Memphis Business Journal -

After finding success with a $4.2 million sports and education facility it built at 430 Vance Ave., Streets Ministries Inc. is hoping lightning strikes twice with a similar $3.95 million facility planned for 1302 N. Graham.

Streets Ministries is a nonprofit Christian ministry that serves children in impoverished communities. The new 34,000-square-foot center will include a gymnasium, computer lab, club room and offices.

The Vance facility, built four years ago, now attracts more than 1,000 visits a week from neighborhood youth. During the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds in 2009, the University of North Carolina Tarheels held their practices at the Vance facility.

Ken Bennett, executive director of Streets Ministries, says the organization was attracted to the new site because it literally borders three schools in the neighborhood (Kingsbury Elementary, Kingsbury Middle and Kingsbury High School). The project is being funded through a capital campaign that has already received donations from the Plough Foundation, the Assisi Foundation, the Thomas W. Briggs Foundation and Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation, along with some anonymous donors.

“We’ve never pulled out a map and said ‘here’s our next stop,’ because we don’t operate like that,” Bennett says. “When (real estate brokers) send out packets about churches for sale, we get them. I live 10 minutes from the site and thought it would be a great location.”

The four-acre site was previously the home of Graham Heights Baptist Church, which closed some time ago. After acquiring the property, a gymnasium adjacent to the church was demolished and prep work is currently under way. Streets will hold a groundbreaking later this month and construction should be finished by January 2012. Montgomery Martin Contractors LLC is the contractor for the project.

Scott Fleming, president of Fleming/Associates/Architects, designers of the Vance center and this project, says the demographics for the neighborhood break down equally between black, white and Hispanic residents. He predicts the site could attract more students than Vance because of the neighborhood population and the location.

“It was a cool mixture in the city,” Fleming says. “The schools literally let the students out onto the property every day.”

Bennett says the new center will most likely have eight full-time employees and 10 part-time employees, including some bilingual staff when it is completed. Streets currently has three people working at the site.


“We’re using the same template as Vance,” Bennett says. “The second build is always a little better because you know what you’re doing a little bit more.”
Fleming Associates Architects PC President: Scott Fleming Address: 5124 Poplar Ave. Phone: (901) 767-3924 Website: www.flemingarchitects.com