Surrounding Counties - Cheatham, Dickson, Montgomery, Rutherford, Sumner, Wilson, Williamson, Maury, etc.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Well, look on the bright side. At least it won't have an above-ground 5-story garage "planter" underneath the main building.

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

Phoenix-based Suncrest Real Estate and Land has entered the greater Nashville market and will break ground in September in Smyrna on residential project Cedar Hills.

In July 2017 Suncrest, in partnership with an unidentified real estate fund based in Vancouver, acquired the roughly 100 acres of land in Smyrna on Morton Lane to develop the 230 single-family homes, according to a release. Suncrest paid about $1.5 million for the property.

The project will include a community amenity center, neighborhood pocket parks and more than 45 acres of open green space.

Ryan Homes, the home-building division of NVR, will handle construction of the residences.

Mike Koch, Suncrest managing partner, said the company is now eyeing Goodlettsville and Lebanon for projects. The company has under contract land for both projects, he added.

“As a residential master developer, we feel there is great opportunity in Nashville due to favorable economics, consistent job growth, a low unemployment rate, strong in-migration, a relatively affordable cost of living and above average wage growth,” Koch said. “The region is currently experiencing a tremendous shortage of quality housing options and the demand for new homes in well-appointed, amenity-based communities is intense.

[NashRugger]

Right now, nothing really major is going on in Murfreesboro. You have a lot of new restaurants and retail near The Avenue and downtown is evolving with new types of eateries and potential retail coming in, and of course the new county courthouse.

I'll try to compile a list eventually.

[markhollin]

One of the nation’s largest third party logistics providers has leased a 622,830-square-foot distribution center building at the new Airport Business Park in Smyrna.

Cherry Hill, N.J.-based NFI is expected to start operations at 951 Aviation Parkway by year’s end, handling work for Lowe’s Home Improvement.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2017/08/23/logistics-firm-nfi-leases-600-000-square-foot-smyrna-warehouse-perot-company/594175001/

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

The building to eventually house the 244-room, eight-story Hilton Franklin/Cool Springs Hotel has been topped.

Developer Chartwell Hospitality has slated a ceremony to recognize the milestone for Tuesday, Aug. 29, according to a release.

Once completed in summer 2018, the $37-million project will include a two-story parking garage, 5,000 square feet of meeting space, an upscale restaurant and bar, a pool and a 1,300-square-foot club lounge open to an outside seating area.

Nashville-based Crain Construction is the general contractor.

The hotel will have an address of 601 Corporate Centre Drive.

[NashvilleObserver]

On 8/25/2017 at 3:32 PM, markhollin said:

From today's Nashville Post:

The building to eventually house the 244-room, eight-story Hilton Franklin/Cool Springs Hotel has been topped.

Developer Chartwell Hospitality has slated a ceremony to recognize the milestone for Tuesday, Aug. 29, according to a release.

Once completed in summer 2018, the $37-million project will include a two-story parking garage, 5,000 square feet of meeting space, an upscale restaurant and bar, a pool and a 1,300-square-foot club lounge open to an outside seating area.

Nashville-based Crain Construction is the general contractor.

The hotel will have an address of 601 Corporate Centre Drive.

 

The parking garage was completed early this year and is already in use by employees in nearby office buildings. 

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

Williamson County visitor spends tops $427M

A record 1.43 million people visited Williamson County in 2016, a 9.4 percent increase compared to the 1.31 visitors in 2015.

The economic impact of traveler spending grew by $17 million, (4.0 percent) over 2015 to a new all-time high of $427.25 million, which retains Williamson County’s rank of sixth among Tennessee’s 95 counties, according to a release.

In the 10 years since the Williamson County Convention and Visitors Bureau became an independent nonprofit organization in 2007, the annual economic impact to the county has grown from $251 million to $427.25 million annually, a 70 percent increase.

“We work daily with our hospitality industry partners throughout the county to make this a destination that will attract visitors from all over the world because we know the incredible impact it can make on the local economy,” said Williamson County Convention and Visitors Bureau President & CEO Ellie Westman Chin. “Achieving another record year just highlights the incredible cooperation we have from partners throughout the county to share our unique collection of music, history, and authentic southern culture.”

State and local tax collections from tourism related spending in the county in 2016 generated $26.15 million and $8.95 million, respectively, increases of 5.9 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. 

