Nashville's Green Hills urbanizing?

[it's just dave]

Green Hills, only a short drive from downtown, through Vanderbilt and Hillsboro Village was one of Nashville's first suburbs. Consisting mostly of large single family homes and expensive condos (with obligatory surface parking), the centerpiece of the area for years has been the upper scale Mall at Green Hills. The mall itself is undergoing a huge transformation and large expansion and a neighboring property is currently being transformed into a $75 million lifestyle center with no visible surface parking. It's always been a hodgepodge at best, but it seems that urbanism might finally be catching on. The mall expansion is following the UZO (Urban Zoning Overlay -- which requires "to the street buildout and landscape provisions among others). The paper this morning had this rendering of a new $53 million condo development along a street one block from the mall. This could get interesting. Seems the development will be on both sides of the street (which will be widened and be primarily residential. Anyway, I thought this was interesting news in a summer which has produced one infill/urbanization announcement after another. I like the scale of this.

From The Tennessean: (edited: me)

High-end condo plan resolves decades of dispute

By RICHARD LAWSON

Staff Writer

Standing in front of a friendly crowd yesterday, real estate developer John Rochford announced a $53 million development plan for a small street in Green Hills.

Along both sides of narrow Bedford Avenue, a short walk from The Mall at Green Hills, Rochford and other partners plan to build Bedford Commons, largely a condominium complex. Their plans also include a small office building and a new headquarters for Fridrich & Clark Realty.

''There are no impediments financially,'' Rochford said.

That means work can begin as soon as the plans are finished in a few weeks. Once finished, Rochford will begin work on widening the street and other infrastructure improvements, which are expected to take six months. Several single-family homes on the site may be razed in that period to make way for the construction.

Last year, the surrounding neighborhoods worked with city planners to come up with an urban design overlay to guide development. Rochford's plans grew from there, and the neighbors who gathered at the Green Hills Hampton Inn for yesterday's announcement were pleased.

Rochford worked with Hicks and other neighbors to create a palatable concept for Bedford Avenue. He told the crowd that it wasn't about making money but about creating a neighborhood

[BrandonTO416]

Great news, good to hear they are building a more urban-oriented development.