Dickerson & Meridian : twelve 3 to 7 story residential complex; 1,150 units; internal garages; some retail; 14.4 acres; $300+ million cost

[markhollin]

A massive 14.5 acre mixed-use project to be called Skyline East will populate the western edge of McFerrin Park, facing Dickerson Pike (where it parallels I-24) at Joseph Avenue.  It could involved numerous 6 to 15 story structures, 1,400 residential units, and 500,000 sq. ft. of commercial/office space, as well as parking decks.  This will be the largest project of its kind in East Nashville. No renderings as of yet.

Currently there are 212 apartments and townhomes on the site (some of them Section 8 Housing).

The technical addresses include 301 North 2nd St., 651 and 660 Joseph Ave. Riverchase bought the 3 parcels that make up the site in 2017 for $1.2 million.

“Riverchase Holdings LLC is excited to be part of the planning and revitalization of the Dickerson Pike corridor and East Nashville community," said Scott Morton, an associate at that firm. "The 15-acre site is located at the 'gateway' to Dickerson Pike and is well positioned to set the tone for quality redevelopment on the corridor."

Morton said the group has participated in ongoing workshops Metro's Planning Department is hosting to create concensus on what future development should look like along Dickerson Pike. Metro's Planning Commission could adopt a final plan this summer at their June 13 meetings

Morton said the Skyline East proposal "is consistent with the theme and intent of community recommendations."

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/05/03/austin-group-targets-high-rises-for-east-nashville.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

And the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/residential-real-estate/article/21067259/east-side-site-could-land-largescale-development

This screen shot from Smeagolsfree's excellent development map shows the project site highlighted in teal at the center of the frame:

[NashvilleObserver]

Great news! Some much-needed development for the east side. Maybe this will help kick-start the transformation of Dickerson.

[BnaBreaker]

Very great news indeed... though all I can think when I look at those satellite images is 'god I hope they rebuild those interchanges someday.'  What a huge waste of space those are.

[MLBrumby]

TDOT really needs to make Spring Street and Ellington join I-24 in one junction, and in the process widen Ellington to Briley to 6-8 lanes. I know you guys hate freeways, but they are necessary... and the ROW has already been in place for 50+ years. 

[NashvilleObserver]

2 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

TDOT really needs to make Spring Street and Ellington join I-24 in one junction, and in the process widen Ellington to Briley to 6-8 lanes. I know you guys hate freeways, but they are necessary... and the ROW has already been in place for 50+ years. 

I have this same thought every single morning.  It seems idiotic to me that Ellington does not directly connect with the interstate. It is such a big artery for commuters, but to get to the interstate you have to stop at a few lights on Spring Street, or cut through the James Robertson traffic to work your way into the tiny turn lane under the overpass. Its such a cluster***** during morning and evening rush hour. 

Some say working on interstates does nothing to stop congestion, but what about better planning for interstate on-ramps and off-ramps that cause horrendous back-ups?! I would much rather have city officials focus on this rather than painting all of our city busses purple.

Edited May 3, 2019 by NashvilleObserver

[CenterHill]

5 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Very great news indeed... though all I can think when I look at those satellite images is 'god I hope they rebuild those interchanges someday.'  What a huge waste of space those are.

Thought the same thing.     Is there really a need for fly ramps and 70mph traffic in this area?       Would love to reconnect some grid and rebuild neighborhood density.

[AronG]

To me the knock on interstate work is that it's just a black hole. Any improvement you make gets immediately swamped by a few more people living 30 miles out and adding to the traffic/parking problem. Traffic quickly returns to the equilibrium based on whatever is awful enough to force people to live closer in, and you're back where you started. This compares to a bus line, which can scale up by an order of magnitude more per space required, and doesn't necessitate a bunch of parking on the other end.

If they throw money at this spaghetti intersection, I can only hope they take the opportunity to try to fix the way it carves up and separates these neighborhoods. The East bank and McFerrin Park are basically completely isolated by giant interstates, with terrible pedestrian/bike connections to eachother and the rest of east nashville, not to mention downtown. I saw some interesting ideas thrown around with the River North plans. Here's hoping.

[titanhog]

Here's a question for you guys:  What would have happened with Nashville if...let's say...instead of 40, 65 and 24 coming through downtown, government had decided the interstates should loop around Nashville basically where 840 is (and where it was designed north of town)?  Would Nashville be the city it is today?  Would it be as large as it is?  Larger?

