When the doors open on the new Crosstown Concourse by early 2017, Baptist will be part of a new chapter in Memphis history with the expansion of the Baptist Memorial Health Care, Church Health Center family medicine residency. Four residents began work in July, and plans are to add four new residents in 2017 and 2018. The new residency program will be housed in the Crosstown Concourse.
Billed as a vertical mixed-use urban village, the Crosstown Concourse challenges traditional mixed-use philosophies, which simply create environments for co-existence; instead, capitalizing on the arts, education and health care, the Crosstown Concourse aims to design the space completely through a health and wellness lens.
On Aug. 4, Baptist President and CEO Jason Little and Dr. Paul DePriest, executive vice president and chief operating officer, joined an organized tour hosted by Dr. Scott Morris of the Church Health Center. During the hourlong tour, guests learned about the building’s history, visited specific areas like Baptist’s future family medicine residency home, and learned about the partnerships continuing to form from the development.
Built as a Sears, Roebuck & Co distribution center, Crosstown is the size of 37 football fields. Sears built only ten of these distribution centers in the U.S. The building sits on a total of 19 acres. “The women who worked here wore high heels all day, worked without any air conditioning or modern technology. They shipped 45,000 packages a day at the height of the business,” said Morris.
Since being closed in 1993, more than 100 developers have looked at the property and walked away. In 2010, a 501c3 called the Crosstown Arts formed to drive redevelopment. After four years of planning, the construction began. At 1.5 million square feet, the building is massive. Built in 1927, the building had a new addition every 10 years. More than 3,000 new, historically correct windows have been installed during the restoration, among many other features.
A community garden will cover nearly an acre, while a 100-foot tower garden will also produce local food. From FedEx and YMCA to local artists, health care providers, retail shopping and residential living, Crosstown will be all about people. With a 400-seat auditorium, a planned high school, dental services and a focus on 
attracting young doctors as much as budding artists, the Crosstown Concourse has 265 apartments, which are referred to as “parcels,” in honor of the building’s history.
“Over half of the apartments are already leased,” said Morris.
Certain sections of the building will be ready by December 2016. The Church Health Center will move 13 different locations into one space with its move into Crosstown by February 2017.