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" Gibson officials hoped to begin construction in January 1997, with completion scheduled for the end of this year. "
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Heater Gates
Although the site for the Gibson Guitar plant lays mostly dormant almost a year after construction was originally scheduled to begin, plans for the guitar manufacturing facility keep getting bigger. Nashville-based Gibson Guitar Corp. announced in May 1996 that it would build a 75,000-square-foot plant in Memphis to build its ES series hollow body and semi-hollow body electric models. It would employ at least 200 people and cost between $8 million and $12 million to construct. Gibson officials hoped to begin construction in January 1997, with completion scheduled for the end of this year. Currently, the guitars are made at the Nashville plant, but it has become cramped; that plant will remain open, however. To anyone who drives by the Memphis site, distinctive only by metal fencing, it's quickly evident the plant won't be in operation anytime soon, however. "Gibson did not actually take title to the property until August of this year. It was a complex transaction of urban renewal land, and that contributed to the delay," said Carol Coletta, principal of Coletta & Co. and Gibson spokesperson. Two tracts on the block of the proposed Gibson site, bounded by Second and Third streets, between Lt. Lee and Linden, were owned originally by the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). Last December, the city paid COGIC $775,000 for the two tracts. The city also purchased the 12-unit Gayoso Garden Apartments, formerly at Linden and Third, and then gave the full block to Gibson at no cost. Coletta said the city already owned the north side of the block, so it was added to the tracts purchased from private owners. "Although Gibson had invested many months and tens of thousands of dollars in the project prior to obtaining title to the property, we could not move 'full-speed ahead' until we actually owned the property," Coletta said. She expects construction to begin later this fall. Work will be completed in about a year. Gibson Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz was not available for comment. According to Coletta, the finished facility will be 100,000 square feet and accommodate 500 employees. Gibson intends to train its Memphis employees at the Nashville plant prior to the Memphis plant's opening. The plant also will include a restaurant, a roof deck for concerts, a plaza, and small festival retail bays. In addition, Gibson is co-developing two additional blocks with a garage, hotel, family entertainment complex and major music-related retail outlets. The finished project will double the size of the Beale Street Entertainment District, Coletta said. Beale Street has enjoyed unprecedented growth this year with the addition of such high-profile marquees as Elvis Presley's Memphis, at Second and Beale, and the Hard Rock Cafe, which is currently under construction, at Third and Beale. Gibson - maker of the B.B. King's Lucille - shares a story similar to Beale Street's rebirth nearly a decade ago. Under the wing of Juszkiewicz, Gibson brought itself back from near extinction in the 1970s to an annual growth rate by the late 1980s of 30 percent in both revenue and profits. "The musical heritage of Memphis is real and authentic - just like Gibson's," Coletta said. "That made Memphis a logical choice for Gibson Guitar. It didn't hurt that Henry (Juszkiewicz) had been traveling to Memphis regularly as a member of the Blues Foundation board of directors, liked the people and liked the city."
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