Memphis, Tenn., Cook Convention Center’s $200 million modernization project aims for its September 2020 completion date and Loews works toward a 2020 groundbreaking of its proposed 500-room convention center hotel, other properties are coming online in the blues capital of the South. Among them is the Central Station Hotel, a couple of miles to the south of the convention center, which is giving new life to an historic 1914 building that is still an active trolley and Amtrak railroad station.
The 123-room boutique hotel, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, is part of a 17-acre project that includes 182 new apartments and a Malco Powerhouse Cinema Bar & Grill. For groups, it will have a 6,000-square-foot ballroom with 33-foot ceilings, natural light, and a restored arrival/departure board from the original train station. Other group spaces include a 1,200-square-foot pre-function area outside the ballroom; two boardrooms, each seating 10; and an outdoor veranda that can be used for receptions.
Guest rooms have views of the property’s historic South Main neighborhood or the Mississippi River, and the hotel will offer Southern-influenced French brasserie cuisine at the Bishop restaurant, plus lots of music at 8 & Sand, a bar and separate listening lounge with a Memphis-inspired vinyl record collection. The property expected to open in late October.
