Demonbreun Lofts Roundabout (owned by Faison) | 7 floors (2 garage, 5 resdential) | PROPOSED

[smeagolsfree 9269]

Looks as if this project will start by years end. This is the 6 story project on the roundabout that Lionstone sold to Faison. I will get a little more information on this later. There has been a core drilling crew on the property for a week now. WW is saying work will start by end of year.

The name Demonbreum Lofts is on the paperwork at Metro.

[MLBrumby 5026]

Hopefully a rendering? Thanks for keeping us posted, Ron.

[smeagolsfree 9269]

This project is seven stories now. 2 level parking garage and 5 of residential. Going to be designed by Davis Architects.

[nashvillwill 1536]

I really hope the parking garage is wrapped in retail. It would be a shame to have concrete walls on Demonbreun.

[e-dub 1174]

it truly would with all the foot traffic in the area. looking forward to seeing the rendering of this one.

eric b

[barakat 184]

WW has a piece in the Post today: http://nashvillepost.com/news/2012/11/2/excavation_for_roundabout_apartment_building_set_to_start_by_years_end

Why does this not have any retail space? What a missed opportunity. And people still use the term "cyber cafe?"

[nashvillwill 1536]

^^^subscribers only

Could you maybe summarize for us?

[barakat 184]

Just create an account and you can read free for 30 days.

^^^subscribers only

Could you maybe summarize for us?

[smeagolsfree 9269]

Rendering for the project, compliments of WW.

[UTgrad09 3661]

Rendering for the project, compliments of WW.

Eh...looks pretty much like the typical development going on in the core right now. Nothing too special about it...though I do like the extended balconies on the left side.

I'll take it.

[Nashvillain 286]

Ugh. Love the huge garage door fronting the building. Does Metro require developers to provide a certain amount of parking? If so, it should stop subsidizing our destructive habits. Imagine if developers could invest the money otherwise required to build parking into the rest of the buildings. Maybe we could get better designs, better materials, cheaper rents, etc. On top of the benefits of fewer cars and space wasting auto infrastructure.

[MLBrumby 5026]

I have absolutely no problem with the concealed garage... and it may even be great business sense. Assuming there will be ground retail (and we know there is restaurant/retail across the street), it makes sense to have places for those people to park their cars. I come to N'vegas about 4-5 times a year. Where will I park when I go to McGinness? or Tin Roof? More density will bring more out-of-towners (ooooh, gross!) as we partake of the food and drink options downtown, not to mention the other retail stores.

I agree that the design is fairly basic, but something about it reminds me quite a bit of the mid-century apartment buildings you find all over San Francisco and other post-war urban boom places in the Sunbelt. I must qualify my comments as I assume the building will be built with a concrete sub-structure, as it seems to be too tall for stick-frame. My gripe: the windows look very cheap in the rendering. Overall, I can't help but like the added density (with cars, of course).

[franktown 34]

I seriously hope the "no retail" thing is a mistake because that would seem to me to be a significant mistake. Even a little on the corners for a gym or coffee shop would be better than nothing!

[MLBrumby 5026]

And why don't we hear about LEED buildings anymore? Or is it just a "given" that a building such as this will be LEED "certified"?

I seriously hope the "no retail" thing is a mistake because that would seem to me to be a significant mistake. Even a little on the corners for a gym or coffee shop would be better than nothing!

Oh, I didn't catch the "No retail" info... hmmmm, then what I said above is not as applicable. Although, the resident/tenants of this building will need to park their cars. Can't agree completely with Nashvillain's complaint... although I understand the point quite well.

[Nashvillain 286]

MLBrumby, I hope you bring a DD along!

Seriously though, in my opinion, we should stop mandating that developers provide parking. It adds huge costs to their bottom line and necessitates ugly shortcuts like this where the developer builds an ugly parking pedestal. At the least it should be up to the developer to decide if parking is an amenity it wants to provide prospective tenants or if it's up to the tenants to decide what their options are in terms of parking. Cities around the world are waking up to the fact that cars are a privlege and easy parking is not an inalienable right. Wouldn't it be cool if instead of driving up from Chattanooga and parking right outside your destination in downtown Nashville as if it were no different than some suburban strip mall (which, let's face it, this section of Demonbreun pretty much is) you made a weekend of it and booked a nearby hotel, left your car there, walked or taxid or, and this will sound crazy, took a bus to your destination. That would be so much more city and kind of fun in a way. At least to me. Anyway, I don't mean to make assumptions as to what kind of person you are, I just used your location and comment about parking to make a more general point about the way a lot of people seem to use the city which runs counter to how I think really great cities function.