[markhollin]

230+ new jobs coming to Smyrna over the next few years between NFI and Franke Foodservice Systems:

http://www.nashvillepost.com/business/economic-indicators/employment/article/20974136/ecd-announces-more-than-200-regional-jobs

[BnaBreaker]

Be jealous, Nashville...

Franklin Nights #6 by B D Scott, on Flickr

[fieldmarshaldj]

^All those theaters we had on Church Street in Nashville and couldn't keep a one of them. Shameful.

[markhollin]

The 4 story downtown Franklin mixed-use project featuring a Curio Hilton hotel is now fully funded.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/09/13/105m-downtown-franklin-project-now-fully-financed.html

http://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/20975611/developers-of-franklin-project-finalizes-funding

[NashvilleObserver]

6 hours ago, markhollin said:

The 4 story downtown Franklin mixed-use project featuring a Curio Hilton hotel is now fully funded.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/09/13/105m-downtown-franklin-project-now-fully-financed.html

Finally. Last time I drove past this property, it was listed as "For Sale"

[Pdt2f]

14 minutes ago, NashvilleObserver said:

Finally. Last time I drove past this property, it was listed as "For Sale"

Glad they should finally be getting started. That lot looks hideous without the buildings that used to be there. I mean, it didn't look great before, but it looks like ruins now. 

[opendrawerwhore]

Hell, Clarksville NEEDs everything....

[fieldmarshaldj]

5 hours ago, opendrawerwhore said:

Hell, Clarksville NEEDs everything....

It's a shame Clarksville can't build any tall (or modest-sized) buildings in the CBD (a la Murfreesboro) to reflect its size. Apparently, it's because of the unstable ground underneath, riddled with caves/sinkholes.

[NashvilleObserver]

9 hours ago, fieldmarshaldj said:

It's a shame Clarksville can't build any tall (or modest-sized) buildings in the CBD (a la Murfreesboro) to reflect its size. Apparently, it's because of the unstable ground underneath, riddled with caves/sinkholes.

I spent four (and a half) years at APSU and I would wake up every frequently to a new downtown roadblock or a new part of campus that was off-limits due to a sink-hole cave-in. CNN even reported on the sinkhole that opened up in the middle of the new football stadium.

[opendrawerwhore]

Two sinkholes on I-24 in Clarksville recently too

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

Murfreesboro officials seek to reinvent fast-growing municipality’s urban core

Murfreesboro city planners are working to prepare for an anticipated doubling of the city’s population over the next 15 to 20 years.

As part of its 20-year plan for Rutherford County’s main municipality, city government hired the consulting company Ragan-Smith Associates to produce a proposal for a new “arts and entertainment district” in Murfreesboro’s downtown. The goal of the plan, called Historic Bottoms Planning Study and approved by the city council and planning commission, is to “expand the downtown footprint,” according to Kevin Guenther, who was project manager for the Ragan-Smith studies.

“The idea is ... a greater mix of uses in a higher density,” he says. “An opportunity to connect pedestrian, bicycle and mass transit options as much as possible. And to celebrate the history and culture that is already here.”

Assistant City Manager Jennifer Moody explains further: “We identified that our downtown was in need of a deeper dive for the economic development opportunities there. It’s a small downtown even for today’s population. We have a number of arts and cultural assets, like an art crawl every other month, and retailers downtown. But we don’t have the nightlife that a bigger city might have.”

In particular, Murfreesboro wants to better connect its downtown with the Middle Tennessee State University campus, which hosts a population of 30,000 students who might be more inclined to stay in Murfreesboro after graduation if there were more housing and nightlife opportunities downtown.

Those mixed-use ideas for the city’s center are now guiding documents for Murfreesboro, used to set a vision for changes and improvements. But the proposal was adopted by resolution rather than city ordinance, so the “guidelines” are not binding.

“When development comes through, the staff will let the planning commission know whether those developments are consistent with the plan,” Moody says. “We would only want to see development that adheres to the plan, unless they can make a very compelling argument otherwise.”

According to the Ragan-Smith report, “Much of the downtown space is functionally obsolete or otherwise non-competitive.” The average downtown Murfreesboro building is about 64 years old, compared with the market average of 32 years. The new plan calls for updating many of those older buildings for mixed-use, typically commercial space on the ground floor and housing built into upper floors.

