An Economic Development Update
This article appeared in The East Nashvillian magazine March/April 2013
Everywhere you turn in East Nashville there seems to be construction and new businesses popping up, to the point that it’s becoming hard to keep track.
“There are a lot of obvious, good things going on,” says commercial real estate broker Chad Grout, “but the most significant thing is not so obvious, and that is the enormous amount of office space becoming available.”
With more than 70,000 square feet of office and retail space coming online this year, it will surely impact not only our shopping opportunities but will impact the restaurants as well, as more people start working in the neighborhood.
Here’s a quick summary of the projects, rumors and recent completions:
Along Woodland
In the gigantic Bank of America building, work has begun on the Woodland side – now called 805 Woodland. Two bakeries will front the building, each with their own specialty. Yeast Nashville will specialize in kolaches, a Czech pastry, as well as breads, muffins, cookies and brownies. They will also serve Drew’s Brews coffee, and will have free Wi-Fi, indoor seating and possibly some outdoor tables. Next door, Nashville Sweets is a boutique bakery specializing in cakes, cake pops and cupcakes. Known for their beautiful birthday and wedding cakes, it will be exciting to have them in this new retail space. The Woodland side of the three-story building is the top floor and will feature 26,000 square feet of community-oriented office space. One of the first tenants to sign a lease was Sunny Becks, who will be moving her popular hulahooping business, hoopsupplies.com, into a 2,000 square foot space. East Nashville Self Storage takes up two of the floors and faces the Main Street side of the building. Developer Adam Leibowitz calls the project “five years in the making” and like the rest of us, he is “ecstatic” about the progress.
Just to the east, the former French Quarter Café is becoming The Crying Wolf, a bar/restaurant and music venue opening in the spring.
The Fluffo buildings are getting a complete overhaul – the building on Woodland will feature retail and office space and at least one restaurant in the 20,000 square foot space. Much of the action will be on the alley side, which developer Dan Heller compares to Printer’s Alley, where a courtyard will connect to the new businesses going into the Fluffo building on Main Street.
At 5 Points next to Cumberland Hardware, the Tenn Sixteen Food and Drink Company will feature Cajun- and Southern-inspired food and many beers on tap.
Lipstick Lounge is for sale. The next big venue could be yours for a mere $1.3 million.
Along Main Street
At the Fluffo building, Fat Bottom Brewing is already off to a fantastic start. Next door, the Edley’s BBQ build-out is coming along. Also in the works are Hot Yoga of East Nashville, and a growler-filling station appropriately named The Filling Station, where you will be able to get draft beers bottled to take home. Another 10,000 square feet of office and retail space will be available.
In the Hardaway Construction building at 615 Main Street, Christian Paro is creating a office suite complex, Center 615, similar to his building next door, Paro South. The refurbished 21,000 square foot building offers office suites from 115 to 1,975 square feet, with conference rooms, a roof deck lounge and fitness area. They are just starting to lease, so they currently have availability.
A new apartment complex is planned for the McFerrin and Main Street corner. No word on the timeline, but Adam Leibowitz is planning a 70-unit, four-story high-rise.
East Nashville Cooperative Ministry is going to get a new kitchen to make it easier to serve the hundreds of homeless and impoverished that they feed daily. Steve Powell from Powell Design Studio will be heading that up. No stranger to East Nashville development, Powell is also involved in Fat Bottom Brewing, The Crying Wolf, Walden and many other recent projects in the area.
A bus rapid transit system is planned along Main Street called The East- West Connector and will stretch from 5 Points to West Nashville. Take a look at www.eastwestconnector.org.
At Walden
Next to Ugly Mugs, developer March Egerton is working on phase two of Walden. It will resemble the first phase with retail below and residential above. Climb Nashville will have a two-story climbing wall at the south end. No word on other tenants as of yet, but a new restaurant is part of the plan.
At Porter East
Developer Brent Elrod has just finished phase two of the project at the corner of Portland and Eastland, which added eight more retail spaces and is anchored by Montessori East and Pomodoro East. The next stage is finishing the build-out of four office spaces inside on the first floor, which will be 2,000 square feet available to be leased.
At Riverside Village
Most of the action on McGavock and Riverside that will be occurring in the very near future is a shuffling of some of our favorite places. Mitchell Deli has bought the building to the west of Village Pub and will be renovating and then moving. Olive & Sinclair has bought the H.G. Hill building at 17th and Fatherland and will be renovating and moving. Both of these moves should happen by the fall and developer Dan Heller is confident that the spaces will fill quickly. Old Made Good has already made the move from Riverside Village to 3701B Gallatin Pike. Their former space will be the headquarters for Urban Green Lab for the foreseeable future, as they work on the site build at McGavock and Maxey.
In Other Parts of East Nashville
At Ordway and Gallatin Road in the old Mrs. Winner’s building, the rumor is a Jet’s Pizza is coming.
At Fatherland and 17th, in addition to the big move by Olive & Sinclair, there will be a new clothing boutique called People Like Art, owned by designer Shannon Lea.
At Cleveland and Lischey developer Brent Elrod is working on North Fourth, which is seven 650-700 square foot apartments with a 1,400 square foot retail space, designed for a coffee shop or restaurant.
At Shelby and 6th, the Lynn’s Drugs and big grocery store building are currently being renovated for a new Family Dollar store.
The owners of The Village Pub will be opening The Hop Stop, a place for food and beer, at 2909B Gallatin Pike in the former Red Dog Scooters building. Growler refills will be available as well. A late spring opening is planned.
Whew! Are you still with me? It’s an unbelievable amount of change coming and undoubtedly there are some things missing from this list. But change is coming and it’s pretty exciting!