[MLBrumby 5026]

That would be very nice. I do not like to drive, and would opt for (almost) anything else. Definitely a train in that case.

Your question is a good one: What parking requirements does Metro require for apartment blocks like this?

[Neigeville 67]

It's my understanding that there no parking minimums in the downtown area, but there are in the rest of metro. http://bettercities.net/article/nashville-axes-parking-minimums-17539

While I'd love to have a city where most drivers just park at the edge and use rapid transit, regular buses, free circulator buses, rented bikes, taxis and their feet to get around (and Segways!)(and maybe those electric vehicles morbidly obese people use at Kroger), we're at least 20 years from that and I think as a practical matter buildings like this need to have a certain amount of parking for residents and guests.

I do think we're headed towards that kind of city, but we'll have to build a lot more apartments before we get there. There's still only a few thousand people downtown.

It will be fantastic when you can get on a train in Memphis, Atlanta, whatever, ride to Nashville and connect at the train station to the local rapid transit system. I feel we need a few more tens of thousands of residents in the urban core before that becomes feasible. On the other hand, look how fast American cities suburbanized in the two decades after 1945, cities can evolve very fast when the right conditions are in place.

BTW, does anyone know what the DT population is estimated to be currently?

[dmillsphoto 3184]

BTW, does anyone know what the DT population is estimated to be currently?

According to UTGrad09 this afternoon, we figured about 200-250k in the Briley loop. I'd imagine close to 30k in Midtown-DT area.

[UTgrad09 3661]

According to UTGrad09 this afternoon, we figured about 200-250k in the Briley loop. I'd imagine close to 30k in Midtown-DT area.

You'd be surprised how under-populated Midtown/Downtown is.

I can do a breakdown of Census tracts in the core area...but some of the lines are a little odd, or they don't follow what you would think of as logical boundaries.

For example, the "downtown" tract includes a section of midtown...(starting at I-40 downtown, going west along State St, more or less to 21st, down to more or less Chet Atkins Pl, to Music Sq E, to Division, then tracing the south side of the downtown loop to the Cumberland River, then moving up the Cumberland and heading west again along the railroad tracks (just south of the Bicentennial Mall) to Charlotte, and following Charlotte to I-40 before connecting to where I started).

That tract covers about 1.88 square miles, but only has a population of 5,916, according to the Census (density of 3,133 ppsm).

The densest population zone is the section inside the 440 loop and I-65 to the east and I-40 to the north (excluding that small midtown zone mentioned above). Those tracts have a combined population of 36,441 in a land area of 7.15 square miles (density of 5,095).

Perhaps the easiest to calculate is what I would call the "Greater East Nashville" area....bordered by I-65 to the northwest, and the Cumberland River to the southwest, south, and east, and Briley Pkwy to the north. Of course, this area includes a lot of industrial area, park land (Shelby Park and Shelby Bottoms, as well as Cornelia Fort Airpark), and less developed land (around the Hart Ln area)...these tracts have a combined population of 59,555 in a land area of 20.741 square miles (density of 2,871 -- which is deceptively low).

With the amount of buildup we are having, I think you'll see a pretty decent increase in core population, but don't expect to see a "downtown" population of 30,000 anytime soon. We'd have to sextuple what we have (or at least max out occupancy)...and that's including what was available in The Gulch and SoBro in 2010.

I think a more realistic goal would be 20,000 by 2020. And that would be with a continuous build like we are seeing right now.

It's kind of hard to explain all the data and maps via posts. I'll see if I can create something that is a bit easier to digest for our next forum meet (and maybe put a pic online, like my last map...seen below)

[dmillsphoto 3184]

That... ^

[timmay143 743]

Yeah, no retail? I mean, I understand everything doesn't have to have retail, but it seems this would be a prime spot for some retail.

So what is the garage wrapped with??? Looks like glass?

[smeagolsfree 9269]

From what Iunderstand is there will be a cyber cafe and a gym with the project.

There was an article that is free now but the Post site is down. I will load it when I can or if someone else wants to that is fine too.

[BnaBreaker 6255]

Wow, cyber cafes are still a thing in this country?

[e-dub 1174]

was this the project that had a publix mentioned in the same breath, too?

eric b

[timmay143 743]

was this the project that had a publix mentioned in the same breath, too?

eric b

Yeah, I think it was when Bristol bought the space.

Wow, cyber cafes are still a thing in this country?

Maybe we're trying to bring in that Seattle feel?