A Shelby County chancellor has denied a request for a temporary injunction filed in an attempt to halt construction of the new Memphis Brooks Museum of Art along Front Street in Downtown Memphis.

The ruling from Chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson comes months after a group of Memphians who trace their ancestry to Memphis’ founders and Friends for Our Riverfront first filed the lawsuit to stop the Brooks from building a new museum.

The group suing the city and Brooks Museum claims 200 years of previous legal precedent has been misunderstood and the city does not have the authority to build the structure on a specific piece of land.

That piece of land is referred to as “the promenade,” and it has been historically managed by the City of Memphis through an easement. According to the descendants of Memphis founders, who are referred to as the “heirs” in legal documents, the city should not be building on the property since it belongs to the citizens. Doing so, they argued, violates residents’ property rights.

Jefferson, in an August 30, 2023 ruling, granted a temporary restraining order against the museum’s construction, halting work momentarily. That order came with a $1 million bond, which the “heirs” and Friends for Our Riverfront have not posted to date.

Business executive Carl Person, president of the Memphis Art Museum board (and founder of the Customized Solutions consulting company), said the ruling helps ensure that Memphis soon will host “one of the greatest cultural institutions in the country.”

“Today,” Person said, “we are closer than ever to making that dream a reality. This portion of our riverfront will soon be home not only to a world-class art museum, but acres of new, open, art-filled and accessible public space for everyone to enjoy.”

In September, the “heirs” and Friends for Our Riverfront requested that the restraining order be turned into a temporary injunction. Jefferson, in her written ruling Friday morning, said that due to the plaintiffs not posting the bond, “this court has no choice but to DENY petitioners’ request to convert the (temporary restraining order) into a temporary injunction.”

The “heirs” in the September hearing requested the bond be lowered. The City of Memphis and Brooks Museum had requested a bond of approximately $5 million be set, citing the damages it believed it would incur if forced to halt construction. Jefferson ultimately deemed that to be too high of a cost.

The museum was founded in 1916 in Overton Park, where it will remain until the Downtown facility opens. Current exhibitions include a show devoted to Maryland-born fashion designer Christian Siriano that includes gowns worn by such celebrities as Taylor Swift, Michelle Obama, Oprah and Zendaya.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Brooks Museum Downtown construction can continue judge rules