Inside 440 - Berry Hill, Midtown, Vanderbilt, 12S, WeHo, Fairgrounds, etc.

[satalac]

7 hours ago, AronG said:

Parking garages are totally dead space to me. When you're walking around a cool/busy neighborhood, they're big dead things with nothing interesting to see or visit that adds to the distance you have to walk to get to useful places. They serve no purpose other than storage, house no commercial or cultural activity, and generate scarce tax dollars relative to productive uses. They make everything more expensive because we all have to share the price to pay for them, and they also stimulate car traffic, as they're a subsidized invitation to thousands of people to bring their cars with them instead of bus/bike/walk/rideshare.

Alive, fun, useful place:

 

Dead no-mans land that becomes a wasted, empty spot on the map:

While I'd love for us to not need parking garages in our urban areas, the fact is, Nashville has no good form of public transportation, so the majority travel by car. You make it hard to park and downtown gets less accessable, and revenues/tax dollars go down. What kind of risk are you taking by limiting parking in hopes that people begin to see the light of public transportation? Is it short sighted? Maybe, but mass transit is unfortunately a long way away from happening in Nashville. I just can't agree that they are dead spaces when they do have an actual, functional use at this point in time in Nashville. It doesn't mean I like them however, they're a necessary evil, if you will. 

[Neigeville2]

9 hours ago, AronG said:

Parking garages are totally dead space to me. When you're walking around a cool/busy neighborhood, they're big dead things with nothing interesting to see or visit that adds to the distance you have to walk to get to useful places. ...

Dead no-mans land that becomes a wasted, empty spot on the map:

Below, the building on the right (at Church and 3rd) is a parking garage.  This street is beautifully activated, narrow, well-enclosed and pedestrian friendly.  Parking structures are not inherently bad, but there is a twofold problem, IMO, 1) they aren't required to be built with street activation and 2) they are usually in places like that huge campus of hospital buildings above.  I don't know if there exist any such corporate or hospital campuses that aren't dead zones, but I haven't seen one.  I am of the opinion that cars ruin everything, but it's not because of the garages.  We just need to require if they're on an urban street they need to address it property.  I really would like to see the DT library's parking get some retail spaces embedded in the ground floor facing onto Commerce at least.  I think it could be done.

[AronG]

16 hours ago, satalac said:

While I'd love for us to not need parking garages in our urban areas, the fact is, Nashville has no good form of public transportation, so the majority travel by car. You make it hard to park and downtown gets less accessable, and revenues/tax dollars go down. What kind of risk are you taking by limiting parking in hopes that people begin to see the light of public transportation? Is it short sighted? Maybe, but mass transit is unfortunately a long way away from happening in Nashville. I just can't agree that they are dead spaces when they do have an actual, functional use at this point in time in Nashville. It doesn't mean I like them however, they're a necessary evil, if you will. 

Fair, but I guess I'm making the case that it's no longer necessary to *add* to this particular evil. Cities grow over long periods of time based on the transportation options that are available, like a plant grows root structures based on the soil and moisture around it. I'm not advocating that we abruptly close all of our parking garages, I'm saying we should stop subsidizing and mandating new ones and start incentivizing people to find other ways to get around.

Right now we regulate and subsidize a huge surplus of parking for individual car commuters (3-4 parking spots per car), which amounts to a giant hidden tax that we all pay to encourage ourselves to use the worst form of transportation for urban areas. Real mass transit doesn't happen overnight, it builds slowly as more people choose to use it, enabling service upgrades which make it even more attractive. Dense streetscapes that make walking/biking a pleasant prospect aren't on/off either. They all have to grow organically over time, but the first step is to start fixing our weird tilted incentive structure that is a legacy of the past. You cite revenue/tax dollars, but those would both be wildly higher if you took even 10% of our land area that's devoted to pavement and put it towards productive uses. Building huge parking towers and paving half the county to incentivize people to live 20+ miles away from where they work is not an efficient way to generate economic activity.

