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Ovation Cool Springs

NashRugger

By NashRugger
in Nashville

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NashRugger Burg

NashRugger

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$700mil development in Cool Springs announced today called Ovation Cool Springs. This development could seriously up the ante for companies scouting the marketplace in the metro. I wonder what kind of retailers and such would locate here because in a way it is sort of random but seems like a well-planned development.

 

Some specs:

350k sq ft of retail.restaurant space

300-bed hotel

57 acres of green space

Luxury apartments and condominium units

1.4mil sq ft of Class A office space

 

Development webpage:

http://www.ovationcoolsprings.com

 

WTVF NewsChannel 5 spot story:

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/23199660/plans-for-700-million-mixed-use-cool-springs-development

 

NBJ:

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2013/08/cool-springs-700m-project-to-include.html

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BnaBreaker City

BnaBreaker

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Aww, how cute. They even have a pretend trolley to complete the illusion.

Eh, you know what, obviously I wish a more urban version of this was being built in the city, but if there is going to be development in the burbs, then I'm glad it looks like this.

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UTgrad09 Town

UTgrad09

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I have mixed feelings.

 

positives:

-Superior urban design and land use compared to what most Nashville burbs are doing.

-'Suburban infill' rather than expansion -- more or less this is being built in an already built up area within the city limits and near existing infrastructure rather than on the fringes.

-Good access. Nothing really needs to be built up (i.e. road widenings/interchanges)

 

negatives:

-Still a sea of surface parking. So, in essence, it's still an office park. Not that I would really expect all structured parking anyways.

-1.4 million sq ft of Class A is a huge amount of space. That's a couple of skyscrapers that we could have downtown.

-Along with that, it shows that developers/businesses are STILL working the suburban office model -- over the years, watching Cool Springs grow. I've seen the traffic get progressively worse. Franklin has done a decent job of planning for future growth, but by the time Cool Springs fully builds out, I'm afraid it's going to be a nightmare.

 

 

I'm not the biggest fan of Cool Springs, but I will say that I think Franklin is a lot more forward thinking about their growth than their peers. And BNA, that's probably not a pretend trolley. Franklin already has their own trolley lines that run around town. It's not much right now, but I'm sure if this development comes to fruition that the trolleys will be stopping there. Developments like this are actually what will make public transit more viable in Franklin.

 

In the end, it is inevitable that a city as attractive as Franklin (as far as it being safe, having good schools, lots of restaurant/retail choices) will continue to grow rapidly. I'm much more accepting of this particular development than, say, Berry Farms to the south, which will just add more traffic/prompt sprawl between Franklin and Spring Hill. 

 

 

 

On another note, I'm happy that Franklin seems much more accepting of this type of development than their neighbor Brentwood. It's pretty ironic that Brentwood bands together to form a "Preserve Brentwood" group to stop development that would 'ruin' the city when Franklin is a city that actually has something worth preserving.

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TheRaglander Hamlet

TheRaglander

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Speaking of 1.4 million sq ft of class A office space, what kind of impact does that have towards future office development's downtown like 505CST, Eakin, etc?

Downtown Nashville has it's work cut out for them.  With 1.4 million sq ft in this development, another 1 million in Franklin Park and however many millions of sq ft Berry Farm will throw on the market in a few years... plus it looks like developers can move forward with these developments in Williamson County without lead commercial tenants while the developers are waiting around in Nashville like a boy in a high school dance hoping a girl asks him to dance.  It sucks having to wait for a lead anchor tenant before one can build a tower.

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Leif Whistle-Stop

Leif

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Speaking of 1.4 million sq ft of class A office space, what kind of impact does that have towards future office development's downtown like 505CST, Eakin, etc?

I'd think probably not a lot as the decision on where to lease space is probably more a company culture thing. However as a current Gulch resident and former Murfreesboro resident it annoys me that neither Davidson nor Rutherford seems to put up much of a fight against Williamson on the white collar jobs front.

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mirydi Hamlet

mirydi

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Downtown Nashville has it's work cut out for them.  With 1.4 million sq ft in this development, another 1 million in Franklin Park and however many millions of sq ft Berry Farm will throw on the market in a few years... plus it looks like developers can move forward with these developments in Williamson County without lead commercial tenants while the developers are waiting around in Nashville like a boy in a high school dance hoping a girl asks him to dance.  It sucks having to wait for a lead anchor tenant before one can build a tower.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much my thought's as well. One would have to think as more of these huge development's keep popping up, (with vast quantities of office space) that it would be increasingly difficult for people like Tony to get project's like 505CST going as he has to compete with this kind of stuff. Surely companies wanting to relocate here would take a look at project's like this as an alternative. It would be tough to swallow knowing that a major corporation relocated here and chose to set up shope at a place like Ovation, when that same corporation could have potentially been the one to kick off 505CST or something else downtown.

 

 

I'd think probably not a lot as the decision on where to lease space is probably more a company culture thing.

I hope your right.

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TMcKay9 Whistle-Stop

TMcKay9

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A friend of mine is one of the lead developers on this project.  Trying to build an urban project in a very suburban area can be a real challenge.  Sometimes the developer is pulled one way or the other by the financier of the project because they don't believe something like structured parking is necessary in a 147 acre development in the suburbs.  Financiers know that most suburbanites could care less and would actually prefer to park in front of the business they are patronizing.  The final project is usually somewhere in the middle of the developer's vision for the project and what the bank thinks is necessary to minimize risk.

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TheRaglander Hamlet

TheRaglander

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I will also mention that this land has a lot of various elevations.  It's hard to know where the larger hills sit on the development map... but I fear that they will have to cut out a lot of rock to make this thing as flat as it looks in the digital flyover video.  (Specifically the Southern portions)

 

Most of the NIMBYs in Franklin reside downtown and west.  I think of the Cool Springs crowd as people that's used to and accepting to the notion that development is inevitable.  Living in McKay's Mill, a massive home development in walking range, I don't think many will really care of the impact since most of them/us use CSB to get to things.  

