(rshsdepot) Memphis' Central Station's Hudson Hall is hauling in the dough for MATA

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CENTRAL STATION - RENTAL OF HISTORIC MAIN HALL KEEPS MATA CHUGGING 

BY: Deborah M. Clubb; clubb_@_gomemphis.com 

Central Station's Hudson Hall is hauling in the dough for the Memphis Area 
Transit Authority. 

The transportation agency has pocketed about $ 46,000 since July from groups 
and individuals who rented the historic station's 10,000-square-foot main 
hall or its conference room for events. 

The current fees: $ 2,500 for Hudson Hall, which seats "350 comfortably;" $ 
250 for the smaller space, which seats up to 100 people in rows or 70 at 
tables. 

"The conference room and the hall have been rented through December 2001. 
Many weekends are already booked, and we have a lot of weekday meetings 
scheduled for the conference room. We're pleased," MATA general manager Will 
Hudson said Friday. 

Renamed in Hudson's honor by City Council resolution in 1999, the refurbished 
hall is one part of a five-year, $ 23.3 million restoration of the 1914 
station, its eight-story office tower and two related buildings, funded 
largely by taxpayer dollars. 

The project, which combined residential and commercial development with a 
multipurpose transit center for trains, buses and trolleys, won the 2001 
Outstanding Planning Award from the American Planning Association this week. 

In addition to apartment tenants, Central Station houses the Memphis Police 
Department's Central Precinct, Amtrak's ticket and freight office, two small 
media companies and a MATA customer service office. 

Agreements with federal and state authorities and The Alexander Co., MATA's 
partner in the redevelopment project, give the transit agency control of the 
main hall, its adjacent public spaces and a conference room along Bishop G. 
E. Patterson Avenue (formerly Calhoun). 

The rental fees include tables and chairs, parking, cleanup and help from 
full-time coordinator Phyllis Dodson. 

Hudson said the rental fee, which began around $ 1,000 in January 2000 and 
grew to $ 1,500 and now to $ 2,500, is based on "the expense of the 
operation. " 

Dodson, who noted that the majority of rentals are for wedding receptions, 
said nonprofit organizations can qualify for a 25 percent discount for 
charity events. 

Hudson said Central Station rentals are a break-even proposition for MATA 
because of maintenance and cleanup costs. MATA continues to invest in 
improvements to the building - restrooms, a neon-lit clock above the towering 
schedule board, signs to hang on exterior walls by early April to help 
pedestrians find their way around. 

Hudson remains optimistic that a restaurant operator will be attracted to the 
station's prime corner at Main and Patterson, but that area and several other 
streetside spaces designated for commercial use remain vacant. 

Although MATA officials initially planned to restore and reinstall enormous 
wood waiting-room benches inside the hall's 40-foot-high walls, the space 
instead is typically filled with plastic tables and chairs awaiting the next 
rental event. 

Many historic features, including light fixtures, clocks and other 
furnishings, were lost or stolen over the decades that rail travel, and the 
station, declined until only a dingy ticket counter remained in the vast 
facility. 

Four restored benches were placed in the Amtrak ticket office in the 
station's southwest corner. Four more are being repaired in MATA's shop and 
will be placed around the station, Hudson said. 

MATA also plans to open a gift shop by the end of May. 

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