Musketeer

I also live in Eastwood about three long blocks from where they tore that down, and also noticed a huge jump in the rat population. I’ve even seen them running around in the daytime, which is very unusual.

I am in leadership at a church downtown with a parking lot - not Central -- and I think the stewardship term is a fair one. I wouldn't be quick to judge whether that church in particular is exercising good or bad stewardship, though. The church may feel it is in their mission to remain downtown and minister downtown, or may be receiving significant income off the lot already and may not have received a good offer to sell/develop. I can tell you that my own church has been approached several times regarding its parking lot, and the offers we have received have been lower than the present value of the income stream from parking, let alone the true value of the land, and most would have required the church to relocate. Many churches also lack the financial sophistication to understand that an "air rights" type deal could be possible, so won't be proactive in looking for those deals - if they are even available in the Nashville market.

Ganier's family actually only owns the lot directly fronting Demonbreun -- the other two lots on that block are both owned by First Lutheran Church and are used for parking for the church. Not sure how much the Ganier's could fit on their parcel alone, and whether any of that parcel is restricted to accommodate a future widening of demonbreun that was rumored to be in the long-term plan. I imagine the three lots would be worth more together than separate.

East Kroger has some ongoing renovations right now and had a sign up, if I recall correctly, stating that they were putting in a sushi bar and something else. They have been steadily making minor improvements to that store mostly for dedicated space to sell higher-dollar items, but it really just needs to be bigger and to have better management (I have to think the bad smells, sometimes rotten produce, and periodic dirtiness reflects management as well. The other day I was buying milk in there and they had 2 or 3 milk gallons that were covered with dirt or grease sitting right in the front row of the case. Never seen such a thing in a Publix, or at other Krogers.

I'm also a long time lurker and decided to finally get a handle to comment on the Sprouts development. I live a few blocks away in Eastwood and personally am very excited about the project -- both to get a good grocery store in the neighborhood and to replace the existing ugly and worn-out shopping center surrounded by a massive and unused parking lot. I like how they lined greenwood and sharpe with apartments to transition into the neighborhood and very much like the sidewalk improvements along gallatin, where there are currently none. It would be nice to have the sprouts it right up to Gallatin (perhaps with the parking structure located behind it instead of just surface parking), but this will be such an improvement on what is there that it isn't a big deal to me. The front-loading dock is also ugly, but If i lived right next to it I'd definitely not want a loading dock and alley right next to my house due to the noise, so I understand why it is like that. I do think the parking structure across the street is a little weird and I doubt it would get fully utilized unless it is mainly intended for employee parking (similar to the parking structure behind the rite-aid across from eastland kroger, which I have never seen used much). Having a crosswalk there will be good and should help pedestrians on Gallatin generally. If we got some inexpensive fast casual restaurants in there that would fill a niche in short supply in east nashville as well - though it looks like we are losing Cizar's, which is one of the best existing inexpensive places, so may be a wash. I do worry a bit about what Sharpe will look like as is often effectively one lane due to street parking on both sides, and frequent poor parking jobs.