The reason I ask is that I know some small towns in the past always wanted the interstate close by because they felt it would help the city grow.  And...normally, it did.  But...just like Nashville, it sometimes dissected neighborhoods and made some parts of a town worse than before.

Just wonder what Nashville would be like without all of the neighborhoods cut off the way they are now.

[AronG]

It's an interesting counterfactual. A lot of the history of interstates in Nashville is tied up with the way desegregation played out here. The interstates were used to engineer an arrangement where much of the white middle and upper classes could flee to the surrounding counties and set up separate school districts, but still drive to work downtown. If we'd never built them would they have stayed in Nashville and dealt with the schools, or would they have left anyway, letting the jobs go unfilled and driving the city into an even worse decline? My money's on the former, but who knows?

The economic effects of interstates as the backbone of transportation systems are more clear. When traffic is aggregated onto massive trunk lines, old-style downtowns and Main streets don't make sense any more and become blighted. You need big parking lots and economies of scale. You get giant cookie-cutter retail areas (Nashville West, Mt Juliet, etc.) , separated from residential areas. Instead of having an ecosystem of neighborhood-footprint small business owners, you have a few local managers for mega-retailers (Walmart, Target, etc.), and most of the profits go back to corporate entities. People live further away from where they work in single-use subdivisions, accessible only by car.

In East Nashville you can see the border of development from before and after the interstate era, even miles away from the interstate. The neighborhoods on opposite sides of Shelby golf course might as well be in different cities. When you combine that with the negative effects of the physical separation of a neighborhood like Mcferrin Park, cut off by giant road projects, it just seems like we had it right the first time. When I see the old maps before 440, or Ellington was built, I see a more resilient, connected fabric.  To me those patterns were worth sticking with even if Nashville had to shrink a little bit more during the peak decades of suburban flight.

[smeagolsfree]

3 hours ago, titanhog said:

Here's a question for you guys:  What would have happened with Nashville if...let's say...instead of 40, 65 and 24 coming through downtown, government had decided the interstates should loop around Nashville basically where 840 is (and where it was designed north of town)?  Would Nashville be the city it is today?  Would it be as large as it is?  Larger?

The reason I ask is that I know some small towns in the past always wanted the interstate close by because they felt it would help the city grow.  And...normally, it did.  But...just like Nashville, it sometimes dissected neighborhoods and made some parts of a town worse than before.

Just wonder what Nashville would be like without all of the neighborhoods cut off the way they are now.

I think if they had done that with all of the cities when building the interstate system things would be much different. Many things would have changed in cities across the country, however, we would probably be looking at a lot more sprawl than we have today. We can never really know what things would have looked like as there would still have to have been major highways into the cities for the workers working in the inner city, and whos to say they would not have severed the neighborhoods at that time too.

[titanhog]

Seems to me, in the 21st Century, we should do our best to reconnect some of these neighborhoods when we can.  What would be nice, IMO, is if they took out the east loop (I-40 / I-24) by the stadium that cuts off E. Nashville (totally demolish it)...and then just use the western portion and cap most of it between Division and Charlotte.  That would do a lot to give us back some of the neighborhoods.  If there was a way to also do something between Germantown and N. Nashville...that would be great, too.  And...maybe caps over I-440 in some places.

[Edgefield D]

I kind of have this crazy idea that they could create almost a roundabout with the loop that goes around Nashville. I don't know if the entire thing could be capped...but if critical points could be capped...just so there is some type of connection it would help tremendously. If they could use all of the existing lanes and make them go one direction (since it's already basically a circle around downtown) it would keep the traffic flowing. I've never actually seen that done...so I'm sure there are reasons it couldn't be done. 

[PruneTracy]

4 minutes ago, Edgefield D said:

I kind of have this crazy idea that they could create almost a roundabout with the loop that goes around Nashville. I don't know if the entire thing could be capped...but if critical points could be capped...just so there is some type of connection it would help tremendously. If they could use all of the existing lanes and make them go one direction (since it's already basically a circle around downtown) it would keep the traffic flowing. I've never actually seen that done...so I'm sure there are reasons it couldn't be done. 

We looked at this previously for an MPO study (didn't make the final report). The idea came from MoDOT who studied it for Kansas City's downtown loop.

The only problem with it is the segment from Interstate 65 to Interstate 24 on the south side, no matter which way the one-way traffic flows drivers trying to connect between I-65 and I-24 have to make the eight-mile detour around north Nashville. (KC's interstate loop is half that distance and their interchanges are more evenly spaced.)