Here's a report that came out the other day trying to put numbers on how much money goes toward parking: https://www.mba.org/2018-press-releases/july/riha-releases-new-report-quantified-parking-comprehensive-parking-inventories-for-five-major-us-cities. They looked at 5 cities, but here's the summary for Seattle:

$35 billion! More than a hundred grand *per household*!?! I wonder what the number for Nashville is? I wonder how the city would evolve if we slowly restructured incentives so that those costs were only footed by the people that choose to use it.

14 hours ago, Neigeville2 said:

Below, the building on the right (at Church and 3rd) is a parking garage.  This street is beautifully activated, narrow, well-enclosed and pedestrian friendly.  Parking structures are not inherently bad, but there is a twofold problem, IMO, 1) they aren't required to be built with street activation and 2) they are usually in places like that huge campus of hospital buildings above.  I don't know if there exist any such corporate or hospital campuses that aren't dead zones, but I haven't seen one.  I am of the opinion that cars ruin everything, but it's not because of the garages.  We just need to require if they're on an urban street they need to address it property.  I really would like to see the DT library's parking get some retail spaces embedded in the ground floor facing onto Commerce at least.  I think it could be done.

Totally agree that's a huge improvement compared to city blocks that are purely devoted to parking and nothing else. It's nowhere near as beneficial to the vibrancy and productivity of the city as buildings filled with people doing things but it goes a long way towards mitigating the damage to the urban fabric.

[markhollin]

West End Circle Flats (3 & 4 stories, 30 units) update.

Looking NE from intersection of West End Circle and Mason Ave:

 

Looking NW from West End Circle, 1/2 block east of Mason Ave:

Looking NW along West End Circle, 1/2 block east of Mason Ave:

Looking east from Mason Ave., 1/2 block north of West End Circle:

[satalac]

19 hours ago, AronG said:

Fair, but I guess I'm making the case that it's no longer necessary to *add* to this particular evil. Cities grow over long periods of time based on the transportation options that are available, like a plant grows root structures based on the soil and moisture around it. I'm not advocating that we abruptly close all of our parking garages, I'm saying we should stop subsidizing and mandating new ones and start incentivizing people to find other ways to get around.

Right now we regulate and subsidize a huge surplus of parking for individual car commuters (3-4 parking spots per car), which amounts to a giant hidden tax that we all pay to encourage ourselves to use the worst form of transportation for urban areas. Real mass transit doesn't happen overnight, it builds slowly as more people choose to use it, enabling service upgrades which make it even more attractive. Dense streetscapes that make walking/biking a pleasant prospect aren't on/off either. They all have to grow organically over time, but the first step is to start fixing our weird tilted incentive structure that is a legacy of the past. You cite revenue/tax dollars, but those would both be wildly higher if you took even 10% of our land area that's devoted to pavement and put it towards productive uses. Building huge parking towers and paving half the county to incentivize people to live 20+ miles away from where they work is not an efficient way to generate economic activity.

Here's a report that came out the other day trying to put numbers on how much money goes toward parking: https://www.mba.org/2018-press-releases/july/riha-releases-new-report-quantified-parking-comprehensive-parking-inventories-for-five-major-us-cities. They looked at 5 cities, but here's the summary for Seattle:

$35 billion! More than a hundred grand *per household*!?! I wonder what the number for Nashville is? I wonder how the city would evolve if we slowly restructured incentives so that those costs were only footed by the people that choose to use it.

Totally agree that's a huge improvement compared to city blocks that are purely devoted to parking and nothing else. It's nowhere near as beneficial to the vibrancy and productivity of the city as buildings filled with people doing things but it goes a long way towards mitigating the damage to the urban fabric.

That is good information, but part of the reason that people live 20+ miles away is due to housing affordability. It's cheaper for someone to live in places like Antioch or Murfreesboro and commute into downtown. If we could get a viable mass transit plan in place, I believe that dedicated parking structures would be a much less attractive thing for developers to build. Trust me, I'd love to see other things than garages built downtown. 

