Davidson West: Bellevue, Bordeaux, Green Hills, MetroCenter, Nations, N Nashville

[RonCamp]

Mayor Dean proposes a $1 million greenway along I-40/I-440 connecting Charlotte Avenue area to West End Avenue area:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/davidson/2015/06/01/dean-budget-allocates-greenway-near/28315573/

 

I assume this would run along the western border of I-440 between the two?  Seems like a no-brainer.

[Nathan_in_DC]

Former site of the "new" mid-1960s Howard Johnson Motor Inn (with its signature HoJo orange A-frame roof), which sprouted on that promontory on the then-new I-40, which at that time dead ended from the west at 40th Ave, between Delaware and Alabama Avenues. (as late as 1969).

 

That's some really needed progress at that site, still basically a rural pocket a half century ago.

 

 

--High on a hill--

--a temple of hospitality--

--the A-frame Gate Lodge its iconic shrine--

 

HoJo of West Nashville - circa 1968-1970

-==-

 

Aww, I remember seeing that big orange roof driving in to Nashville all the time when I was a kid. It was kind of a beacon of "We're almost in the city!" which always got me excited. If I recall correctly, my family had a few late night meals there after Christmas shopping or the like, too.

 

Looking at the Google Maps satellite view shows that it's been long shuttered, though. I'd love to do a little urban exploration and check out the interior to see if any of the funky 60s fixtures are still there.

[fieldmarshaldj]

^No more fried clams anymore.    

[MLBrumby]

Looks like this area is getting hotter and hotter.  Being wedged in between G'town and Midtown, it seems to be inevitable to me... http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2015/06/buyers-pounce-as-available-land-dwindles-on.html#i1

[Bezoar]

Fat Bottom to move to The Nations:  http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/06/09/growing-fat-bottom-brewery-plans-move-nations/28757569/

[smeagolsfree]

I waswondering when they would make it official.

[TMcKay9]

Fat Bottom to move to The Nations:  http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/06/09/growing-fat-bottom-brewery-plans-move-nations/28757569/

 

Super excited about this!  Not only because I have a couple of building lots one block over but it will be great for the neighbors in that area to have such a place just a short walk away.  I drank a Ruby or 6 today in celebration.

[rookzie]

Fat Bottom to move to The Nations:  http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/06/09/growing-fat-bottom-brewery-plans-move-nations/28757569/

 

Super excited about this!  Not only because I have a couple of building lots one block over but it will be great for the neighbors in that area to have such a place just a short walk away.  I drank a Ruby or 6 today in celebration.

 

Just now realized that Fat Bottom's moving to only about 2 blocks from where I had done a lot of business at 44th and Michigan ─ "Contractors Marble and Tile", both right near the train track (Cockrill Bend Industrial cut-off from the CSX Bruceton line).  I realize that a number of long-previously existing industrial-commercial structures along that line have become somewhat fallen flags over time (e.g. Bruce Hardwood Floors, just over a mile NW of there), and what remains of these fortunately can be made available for such novel reuse.

 

I also see that Michigan Ave has undergone a revival of new development between 45th and 46th ─ definitely a transformation and shot-in-the-arm move, IMO.

-==-

[Nashville Cliff]

I'll miss Fat Bottom's pork belly tacos and their mac n' cheese.  I'm eager to hear what replaces them in their current space.

[markhollin]

The Biltmore Ridges development (I-40 and McCrory Lane) may not be dead in the water after all...

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/06/11/bellevue-biltmore-ridges-developer-sells-adjacent-land/71103884/

[MLBrumby]

H.G. Hill will delay their start on their apartment at Hillsboro Circle and Bandywood (Hill Center) because they need to accommodate parking for a new Pottery Barn. Construction starts in early '17 now.  From WW at NP...  https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/postbusiness/2015/6/16/start_date_pushed_back_for_green_hills_apartment_project

Edited June 16, 2015 by MLBrumby

[BnaBreaker]

A two year delay for a few more parking spaces?!  Wow!