The amount of traffic making this movement was significant enough to torpedo the idea although I am not sure how much traffic patterns would change were it to be realized. Interstate 440 would be a logical detour.

In any case it would indeed improve traffic considerably, not only at the interchanges but also the surface streets connecting to ramps.

[Edgefield D]

2 minutes ago, PruneTracy said:

We looked at this previously for an MPO study (didn't make the final report). The idea came from MoDOT who studied it for Kansas City's downtown loop.

The only problem with it is the segment from Interstate 65 to Interstate 24 on the south side, no matter which way the one-way traffic flows drivers trying to connect between I-65 and I-24 have to make the eight-mile detour around north Nashville. (KC's interstate loop is half that distance and their interchanges are more evenly spaced.)

The amount of traffic making this movement was significant enough to torpedo the idea although I am not sure how much traffic patterns would change were it to be realized. Interstate 440 would be a logical detour.

In any case it would indeed improve traffic considerably, not only at the interchanges but also the surface streets connecting to ramps.

Ha! Well, I'm glad to know it wasn't completely off the wall. I can see how people would be discouraged by the 8 mile loop. I personally...would rather drive a little longer if it meant I was actually moving....so that doesn't sound all that horrible to me (I do that all the time already in today's traffic realities). 

[smeagolsfree]

At this time the project has been withdrawn by the developers indefinitely from the Planning Commission meeting agenda.

This happens a lot. There are a lot of things that need to happen before this can be approved. I am sure something will have to be worked out with the section 8 housing there not to mention a traffic study and community meeting to name a few.

[WebberThomas4]

https://twitter.com/StandUpNash/status/1422657743249453060?s=20

[WebberThomas4]

28 minutes ago, WebberThomas4 said:

https://twitter.com/StandUpNash/status/1422657743249453060?s=20

 

17 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

River chase in Brentwood?

Riverchase off of Dickerson near Spring Street

[Bos2Nash]

33 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

River chase in Brentwood?

15 minutes ago, WebberThomas4 said:

Riverchase off of Dickerson near Spring Street

Previously known as "Skyline East" that went dormant a year or two ago. I recall seeing a public meeting announcement recently, but did not attend.

[smeagolsfree]

We are already pursuing this company to see what is up. This company is part of a larger company in Austin. Riverchase is just a place holder company.

 

Den Development out of Austin is the parent. From what I am hearing they are wanting to sell to Oracle, but that may be a rumor.

[WebberThomas4]

11 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

We are already pursuing this company to see what is up. This company is part of a larger company in Austin. Riverchase is just a place holder company.

 

Den Development out of Austin is the parent. From what I am hearing they are wanting to sell to Oracle, but that may be a rumor.

https://www.crea.com/property-portfolio
 

This is the company that presented during last week’s community meeting. They have developments near the Oracle campus in Austin. 

[smeagolsfree]

Perfect, they are out of Austin too. They are also the ones that had the property behind the Westin under contract at one time.

[smeagolsfree]

I moved all of the recent conversation about this project to this dedicated thread.

[MLBrumby]

The way the streets are laid out here, somewhat of a cluster **** due to the presence of the expressways, a dense residential development here with some commercial could be really cool.  I don't know how good the views are from that site, but I venture pretty darn good.  If so, it would seem the views would be protected in the longterm because no new buildings are likely to go up to obstruct them.  Plus the streets there seem to be just off the beaten path, like a little urban nook.  Such a convenient location too. If designed properly, this would be a great asset to EN.  

[Flatrock]

37 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

I don't know how good the views are from that site, but I venture pretty darn good

The views from there would be phenomenal.  Particularly as you go up just a few stories above the raised interstate and any other infrastructure.

[smeagolsfree]

We also have to look at the human element of this because there will be a lot of folks displaced as all of that is section 8 housing. I think they will have to cooperate with Sean Parker in order to get their project through council. You scratch my back and I scratch yours deal. If the Council person is not behind the deal then there will be trouble.

So they will have to have a plan to relocate residents before they can ever start on this project. Someone familiar with the overlay needs to let us know what is allowed as the first project called for 6 to 15 story buildings. Now if they can do all of this by rights, then they can evict and do it without the councilperson.

Maybe WebberThomas or Bos2Nash know that particualr overlay as I know it changed a while back to allow for taller buildings along the corridor. I know it has an amended OV residential overlay.