[smeagolsfree]

On ‎7‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 6:53 PM, Neigeville2 said:

Below, the building on the right (at Church and 3rd) is a parking garage.  This street is beautifully activated, narrow, well-enclosed and pedestrian friendly.  Parking structures are not inherently bad, but there is a twofold problem, IMO, 1) they aren't required to be built with street activation and 2) they are usually in places like that huge campus of hospital buildings above.  I don't know if there exist any such corporate or hospital campuses that aren't dead zones, but I haven't seen one.  I am of the opinion that cars ruin everything, but it's not because of the garages.  We just need to require if they're on an urban street they need to address it property.  I really would like to see the DT library's parking get some retail spaces embedded in the ground floor facing onto Commerce at least.  I think it could be done. 

 

That particular section of Third Ave was not always like that. The store fronts were often vacant or they were Loan Companies. In the case of Loan companies I would rather they just be vacant store fronts as all they are is legal loan sharks that prey on the poor. It has changed a lot for the better over the past 15 years.

A lot of the activation of these streets depends on foot traffic. You do have to remember the area on Hayes is a mile and a half outside the core, however if there is enough foot traffic, then garage fronts can be converted to retail as the garage on the East side of 5th Ave N across from the Central Church of Christ.

For this to work there has to be a critical mass of residential near by for a customer base. These types of street activations are really cool if they are done correctly but most of the time you only see a lot of this in much older, larger cities like NYC, Chicago and Philly.

 

I agree it would be nice but probably will not happen in my lifetime.

 

[markhollin]

Benchmark Sound Studio, which for many decades was known as Emerald Sound Studios, at 1033 16th Ave. South, has hit the market for $3.4 million.  It is on a .32 acre parcel.  Many artists including Johnny Cash, Olivia Newtown-John, Eddie Rabbitt, George Strait, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, Steven Tyler, Reba McEntire, Josh Turner Michael Bolton,  Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Steve Winwood,  and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded there since it was originally opened in 1981.  

Sad to see more and more of these studios dwindling away---but if there simply isn't enough business to pay the bills anymore, there's not much that can be done.  Perhaps an entrepreneur will either start buying up these landmarks for museums honoring the heritage of Music Row...or at least buy the sound boards, some of the equipment, furniture, photos on the wall, framed gold/platinum albums, etc. for a Nashville Recording Studio Museum.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21013326/famed-music-row-property-hits-market-for-34m

 

 

[titanhog]

^^Have done work in Benchmark / Emerald for many years.  It's Lee Greenwood's old studio.  Bathrooms have emerald green toilets and sinks with gold fixtures.  Odd but kinda neat, too.

[markhollin]

The building that housed Provence Breads & Cafe at 1705 21st Ave. South in Hillsboro Village is for sale for an undisclosed price.

The approximately 4,340-square-foot brick building was constructed in the 1920. The parcel includes a small surface parking lot positioned behind the building and running along the north side of the structured home to the Belcourt Theatre.

Years ago, the building was home to the Hillsboro Pharmacy, which offered a soda fountain, magazine racks and carhops taking orders at the curb.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21014178/hillsboro-village-building-last-home-to-provence-hits-market
 

[markhollin]

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital addition (4 stories on top of existing 8) update:

Looking west from intersection of 21st Ave South and Capers Ave:

Looking north from Belcourt Theater parking lot on Belcourt Ave:

[markhollin]

V21, Phase II (3 stories, restaurant/retail) update.

Looking NE from intersection of Wedgewood Ave. and 21st Ave. South:

[Hey_Hey]

I love that the urban neighborhood feel of Hillsboro Village has jumped to this side of Wedgewood. I also really like the mix of trees and dense development. 

[PillowTalk4]

23 hours ago, Hey_Hey said:

I love that the urban neighborhood feel of Hillsboro Village has jumped to this side of Wedgewood. I also really like the mix of trees and dense development. 

I really hope Nashville will do more to green-up the city in terms of trees.  I thought about that over the weekend in when I was driving into DC to meet up with friends and for some reason the number of tree lined streets really caught my attention.  It hit me that practically every street I drove on in DC had trees.  Some had a combination of trees and nicely planted medians.  I agree that the mix of trees and dense development is nice.  DC is pretty dense, so the trees play a vital role to soften up the hardscape and bringing nature into the urban core.  For me it's what keeps downtown/urban areas from feeling like the suburbs where so many of the trees are torn out to develop subdivisions and shopping centers.  I live in a subdivision that is still being developed but was started in 2005.  While they left naturally forested areas throughout the community as required by our county and the State of Maryland, I like that the planted trees are starting to create the tree lined impact they were hoping to achieve.  Unfortunately, I probably won't be around by the time they all reach maturity.

