Not an Elvis fan particularly, but I recognize that he had talent, that was badly mismanaged. Generally, could care less. Recently I was in a Zoom meeting with a client - FedEx and during a very boring segment I took to Google-earthing the airport in Memphis, the FedEx HQ, and the surrounding area to the west and there is Graceland. Switch to the street view and see what a trashy area it is located in. The estate itself looks rough, but you can as the problem was that Elvis didn’t buy enough land to control the areas surrounding Graceland. On the Graceland property itself there is the house and a lot of adjoining buildings that look like corrugated metal pole barns. He may have been a lot of things, but he was no real estate developer.
One of Elvis’ granddaughters; Riley Keough, is now legally in charge of much of the remaining Elvis estate. This is how his daughter, Lisa Marie, wanted it.
If Riley is smart, she will do something similar to what you just described, buy up much of the surrounding area and rebuild it. I’ve heard many folks say they are now afraid to visit Graceland, because it looks like the Ghetto, and the people nearby don’t look trustworthy.
It was a farm. Those out buildings were used as offices, a racquetball court, a shooting room, and storage.
Most of the area got run down way after he died.
The new owners rebuilt the area across the street. It was a dump with crappy gift shops and restaurants. It’s now huge with all of his stuff on display rather than a few items.