L. KOLEAS Building 508-510 S Main St 1,250 - 5,750 SF of Office/Retail Space Available in Memphis, TN 38103

RETAIL/OFFICE Nicholas L. Koleas was the "mayor of South Main Street." He was born in the area, played among the crowds of people who packed Central Station and was a business owner on the street. "The heart of the city was right here," Mr. Koleas said in a 1988 interview with The Commercial Appeal from what used to be his business at 416 S. Main. "We didn't live as well as we live now but it was a more interesting life." Mr. Koleas was born on Pontotoc Street, in the South Main area. His father, Lewis Koleas, a Greek immigrant, owned a restaurant and hotel at 508 S. Main Street. Other relatives were also business owners in the area. The district was dotted with hotels and other businesses that catered to the train passengers and crews that came to both Central Station and Union Station. Decades later, Koleas remembered women with buckets of fried chicken they took onto waiting trains to sell to passengers. He also remembered restaurants that sold bootleg whiskey during Prohibition and "ladies of ill repute" who beckoned from upstairs windows on Mulberry Street. After serving in the military during World War II and trying his hand at businesses in other parts of town, Mr. Koleas returned to South Main in 1958. He found success in 1970 with Nick's China, which supplied china to area restaurants until Mr. Koleas retired in 1988. The building at 416 S. Main was the Memphis Center for Contemporary Art for several years and Mr. Koleas was a volunteer at the center. He was also an avid booster of the struggle to bring new life to South Main. "It's not going to come back. It is back," he said in 1988. "It's just not as big as it will be."