[Vrtigo]

A two year delay for a few more parking spaces?!  Wow!

 

And a roaring cheer was heard from the GH NIMBYs one street over.

[samsonh]

A two year delay for a few more parking spaces?!  Wow!

 

Eh this seems smart to me. Lots of apartments coming online in the next 1.5 years, and gives the employees of Hill Center a place to park while Pottery Barn is completed. HG Hill has seemed to make a lot of smart moves lately and this seems in line with that.

[BnaBreaker]

Eh this seems smart to me. Lots of apartments coming online in the next 1.5 years, and gives the employees of Hill Center a place to park while Pottery Barn is completed. HG Hill has seemed to make a lot of smart moves lately and this seems in line with that.

 

You're right.  I had forgotten where this was located and had a different spot in my head entirely.  It makes more sense now.

[rookzie]

And a roaring cheer was heard from the GH NIMBYs one street over.

 

Finally that li'l 'ol lot where I used to buy antiques some 40 years ago, finally will be put to some good use, IMO, after Pottery Barn can move out of the mall and into its new home eventually.  A blog from the Post last year:

 

"...Those in Metro allowing for this kind of density expansion have no clue as to the negative impact it will have on those who live in Green Hills and to those who pass through. If only we were our own city like Belle Meade and Forest Hills!"

"...Don't you think that ship has sailed? Green Hills was nothing before 1963 when Metro came into existence. The shopping center was a tiny forebear of the mega mall it became. How about you? Did you move to Green Hills before or after the enclosure of the center in 1978? Back then GH was just a bedroom community for people who weren't rich enough for Belle Meade... Forest Hills... Oak Hill, and then Brentwood. Even by 1978, it was more commercial than residential. Heck, I remember living in Nashville in 1992, and frankly Green Hills was a dumpy strip of disjointed shops and a tacky looking mall that was (undoubtedly) a mishmash of architectural styles. Fortunately for GH, it is far more attractive now than then... and yes, more crowded. That all took place over the past 50 years, and even I knew it was inevitable. So either move out of GH... or kick back (put up with more cars) and enjoy your property values rising: Commercial is always worth more than residential.

 

I actually concur with the response about NIMBY's in G-H.  I recall it in the '50s as an unincorporated suburb, with a bunch of post-war small bungalows lining Bandywood and Hillsboro Circle (a few of those structures of which remain as repurposed).  I used to somewhat be resistant, and I still believe only in sensible development, against "shadow houses" (one behind the other) on rezoned narrow, deep lots.  But if Green-Hills is ever to get some kind of true long-term transit actually planned and implemented, then the mindset will have to change for allowing continued and greater mixed use for the G-H "CBD".  No one needs to be reminded of the traffic in G-H, day or night, often crowded inbound on Hillsboro Rd. in the early night!  Just bring on the construction, and finish the imminent clogging.  We need this sustained "pressure-cooker" state of agony in the future, for any inevitable change to the better.  I can say this because I'm one of 'em, and I might be gone by then.

-==-

[MidTenn1]

From the Tennessean;  

Metro plan would improve Green Hills traffic

 

 

If Metro is successful in buying the CVS property, that would allow for elimination of the offset intersection so commuters heading west on Glen Echo could continue to Crestmoor without turning onto Hillsboro Pike. On the north-south route, that would allow for one less set of traffic signals on Hillsboro Pike, which would improve traffic flow by minimizing the number of stops on that street.

 

CVS would relocate to the north side of the new intersection where the Krystal is located. A finalized plan would be subject to agreements involving all of the affected parties.

 

My rendering based on what the article seems to indicate. It would improve traffic flow along Hillsboro Road somewhat. But don't expect any miracles.

 

And I don't think condemnation laws could be applied to the Krystal property as it is being acquired for private usage, and not as public right-of-way. The City is going to have to make a good offer to Krystal and it's a sellers market in this case.