I'm looking forward to being back home in Nashville over the Labor Day Weekend holiday...

Edited July 26, 2018 by PillowTalk4

[markhollin]

47 minutes ago, PillowTalk4 said:

 

I'm looking forward to being back home in Nashville over the Labor Day Weekend holiday...

If you have time, PillowTalk4, you'll need to visit our Urban Planet Meet-Up on Saturday, Sept. 1st from 10 AM to noon a Luna Llena Taqueria (300 James Robertson Parkway, on NE corner of JRP and Third Ave. North).    : )

[markhollin]

Belcourt Park in Hillsboro Village (4 stories, 76 units) at 1710 Belcourt Ave. just opened a month ago, and is already 50% leased.

More behind the Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21014960/newly-opened-belcourt-park-already-at-50-leased 

[CenterHill]

11 hours ago, PillowTalk4 said:

I really hope Nashville will do more to green-up the city in terms of trees.  I thought about that over the weekend in when I was driving into DC to meet up with friends and for some reason the number of tree lined streets really caught my attention.  It hit me that practically every street I drove on in DC had trees.  Some had a combination of trees and nicely planted medians.  I agree that the mix of trees and dense development is nice.  DC is pretty dense, so the trees play a vital role in soften up the hardscape and bringing nature into the urban core.  For me it's what keeps downtown/urban areas from feeling like the suburbs where so many of the trees are torn out to develop subdivisions and shopping centers.  I live in a subdivision that is still being developed but was started in 2005.  While they left naturally forested areas throughout the community as required by our county and the State of Maryland, I like that the planted trees are starting to create the tree lined impact they were hoping to achieve.  Unfortunately, I probably won't be around by the time they all reach maturity.

 

You've hit on something that has been a particular rant of mine for many years.     While Nashville, as in Metro Davidson, has fairly good tree cover as a whole, most of that is from private property owners who maintain the trees on their properties.    When it comes to trees in the public right of way (ie, trees lining our streets), which in the urban core are either planted by the city or by developers pursuant to a city requirement, Nashville does pretty horrible job.     The problem has to do with maintenance of the trees after they are planted.     When a developer plants a tree along the street, their job is done.    But that tree will need to be watered and fertilized until it is established, and once established will need to be pruned to remove low-growing or dead branches.    That's the part that is lacking.        As a result, many trees die after a year or two of being planted due to lack of water.   Many others turn pale and wither from lack of nutrients and they eventually die (drive down 11th Ave through the Gulch, the nicely landscaped complete street that was finished a few years ago and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about - such a nice streetscape, but the young trees and bedding plants have been left to go to hell).   

Great street trees don't just happen.   They require effort and dedicated personnel to flourish.     Whose job is it to maintain Nashville's street trees?    Outside of downtown, trees in the right of way are the responsibility of property owners and various volunteer organizations.     Downtown, it is under Public Works.     Public Works employees are good people, but really it takes a department, or someone within the department, to make tree maintenance a priority.    I don't see that here, and having lived here 30 years, have never seen it.    No one in Metro has ever said this is important, we need to make this a priority that will pay off for future generations.      Metro has an employee position called Urban Forester, but that person's job description is solely  to make sure developers comply with their planting obligations in each new development that falls within the tree density/replacement ordinance.   That's it.  

