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Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge


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Wow.  I'm totally with you MLBrumby.  That is truly unfathomable.  That entire area as it is currently, for multiple blocks, is literally nothing but asphalt and disposable aluminum sided crap...EXCEPT FOR the structure in question, which is really quite beautiful.  What sort of demented individual would choose to destroy the stately, well-built, older building rather than simply building on an empty lot?

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Historic Frost building on Rosa Parks to see new life as firm moves from Green Hills to downtown.

 

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2014/4/8/2020_research_targets_19m_investment_with_move_to_downtown


Stopped in Crema this morning and noticed a survey crew and core drilling rig on site at the NE corner of Rutledge St. and Lea Ave.     I believe there are apartments proposed for this site.    Currently a vacant lot.        

I now know who is doing this. I did some detective work and it will come out with a blog from William.

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Guys,

 

It could be that the price for the other lots wasn't right, or they weren't for sale. Many possible reasons. Yes this is a nice building, but it is underutilized and honestly most will not miss if it is torn down for a structure that serves a greater purpose.

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Historic Frost building on Rosa Parks to see new life as firm moves from Green Hills to downtown.

 

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2014/4/8/2020_research_targets_19m_investment_with_move_to_downtown

 

This area is shaping up to be a "tech-row."  The Horton group is half a block away, between Frost and Hume-Fogg.  There are a few other tech companies along there as well, if I'm not mistaken.  Great news for a beautiful old building!  This can't hurt the prices at the Westview either!  Now if they could just bring back the old neon bass sign at the sporting goods place...

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Guys,

 

It could be that the price for the other lots wasn't right, or they weren't for sale. Many possible reasons. Yes this is a nice building, but it is underutilized and honestly most will not miss if it is torn down for a structure that serves a greater purpose.

 

So, the optimal solution for dealing with structures that aren't currently being utilized as much as they should be, is not to find other ways to utilize them, but to destroy them?  The issue for me is not so much that the developer isn't building on a surrounding empty lot instead, because obviously, it's not as if it's just a grab bag.  They can't develop property they don't own, of course.  The issue for me is that this building could easily be and should be, reused, but instead of being a little bit more creative with the design of their project, they'd rather just spend MORE money to knock down whatever currently sits there.  It's simply overtly lazy and wasteful behavior, and moreover, it's completely unnecessary. 

 

Hopefully these developers prove us naysayers wrong.  I will gladly eat crow if they do.  But after witnessing all of the wanton destruction of historical properties that has gone on in this city in the past and continues on even to this day, I would think one could be forgiven if he or she assumed the worse in this case as well. 

Edited by BnaBreaker
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So, the optimal solution for dealing with structures that aren't currently being utilized as much as they should be, is not to find other ways to utilize them, but to destroy them?  The issue for me is not so much that the developer isn't building on a surrounding empty lot instead, because obviously, it's not as if it's just a grab bag.  They can't develop property they don't own, of course.  The issue for me is that this building could easily be and should be, reused, but instead of being a little bit more creative with the design of their project, they'd rather just spend MORE money to knock down whatever currently sits there.  It's simply overtly lazy and wasteful behavior, and moreover, it's completely unnecessary. 

 

Hopefully these developers prove us naysayers wrong.  I will gladly eat crow if they do.  But after witnessing all of the wanton destruction of historical properties that has gone on in this city in the past and continues on even to this day, I would think one could be forgiven if he or she assumed the worse in this case as well. 

 

I agree with pretty much everything you're saying here, but developers do what's cheapest for them. In most cases, the adaptive reuse of a building is much more expensive than the demolition, design, and construction of a new structure. With demolition the developer would only have to pay for the permits, environmental demo, and then design and new construction.

 

With adaptive reuse, they're asking the architecture firm to deliver a lot of what that particular building might not be able to (structurally and as far as function) while adhering to historic district design guidelines (if Nashville has any for this neighborhood). Think warehouse to residential; that architect is going to have to find a way to provide hvac, water, waste, egress, living space, additional structure, life safety, etc. to a building that in most cases wasn't designed to have to deal with that at such a high frequency. It can easily double if not triple the cost of demolition. The overall saving of a structure can be helpful for the developer due to historic tax credits, but in some situations, he can't lease units out over a certain price nor market units as condos until 7 years have passed. Some would rather not take those and actually have control over their developments from the get go. 