 

 

PS; the City ought to build multistory parking on that lot or offer it to the Mall (for a small fee).

[rookzie]

PhofKS, pls do Richchard-Jones and Abbott-Martin as well, whenever you can sniff out something on that one.  About all this, in general, its about phreakin' time. (you think?).

 

I think the phrase "a good start" can be far more appropriately applied to this, than it could to the EW Connector, in it's last incarnation.

-==-

Edited June 25, 2015 by rookzie

[GreenHillsBoy]

From the Tennessean;  

Metro plan would improve Green Hills traffic

 

 

My rendering based on what the article seems to indicate. It would improve traffic flow along Hillsboro Road somewhat. But don't expect any miracles.

 

And I don't think condemnation laws could be applied to the Krystal property as it is being acquired for private usage, and not as public right-of-way. The City is going to have to make a good offer to Krystal and it's a sellers market in this case.

 

 

PS; the City ought to build multistory parking on that lot or offer it to the Mall (for a small fee).

This needs to happen as well as taking Abbott Martin to Richard Jones and especially take out the ugly MensWearhouse. 

[AUNash]

It would be great if they could eliminate the current entrance into the mall off Hillsboro by also tying a new main entrance into their property off of this newly configured intersection. Then maybe the mall could build a new out parcel that lines Hillsboro along their property to create more of a street wall along that stretch. Something like how the Hill Center in Belle Meade did.

If they could do this AND connect Abbott Martin to Richard Jones you would drop from 5 lights along that stretch to 2.

Edited June 26, 2015 by AUNash

[rookzie]

This needs to happen as well as taking Abbott Martin to Richard Jones and especially take out the ugly MensWearhouse. 

 

Back when the Western Auto (got) burned down in the '90s, the city should have planned to acquire that corner that southern-most plaza area got built (Elan, Relax the Back,...), on that NE corner, and during that same period, before the SuperX pharmacy, SW corner of Hillsboro and Crestmoor, became CVS.  Also when MobilGas "married" Exxon and sold out to NTW (now NTB auto service center), that property on the SE corner of Hillsboro and Glen Echo, at least a portion of that property could have been improved to ease that obsolete concrete barrier (disguised as a useless segment), but otherwise the business could remain intact (although not exactly pretty).

 

Accordingly, along the same reasoning, the city should have considered a plan at Abbott-Martin and Richard Jones, before the old Shell Oil station got leveled for that Mens' Wahrehouse, (NE corner, RJ Rd) and before the Long John Silver's (SW corner, A-B Rd) got replaced with the current Walgreen's (which moved from the old strip mall area now a Carrabba's).  I had envisioned that way back then, along with probably a lot of other conscientious onlookers.

 

At any rate, now we pay all but the "ultimate" price for making up time.  Of all the mayors of the 4 decades recent, only Karl Dean had enough sense to push for re-dimensioning the existing through lanes and creating a center-turn lane between Crestmoor and Sharondale-Lombardy (I-440).  [sure wish they'd do the same on Lebanon Rd. between Spence and Cottage Ln in Donelson]

-==-

[smeagolsfree]

Large parcel in Nations sells.

https://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2015/6/30/nation_sites_sells_for_6m

[markhollin]

Another redevelopment project announced along Centennial Blvd. just a few blocks down from throne mentioned above in The Nations:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/07/09/multi-use-project-eyed-nations/29933379/

[dmillsphoto]

Meet Bellevue Mall re-imagined... as Sam Ridley Parkway in Smryna.... 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2015/07/new-look-200m-overhaul-aims-to-revive-bellevue.html?ana=twt

 

[PruneTracy]

Meet Bellevue Mall re-imagined... as Sam Ridley Parkway in Smryna.... 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2015/07/new-look-200m-overhaul-aims-to-revive-bellevue.html?ana=twt

 

I like the increase in office space and addition of a hotel. Both are sorely needed in Bellevue. Still not wild about the sprawltastic design, though.