 

Someone also mentioned how Franklin is usually pretty good about planning and infrastructure... well that's one thing all Franklin-ites would disagree on.  Road infrastructure planning is terrible here.  The motto is "Build the subdivisions and worry about the roads/schools later".  Look at Westhaven.  It had a cap of homes until the Mack Hatcher loop was finished.  They are well beyond that cap and now they are talking about a large senior living center across the street on Del Rio!  Hillsboro is a mess, McEwen is a mess...  The county built a new elementary school in an area where the roads were insufficient. The school is two years old and already needs trailers for extra class rooms.  Sometimes I wonder if the city planning commission and the county schools ever talk to each other.

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UTgrad09 Town

UTgrad09

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It's all relative. I guess I should have qualified that with "better planning than other cities in Middle Tennessee"...heck, if you think Franklin is poorly planned, check out Southeast Davidson. Or Spring Hill. Planning is a foreign word to Spring Hill.

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nashvillwill Burg

nashvillwill

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To be fair, I think Davidson Co. is trying to find a way to compete, but keeps hitting road blocks. May Town, Fairgrounds. Both of these were intended to be the "corporate campus" style development that could compete with what Cool Springs has to offer. Unfortunately, nothing has panned out yet. Not every company wants to be in a downtown high rise, and that's just business. It's much harder for a city to change that mindset, than to provide a facility which will meet that expectation. Davidson Co has simply failed at providing such a development.

Edit; Also, I think Rutherford Co had the potential to do something with the newer retail center near 24 (the name slips my mind), but fell short by only building retail and no office.

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Leif Whistle-Stop

Leif

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To be fair, I think Davidson Co. is trying to find a way to compete, but keeps hitting road blocks. May Town, Fairgrounds. Both of these were intended to be the "corporate campus" style development that could compete with what Cool Springs has to offer. Unfortunately, nothing has panned out yet. Not every company wants to be in a downtown high rise, and that's just business. It's much harder for a city to change that mindset, than to provide a facility which will meet that expectation. Davidson Co has simply failed at providing such a development.

Edit; Also, I think Rutherford Co had the potential to do something with the newer retail center near 24 (the name slips my mind), but fell short by only building retail and no office.

To some degree the economy probably hindered the Gateway project in Murfreesboro. The Avenue was probably the coup de gras for Hickory Hollow at the time though. Still things are revving up again and Murfreesboro has lured Amazon and their bag of crap jobs while having one of the largest four year schools in the state right there.

Davidson, to my mind, is too spendy on things of dubious value; 600 million on a catalyst project that even if successful is just going to create service jobs.

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Justiceham Hamlet

Justiceham

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To be fair, I think Davidson Co. is trying to find a way to compete, but keeps hitting road blocks. May Town, Fairgrounds. Both of these were intended to be the "corporate campus" style development that could compete with what Cool Springs has to offer. Unfortunately, nothing has panned out yet. Not every company wants to be in a downtown high rise, and that's just business. It's much harder for a city to change that mindset, than to provide a facility which will meet that expectation. Davidson Co has simply failed at providing such a development.

Edit; Also, I think Rutherford Co had the potential to do something with the newer retail center near 24 (the name slips my mind), but fell short by only building retail and no office.

You're thinking of the Avenues. Murfreesboro's Gateway district has been hindered by inappropriate zoning. Current zoning separates office, retail, and commercial businesses into different areas along Medical Center Parkway. By not allowing mixed uses, as well as not increasing the height restriction, many companies have turned a blind eye to the area. Some of the requirements are even more restrictive than Franklin or Brentwood. While there is a large development underway with apartments and townhomes across from the Avenues, its was an exception. The Avenues could have been so much more had planners been receptive to mixed use zoning. A meeting this week addressed those concerns from developers and residents by providing insight on the new proposed mixed use zoning allowed in the Gateway district. The new zoning would allow developments built closer to the street, parking garages, restaurant, retail, etc. that is currently only seen in the Gateway Villages mixed use development along Thompson lane (the castle looking buildings next to the St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital). Here is a link to the city's video explaining the changes.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y7h_FrJSXc&feature=youtu.be

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volsfanwill Burg

volsfanwill

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Someone also mentioned how Franklin is usually pretty good about planning and infrastructure... well that's one thing all Franklin-ites would disagree on.  Road infrastructure planning is terrible here.  The motto is "Build the subdivisions and worry about the roads/schools later".  Look at Westhaven.  It had a cap of homes until the Mack Hatcher loop was finished.  They are well beyond that cap and now they are talking about a large senior living center across the street on Del Rio!  Hillsboro is a mess, McEwen is a mess...  The county built a new elementary school in an area where the roads were insufficient. The school is two years old and already needs trailers for extra class rooms.  Sometimes I wonder if the city planning commission and the county schools ever talk to each other.

I will partially disagree. I lived in cool springs from 92-96, and then off of 96 from 96-2001. 5th grade through 1 year of college. 

I remember when Cool Springs was basically a mall surrounded by 4 lane roads through empty fields. yes they have had to add more roads, yes Caruthers was 2 disconnected roads for ever, but mcewen didnt really exist, and Mallory was even disconnected. so I have always thought that area was thoroughly planned out in advance.

the rest of Franklin though I see your point.  I actually thought building McKay's Mill was a horrible idea since at the time it only connected to Clovercroft. so I definitely see your point where new subdivisions were built without improving infrastructure.  

They have been talking about finishing Mack Hatcher since I was in high school and where I thought they were going to put it there is now a target.  

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