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Historic Frost building on Rosa Parks to see new life as firm moves from Green Hills to downtown.

 

http://nashvillepost.com/news/2014/4/8/2020_research_targets_19m_investment_with_move_to_downtown

 

 

This is great news!  I've always felt like this western fringe of the CBD has a lot of potential, it just needs more feet on the ground.  Downtown could easily support several hundred firms this size moving into the CBD.

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It sucks that no large buildings will go up without a major tenant.  I wonder how many firms pass up the opportunity because there are is no space available and they are too small to be considered a "major tenant".  If Sheet Music was magically finished today, I am sure it could fill up with dozens up smaller firms quickly.    

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This area is shaping up to be a "tech-row."  The Horton group is half a block away, between Frost and Hume-Fogg.  There are a few other tech companies along there as well, if I'm not mistaken.  Great news for a beautiful old building!  This can't hurt the prices at the Westview either!  Now if they could just bring back the old neon bass sign at the sporting goods place...

That's a beautiful building.

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The Stock-Yard Restaurant building is not historically protected, and so there are no historic requirements to be met.  Although most would argue that the Stock-Yard building is worthy of conservation. 

 

Also, how is this building underutilized?  It holds a successful restaurant that got national press long before Nashville was a foodie mecca, no?  Or did the restaurant close recently?  It would seem that Stock-Yard would be ideally suited to capitalize on the Sounds Ballpark foot traffic, much moreso than anything currently existing in Germantown.

 

Just over a block away, some wise person is working on an adaptive reuse of the Geist Blacksmith Shop and adjoining buildings.  Sad to see that Geist may come off the Nashville 9 list only to be replaced by the Stock-Yard Restaurant building.  This building would be fairly easy to convert into apartments or condos if indeed there is going to be such demand for them.  What a shame.

Edited by bwithers1
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This is great news!  I've always felt like this western fringe of the CBD has a lot of potential, it just needs more feet on the ground.  Downtown could easily support several hundred firms this size moving into the CBD.

 

I totally agree.  I've always thought that the area that those buildings surround would be a great place for a little fountain square/plaza rather than that parking space.

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I totally agree.  I've always thought that the area that those buildings surround would be a great place for a little fountain square/plaza rather than that parking space.

Well, there is the little square/plaza there with the statue of Billy Graham. 

 

Between TSU's Avon William Campus, Lifeway and the Downtown YMCA, there is an extreme parking need at the western edge of downtown.  On-street spaces can be hard to find depending on the time of day. The downtown Y's new building and parking garage is nicely done, but my observation is that another parking garage would be needed somewhere in there in order to alleviate the need for the existing surface lots west of 8th Ave/Rosa Parks.

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I find it ironic... as Walgreens would go where the historic nashville group fought hammer and tong to keep the first Hyatt proposal from happening, and recently Walgreens was slated to go where the church sat at 46th and Charlotte.  That was demolished before the historic people even raised an eyebrow.  And then now, Walgreens would go into the Trail West building. Or would they demolish the Trail West building and put up one of their white flourescent pieces of cr@p with a parking lot?  It sounds like they haven't determined that yet. 

Edited by MLBrumby
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Walgreens can do good work. Check out these images from the Wicker Park store in Chicago. I know the Trail West building isn't quite this architecture gem, but the important thing is

that they restored a once neglected building without resorting to suburban crap for inspiration.

post-28462-0-69885700-1397136310_thumb.j

post-28462-0-32090500-1397136320_thumb.j

post-28462-0-13966200-1397136338_thumb.j

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Walgreens can do good work. Check out these images from the Wicker Park store in Chicago. I know the Trail West building isn't quite this architecture gem, but the important thing is

that they restored a once neglected building without resorting to suburban crap for inspiration.

Agreed, this would probably look nice and given the location probably have services above and beyond a standard Walgreens. Still though it will be absolutely worthless to downtown residents, save maybe people living in Encore.

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