Two Southeastern firms have teamed up to, first of all, help Memphis score big in youth sports. The $57 million Memphis Sports and Events Center (MSEC) is slated to open this fall at Liberty Park.
At 227,000 square feet, MSEC will feature 16 basketball courts that can be converted into 32 volleyball courts. It could put the city on the map in the hottest of sports sectors.
But a joint venture between Memphis-based Allworld Project Management and Florida-based Vieste LLC could make them major players competing for multimillion-dollar contracts long after the ribbon has been cut on the MSEC.
The team assembles
Allworld was established in 2010 to provide construction project management services for what is now Tiger Lane, also at Liberty Park. The firm is led by founder, owner, and CEO Michael Hooks Jr. In just over a decade, Allworld has grown to have about 60 full-time employees.
The City of Memphis selected Allworld as the project manager in 2017, right at the restart of the planning process to give new life to the old Mid-South Fairgrounds. Eventually rebranded as Liberty Park, the public-private redevelopment is overhauling the southeast quadrant of Central Avenue and East Parkway.
Mary Claire Borys, manager of strategic initiatives for the City’s Division of Housing and Community Development (HCD), said Allworld was chosen to provide leadership and team coordination from the first public meeting, in August 2017.
Vieste — founded in 2005 by chairman and CEO Michael Comparato — joined the project in April 2018, based on its experience in building youth sports complexes with various municipalities and public-private partnerships.