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100 Oaks Mall being sold


Richard Lawson

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Is the 100 Oaks office building behind the mall (and close to where the old theater used to be) still being used???

A commentator on www.deadmalls.com classified 100 Oaks as "mall that wouldn't die" I enjoyed the mall in the mid 90s when Media Play arrived. The industrial/cog motig was a bit amusing, especially when those cogs seemed to keep falling off the building.

100 Oaks reminds me of a few malls in and around Memphis that had to be converted into strip malls in order to survive. Germantown Village Square for example. The second floor of 100 Oaks just never seemed to keep tenants.

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The intelligent and knowledgable Cdub has made this site known to me:

Transformed Malls

Shopping malls have been turned into neighborhoods before --there is precedent. But perhaps more importantly, land has been turned into neighborhoods before, too...and the site in question is mostly just empty land.

100 Oaks Mall should be mercilessly ripped to shreds and a new mixed-use neighborhood should replace it. It would be a guaranteed success. Berry Hill is already cookin'. Houses and shops could be built and filled with people. It would be a blast.

Lots of places have been designed and built relatively quickly, with beauty among the many happy results. Here is a short list:

Savannah, Philadelphia, Aigues Mortes, Washington D.C., Shahjahanabad, Seaside, and Minas Tirith (The White City of Gondor).

With competency, know-how, some cues from tradition, and a real commitment to quality, Nashville could have a new heart. And who knows? Maybe they could actually squeeze a hundred oaks into the plan.

Cool. What an excellent concept: Berry Hill with a downtown. Maybe somewhat like a smaller Atlantic Station, without highrises and replete with an IKEA, as has been previously suggested. Wonder if the developers could be influenced to do something better for the community.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just because stuff sounds good on paper, doesn't mean you can take that to the bank and get it financed. The area is not a residential area. Look at all the light industrial around 100 Oaks. Nobody wants to live between the interestate and light industrial. I know I don't.

Lowes, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy all make sense to be canidates to go there. I know the first three want to be there for sure and Best Buy has been dying to get into Green Hills forever. The Hills turned them down to anchor their Green Hills project.

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Guys, look, i'm certainly not trying to point any fingers here. Please do not take this personally. I of course realize that just because something sounds good doesn't mean it can or will get done. I suppose what frustrates me is that for the most part I see a bunch of Nashvillians that aren't willing to strive for anything better than just another big box strip mall. It frustrates me a bit to see more people concerned about what retail names we attract to the city than there are people who are concerned about what package that retail comes in. 'we'll take it any way we can, just come here' is the attitude of the 60's that created the whole mess most cities are in in the first place.

Who would superficially care about the fact that our city attracted a 'big name' store here if it isn't placed into an attractive and well planned environment anyway? Now if you're simply trying to be realistic, then fine, I can respect that, but for the godssake folks, can we not have a little bit of creativity and fore-thought? I have yet to hear a decent reason as to why we should simply submit to putting a giant suburban shopping plaza there. What good would that do? Why not at LEAST try to make it into an urban shopping plaza? Why not at least try to do something other than the norm?

Again i'm not trying to point any fingers, but can anybody explain to me why this is the best option? I'm sorry but I don't buy the 'nobody would want to live there' argument. As it is right now, hell no, but transformation is a natrual part of the progression of a city. Can you imagine how disgusting our American urban centers would still be if noone ever had any vision and resigned to keeping all of our industrial areas industrial or all of our parking lots parking lots? I realize that this isn't the most urban of locations by a long shot, but my point is that we, as a city, have a huge and grand opportunity with this giant chunk of city land to turn a corner, shun the status quo and do something great. Will we do that or will we simply throw up our hands and say 'ehh...a wal-mart is probably the best we can do'?

I'm sorry for the rant, but if somebody could clue me in on why this seems to be the case I would appreciate it because I really am at a loss to be honest. Thanks.

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Very nice points bna, but would you replace 100 Oaks Mall with?

Well i've already discussed that in some length in this thread...i'd prefer just turning it into a regular ole community circa 1920 with a mix of homes, multi-family, retail, office etc...but to be honest, all I really ask for is that we (the city in general) start with even SOME consideration of anything REMOTELY similar to that just so I knew there was at least a half assed sense of honest devotion to real urban development and not simply a superficial interest in a "trend". Most of what i've seen so far though is just a bunch of people who seem all too willing to give up this prime land to yet another big box sea of asphalt planning disaster that the city will have to fix decades from now, just like they're having to do now with all the mistakes of the 1960's.

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  • 2 months later...

Chicago is also quite convenient as in NYC. The thing about having all the luxury shopping is that once you get it (i.e. Nordstrom or SAKS) it becomes boring and stale. On top of that as people in CLT and BHAM can confirm... just because you do get one of those stores doesn't mean at all that it is going to be a grand spectacular store. Usually in a city the size of Nashville or Memphis you get a smaller store with a limited selection, not a flagship. This is why its bad that out homegrown stores like Cain-Sloan and Castner Knott are all gone. Those types of stores are the ones who will look out for a city the size of Nashville, not one headquartered in NY or Seattle. JMO

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  • 1 year later...

Here is an update on the transformation of 100 Oaks (article only, maybe someone can get us some good pics!). I haven't been that way in awhile and figured 100 Oaks was good as dead. Hopefully, this will help the area be better than before. What do others think about this and how do you think it can/will affect the Berry hill area or other close by areas?

100 Oaks redevelopment is more than Vanderbilt offices

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This is wonderful news. My boyfriend and I frequent that T.J. Maxx quite often and it is the best. I'm also glad the original tenants will remain open and new ones are coming. This mall receives high visibility from I-440 and I-65 so I can only imagine what national tenants and developers have planned.

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I'm glad to hear there are going to be more restaurants going in in the mall. The Berry Hill area in general seems overly crowded at all of its dining options. And glad they are getting wrapped up with the bridge work in the area. I "loved" the timing of both the Thompson Lane overpass AND the Armory Drive bridges being worked on at the same time.

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im glad they are finally revitalizing this mall. in fact, if you look around the industrial district right behind it, they are revitalizing the entire area. most factories have moved out to make way for class a office space back there. i work back there at armory and sidco and this whole area is changing. maybe i can get down there today and get some pics. you would be amazed at whats going on in places you dont think to look at... :)

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