And then there's NES.   I almost started my reply with, you can have tree-lined streets or you can have NES, but you can't have both.     We have NES.     But again, downtown you have minimal overhead power lines, so NES is not to blame.      If I were mayor for a day, I would expand the role of the office of Urban Forester to oversee a cataloging and inventory of street trees, implement a comprehensive maintenance plan and ensure the work got done.     (there would be lots of other stuff I would do as mayor for a day, but that's another topic...LOL)      

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by CenterHill

[SoundScan]

Here in San Francisco the care and maintenance of the city's trees in public ROW recently transferred back to the city, a result of a ballot measure that passed with 80% approval. The city has good streetscape coverage, but the total canopy area had apparently been shrinking due to lack of maintenance by property owners. The improvements are already noticeable. The entire urban forest in inventoried and mapped here: https://urbanforestmap.org/

SF is also the first city in the nation to have a park or open space within a 10 minute walk of every residence. The surprising impact this has on quality of life was honestly something I never considered until we moved out here, though the weather may be part of that.

Edited July 26, 2018 by SoundScan

[markhollin]

Belcourt Village (4 stories, 24,000 sq. ft. office/retail, 28 residential units, underground garage) update. Hole getting deeper.

Looking south from Belcourt Ave., 1/2 block west of 21st Ave. South:

Looking SW from Belcourt Ave., 1/2 block west of 21st Ave. South:




Looking south from Belcourt Ave., 3/4 block west of 21st Ave. South:

[CenterHill]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Belcourt Village (4 stories, 24,000 sq. ft. office/retail, 28 residential units, underground garage) update. Hole getting deeper

Looking SW from Belcourt Ave., 1/2 block west of 21st Ave. South:


 

 

 

I turned onto Belcourt Ave yesterday and the first thing I noticed were the massive new power line poles, similar to the distant one at the center of this picture, one of which is partly visible at the right margin in this view.     With all of the construction in Hillsboro Village, I can’t help thinking we missed an opportunity to go underground with power lines in this area.    

[markhollin]

The Catholic Diocese of Nashville has sold its building and lot (2.09  acres)  at 2400 21st Ave. South has for $6 million. The 3 story brick structure has 23,520 sq. ft. and was erected in 1957. The property is zoned office-residential.

The buyer is Linden Row Residential LLC, which leads folks to believe it will be a residential project.  But no one is answering questions just yet.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21015037/excatholic-diocese-headquarters-on-21st-sells-for-6m
 

 

[PillowTalk4]

20 hours ago, markhollin said:

If you have time, PillowTalk4, you'll need to visit our Urban Planet Meet-Up on Saturday, Sept. 1st from 10 AM to noon a Luna Llena Taqueria (300 James Robertson Parkway, on NE corner of JRP and Third Ave. North).    : )

Thanks for the invite.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to make that meeting due to other obligations throughout that day.  But, I'm looking forward to seeing all that's changed since my last visit in November of 2017.   

[Pdt2f]

14 hours ago, markhollin said:

The Catholic Diocese of Nashville has sold its building and lot (2.09  acres)  at 2400 21st Ave. South has for $6 million. The 3 story brick structure has 23,520 sq. ft. and was erected in 1957. The property is zoned office-residential.

The buyer is Linden Row Residential LLC, which leads folks to believe it will be a residential project.  But no one is answering questions just yet.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21015037/excatholic-diocese-headquarters-on-21st-sells-for-6m
 

 

The Diocese moved its offices to the former site of Two Rivers Baptist, directly across Briley from the Opryland Hotel. It holds the pastoral center for large events (the Cathedral on West End is too small), diocesan offices, and the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus parish - a new and thriving Spanish-language parish (making two Spanish language parishes for Nashville, along with Our Lady of Guadalupe on Nolensville). 

[markhollin]

The work at 121 Flats in West End Park is set to resume after some delays via change in contractor.  It is now going to be listed as a hotel.  With an address of 121 30th Ave. North, it will include 3 high-end apartments, and 5 luxury hotel units. It is set to open in early 2019.  Two new renderings are available below.

More at Nashville Post here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21015007/work-set-to-resume-on-boutique-hotel-project
 

[markhollin]

Moxy Hotel Hillsboro Village (6 stories, 130 rooms, 47 residential units, retail, inner garage) update.  Up to 2nd floor.

Looking SE from intersection of Belcourt Ave. and 20th Ave. South:

[markhollin]

The remodel on 2416 21st Ave. South is complete.

Looking SE from the intersection of 21st Ave. South and Beechwood Ave: