Alto and Contraltro, 12 & 7 stories, 126 condos, 6,000 sq. ft. retail, 5 story garage, $34 million

[markhollin]

Lee Molette is finally moving forward with his mixed-use project of two buildings (7 stories/52 units, 6,000 sq. ft. of retail, and 12 stories, 74 units) to be located at 1506 Church St. and 215 15th Ave. North. Tentative name is McMillan & Church.  

Will also include an amenities deck, pool, fitness center.  There will be a 5 story parking garage that the units will be built on top of. CityLiving Group (part of Village Real Estate) will list the units. 

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2018/06/05/exclusive-unfazed-by-strip-club-developer-presses.html

The site is the oddly-shaped beige property in the center of this screen shot from Smeagolsfree's excellent development map:

[smeagolsfree]

This is one that I will believe when I see it. Lee Molette is not a developer and has not gotten financing. This was announced three years ago with nothing since then.

He may pull it off, and I may have to eat my words. I guess we will have to wait and see.

[Vrtigo]

Seems like only a very specific clientele will want to live there, given the rather polarizing set of establishments bounding it on all sides.

[wmaddbb2018]

Maybe put a stripper pole between floors to make moving down easier

[donNdonelson2]

Prime for investor owners with units rented out to students or as short term rentals. Easy access to Vandy and downtown will overcome the proximity to strippers and Hustler Hollywood.

[markhollin]

With the  TownePlace Suites (8 stories) on Charlotte Ave. just two blocks to the north confirming a week ago, and now this, maybe these are the initial dominoes that need to fall. Then perhaps the proposed 11 story Comfort Inn and an additional approx. 6 story unnamed motel sitting adjacent to this site might finally get moving as well.  Should that happen, then you'll see lots of activity start percolating in this area between Church and Charlotte, flanked by 1-65/40 on the east and 17th Ave. North on the west.  And, lest we forget, should the Propst project (former West End Summit site, just two bocks SW of this) start rolling, it will be Katy-bar-the-door in that whole upper section of Midtown over the next 5 years.  

[markhollin]

Lee Molette has applied for a permit to begin work on the 7 story building.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21021476/permit-patrol-10-september-2018

[markhollin]

The smaller of the two (7 stories, 52 condos) at 1506 Church St. will now be called Contralto. It will also feature 2,000 sq. ft. of retail space at ground level, along with 7th floor amenity area including a fitness center, clubroom, and outdoor rooftop entertainment area.  Village Real Estate has been enlisted to handle sales.  20 of the 52 units are already sold. 

Phase II (12 stories, 74 condos) will now be called Alto.  It will feature 4,00 sq. ft. of commercial space, a 4 level garage, swimming pool, and rooftop amenities including a fitness center. 

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/residential-real-estate/article/21033032/early-2019-start-eyed-for-midtown-condo-building

New renderings of the Alto building:

The Alto building has the same rendering as released previously:

[Nash_12South]

That courtyard will be noisy......

[dmillsphoto]

5 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

That courtyard will be noisy......

Yeah it will!    it will!        will!

[markhollin]

Lee Molette's Contralto (7 stories, 52 condos, ground level retail), which hasn't even broken ground at  1506 Church St., has already sold 80% of the inventory. 

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/03/04/buyers-flock-to-midtown-condo-project-dont-blanch.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

[Mr_Bond]

5 hours ago, markhollin said:

Lee Molette's Contralto (7 stories, 52 condos, ground level retail), which hasn't even broken ground at  1506 Church St., has already sold 80% of the inventory. 

 

This is a very good sign for growth of downtown.  People are paying good money to live in and near downtown, even if they're one block away from a strip club.

[nashvylle]

14 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

This is a very good sign for growth of downtown.  People are paying good money to live in and near downtown, even if they're one block away from a strip club.

Sort of. A lot of the inventory is out of town investors who know they can airbnb it to bachelorette parties. 

[Jamie Hall]

1 minute ago, nashvylle said:

Sort of. A lot of the inventory is out of town investors who know they can airbnb it to bachelorette parties. 

That seems like a great fit considering the number of bars and nightspots along that stretch of Church Street. It's probably not the best place to stay for people like me who go to bed at 8 p.m.

[Mr_Bond]

13 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

Sort of. A lot of the inventory is out of town investors who know they can airbnb it to bachelorette parties. 

It will depend on the restrictions in the HOA docs.

[PruneTracy]

1 hour ago, Mr_Bond said:

This is a very good sign for growth of downtown.  People are paying good money to live in and near downtown, even if they're one block away from a strip club.

I've never seen someone spell "because" as "even if" before. It's not even really the same letters

[titanhog]

Just in case you guys were wondering my expression when I saw the new names for these two buildings:

[Mr_Bond]

13 minutes ago, titanhog said:

Just in case you guys were wondering my expression when I saw the new names for these two buildings:

You must be a soprano.

[Hey_Hey]

2 hours ago, Mr_Bond said:

It will depend on the restrictions in the HOA docs.

The 7 story building is expressly for short term rentals. The 12 story is not. 

[markhollin]

The Metro Board of Zoning Appeals has denied Lee Molette's request for a parking requirement reduction on the 7 story Contralto (52 residences, 2,000 sq. ft. ground level retail) building.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21088156/work-to-begin-on-nes-substation

[BnaBreaker]

Nashville and their parking requirements.  We are a city that has zero interest in being cured of our collective addiction to the automobile.  As much as Nashville has urbanized over the past decade, it is still a city that caters  heavily to the automobile as much as it ever has been, which is very disappointing. 

[Nashvillain]

1 hour ago, BnaBreaker said:

Nashville and their parking requirements.  We are a city that has zero interest in being cured of our collective addiction to the automobile.  As much as Nashville has urbanized over the past decade, it is still a city that caters  heavily to the automobile as much as it ever has been, which is very disappointing. 

Parking Reform Will Save the City

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/09/parking-lot-urban-planning-transit-street-traffic-congestion/598504/

However, it's not just stupid minimum parking requirements via zoning. Downtown Nashville has no parking requirements whatsoever, but as you can see, every new building has a garage. It would appear that private lenders/banks/investors have zero interest of helping cure us of our collective addiction to the automobile either.  

Edited September 23, 2019 by Nashvillain
My mom made me

[Vrtigo]

^

I think what this means is that the free market still thinks there is capacity to add more vehicles to our already congested streets. Until the traffic gets so bad that people finally yield to alternative forms of transportation (or stop coming to Nashville entirely), parking capacity will continue to be built.

This mass transit lover hates it as much as anyone, but I can't argue with the basic economics of it. While I once was romantic enough to think otherwise, I'm now sort of ambivalent about the situation. In some strange way, I now almost encourage the building of parking structures because every parking space built brings us one vehicle closer to that critical mass where our streets simply can't support any more vehicles.

Then, we'll finally reach that utopian promised land...

Edited September 25, 2019 by Vrtigo

[nashvylle]

I think what @BnaBreaker is complaining about is the private sector (is the developers and their investors and lenders) did not believe this project needed as much parking as required by code, yet metro disagreed. 

[smeagolsfree]

There was a lot of complaints from the business owners surrounding this development. One, being the owner of the McMillan (who have a similar type of business) said that it was true that people would use Uber and Lyft once they got here, many would drive here requiring more parking than you would think they needed. Not as many flew into BNA as you think I suppose.

The proponents of the project were taking pictures of vacant parking lots and street parking at what seemed to be 5 PM saying there was plenty of parking available, but in truth the real problem comes at night when De Ja Vu and all of the Gay bars in the area are vying for the same parking. This is also when the peak demand that the parking would be needed for the Contralto.

Lee Mollette was trying to show a hardship which he could not and that is the reason it was denied. I think the only hardship may have been financial to make the project work.

There are plenty of comments on the BZA site and the hearing is also on YouTube.