The planning commission says next steps include the planning director requesting city approval for those new mixed uses. The first visible change Murfreesboro residents will see is daylighting the creek: a process that reroutes water from underground pipes into a visually and audibly pleasing open channel. This creek could be the route of a greenway for walking and could provide an attractive landscape amenity for outdoor seating at restaurants — even serving as an incentive for developers to undertake new buildings for restaurants.

Like Conexión Americas and Metro Government in the Nolensville Pike area of South Nashville, Ragan-Smith put an emphasis on gathering input from the public.

“We had sit-down interviews with stakeholders and different focus groups at the front end of the study,” Guenther says.

At public meetings, Ragan-Smith presented ideas that had surfaced and then used a voting system to establish the community’s priorities. A steering community that included community leaders met five times before the planning commission public hearing. Ragan-Smith also managed a Facebook page where anyone could give input. The consultants informally gathered additional data at community events, where residents were posed questions such as: ‘If there’s one thing you want to see downtown, what would it be?’

Guenther says Ragan-Smith took all the public input and feedback seriously, adjusting its plan accordingly. After all, public support is crucial for the success of any project that involves taxpayer dollars. Ragan Smith’s team includes land planners, transportation engineers and landscape architects, but they even brought in subconsultants to contribute to elements like architectural details in the plan. The team also solicited insights from local historians, wanting to respect the area’s socioeconomic history.

“Broad Street (a large thoroughfare that crosses the study area) was supposed to bring economic development but instead became a divider,” Guenther says. “Now it should become more of a zipper. Not just a transportation zipper but a cultural one.

“We’re excited about it.”
 

[NashRugger]

Part of the problem was back before the recession, a California developer wanted to build a 6-8 story condo building but the city kept pushing back because the design did not conform enough to downtown's aesthetic. The city needs to have a little wiggle room to have some more modern buildings beside what is already there. 

[titanhog]

3 hours ago, NashRugger said:

Part of the problem was back before the recession, a California developer wanted to build a 6-8 story condo building but the city kept pushing back because the design did not conform enough to downtown's aesthetic. The city needs to have a little wiggle room to have some more modern buildings beside what is already there. 

Some mid-rise condos and apartments would now be appropriate in that area.  M'Boro will eventually have 200k-300k residents.

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

Atlanta-based Paran Homes has begun construction of the model home that will service its 552-home South Haven in Murfreesboro.

The single-family home development will span 262 acres and offer nature walking trails, a pool, a playground and a clubhouse. Homes will start in the mid-$300,000’s,

“We are excited and honored to be one of only two builders selected to represent Phase 1 in South Haven in one of Nashville Metro’s most sought-after suburbs, the City of Murfreesboro,”  Michael Rosenberg, Paran Homes president, said in the release. “The location alone is incredible — central to just about everything Middle Tennessee has to offer.

Paran Homes is also currently building in greater Nashville both Berkshire (with single-family homes priced from the high $200,000s) and Stewart Creek Farms (with single-family homes priced from the mid-$300,000s).

[NashRugger]

On 9/28/2017 at 10:29 PM, titanhog said:

Some mid-rise condos and apartments would now be appropriate in that area.  M'Boro will eventually have 200k-300k residents.

Definitely, and even another high-rise. There's plenty of underutilized land downtown and nearby. Plus, if a young family has the time and energy to renovate a home, there's a plethora of homes like what you'd find in East Nashville just north of downtown begging to be restored.

[titanhog]

I used to spend a lot of time in the heart of M'boro when I went to church near downtown.  Since I left that church 10 years ago, I'm amazed at how much more M'Boro has spread out and how long it takes to get anywhere in M'Boro these days.  It won't be long until they could really use a "440-type" roadway that runs around the east and south side of the city connecting I-24 and I-840 that allows residents to get to the other side of the city.  It can take more than 30 minutes at certain times of the day to get from one side of the city to the other.

[markhollin]

One Franklin Park, looking from above intersection of East McEwen Dr. and Tower Circle:
 

[BnaBreaker]

44 minutes ago, markhollin said:

One Franklin Park, looking from above intersection of East McEwen Dr. and Tower Circle:
 

Great space that will be used by zero people.