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Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory


smeagolsfree

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I'm looking forward to seeing some of these happen.  I'm a bit jaded seeing what's happening over at the 5 Points as all of Nashville seems to have all-of-the-sudden discovered it.  While I'll miss being able to stroll down to 3 Crow and get a beer quickly, I'll be excited to see the new developments and the energy they bring.

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Anyone else hear that the Hobson UM Church site is under contract?  Rumor is that it will be a condo/apartment development incorporating the existing structure and two new wings.  I'm concerned with reports that the wings will be three stories and that the parking will take up the whole side facing Chapel Ave.  I have not verified this.


Should have mentioned that the site is at the intersection of Greenwood Ave and Chapel Ave.

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Anyone else hear that the Hobson UM Church site is under contract?  Rumor is that it will be a condo/apartment development incorporating the existing structure and two new wings.  I'm concerned with reports that the wings will be three stories and that the parking will take up the whole side facing Chapel Ave.  I have not verified this.

Should have mentioned that the site is at the intersection of Greenwood Ave and Chapel Ave.

There are tons of rumors surrounding the Hobson property.  Although I can verify that there is a condo proposal underway right now.  The deal has not closed, though.  This was discussed briefly at Eastwood's last meeting on Tuesday, June 11th.

 

In terms of rumors, I was contacted by one neighbor who lives across Chapel who was told that there would be 60 units in there.  Not going to happen.  This is still a very iffy one because the asking price is $1.5M, and yet the building needs in excess of $1M to be stabilized.  So that's a fair amount of money to get a building that is usable.  Also, the Conservation Overlay requirements are that the Greenwood Ave setback be maintained, which means that a lot of acreage is not usable for building.  For similar reasons, the MHZC will not allow the Hobson House next door to be demolished, which I am happy about, personally, because it is also a contributing structure.  The bottom line is that the building sits on a very large site that is not terribly usable in order to build even the amount of housing that is currently permitted under the R6 residential zoning for that amount of acreage (1 single-family residence or duplex per 6,000 SF of land).

 

I would venture to guess that if this deal goes through, that there would be 6-8 condos inside the existing church structure (based on the plans for the historic Blind Girls School complex at 14th/Forrest in Lockeland Springs, which has a layout that is much more conducive to condos to begin with) and maybe a few additional residences constructed on the periphery.  If there are wings, they would be in the back of the structure away from either Chapel or Greenwood, and they would not be taller than the existing structure where they would be attached.  And based on the cost factors that I mentioned above, these condos would be rather expensive.  But again, it would preserve an historic structure and a fair amount of open space at that corner.  This kind of thing gets done all the time in Chicago with old church complexes that the Chicago Archdiocese is declaring to be surplus property.

 

But rest assured that any additions to the property will require MHZC approval, which will allow for community input.  If this deal proceeds, look for that agenda item at an upcoming Eastwood Neighbors meeting.

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One trend that I am hearing more and more about pertaining to developments in East Nashville is that real estate wholesalers are approaching homeowners with speculative, or even fictitious information about a supposed development proposal that is coming next door or nearby.  The wholesaler uses these scare tactics to convince the homeowners to sell at below-market price.  Keep in mind that sellers are still making a profit on their homes, its just that they may not know just how hot the market it right now, for example.  So the wholesaler gets a couple or several contiguous property owners to sell to him.  Then the wholesaler in turn sells the contracts to a real estate developer and makes a considerable profit.  The real estate developer then buys the properties at what is now a somewhat inflated price and then is in a position of needing to max out the value of the resulting properties either through (1) more dense development or (2) exclusively putting large, very expensive homes there.

 

As a neighborhood president working with my council member, I have seen this happen a couple of times in my neighborhood so far in the last few months.  Some of the speculative rumors are started by the real estate wholesalers, who are not actually the developers and do not have any idea what actually is going to go on these sites.  They are just trying to get people to sell so that they can in turn assemble properties, sell the contracts and make profits.

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One trend that I am hearing more and more about pertaining to developments in East Nashville is that real estate wholesalers are approaching homeowners with speculative, or even fictitious information about a supposed development proposal that is coming next door or nearby.  The wholesaler uses these scare tactics to convince the homeowners to sell at below-market price.  Keep in mind that sellers are still making a profit on their homes, its just that they may not know just how hot the market it right now, for example.  So the wholesaler gets a couple or several contiguous property owners to sell to him.  Then the wholesaler in turn sells the contracts to a real estate developer and makes a considerable profit.  The real estate developer then buys the properties at what is now a somewhat inflated price and then is in a position of needing to max out the value of the resulting properties either through (1) more dense development or (2) exclusively putting large, very expensive homes there.

 

As a neighborhood president working with my council member, I have seen this happen a couple of times in my neighborhood so far in the last few months.  Some of the speculative rumors are started by the real estate wholesalers, who are not actually the developers and do not have any idea what actually is going to go on these sites.  They are just trying to get people to sell so that they can in turn assemble properties, sell the contracts and make profits.

 

That is saddening, but not at all surprising. It is the type of news I think the public at large should know about. I'm sure it is covered at the neighborhood meetings, but perhaps some local TV coverage would shed some light on this practice. Have you or anyone you know tried contacting one of the news agencies?

 

This is exactly the sort of thing that could hurt the character of East Nashville. It is hot. It is becoming more expensive. But it should not be exclusive.

 

Is this primarily near Gallatin Rd, or does it affect the secondary avenues as well? I don't mind more dense development along Gallatin Rd...but the great thing about the character of EN is that many streets have a very "neighborhood" feel to them...even with a mix of housing. Large expensive homes and high density development don't belong on the secondary streets, IMO.

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I do think that there was an article about this in the Tennessean a little while back.  But yes, more coverage is needed, if only to alert people that really if they want to sell their house, they are probably better off putting it on the market in the normal fashion.  Some of the folks buying properties for developers are fine.  And some of the houses that are being demolished need to go, LOL!  But some of the wholesalers are pretty unscrupulous or even unethical.  If a large development is being planned near your house that will require a rezoning, you will hear about it in the mail from the Planning department, if noone else.

 

Unfortunately, some of these sites are nowhere near Gallatin but instead are pretty far in the interior of the neighborhoods.  Often on streets that don't have a ton of name recognition.

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I was told by one of the tenants that the apartment property at the top of the hill on Shelby Ave (apx 910 Shelby) was being sold/renovated and that all of the tenants have to be out by July 1st. If you are looking from downtown this is the property with the red roof you can see sticking through the trees at the top of the hill.

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The Court of Appeals has ruled that the Gallatin Pike Specific Plan that limited cash advance businesses and pawn shops, among other things, is null and void.  http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130625/NEWS0202/306250063/Zoning-to-overhaul-Gallatin-Pike-ruled-invalid  The suit was brought by the owners of check cashing businesses.  The lower court ruled against them and they appealed.  The appellate court has now ruled that the SP is invalid. 

 

One silver lining for me is that the SP concept is still considered valid, as long as the SP is related to an actual, imminent development.  In other words, an SP can still be used to handle site-specific needs for a development site in order to accomodate a specific business development.  It just seems that it can't be used as a proscriptive measure against certain business uses in the absence of an actualy development application.  I think.  But at least it is still possible to do SPs in Nashville - those weren't thrown out.

 

Another silver lining is that Planning/Codes can still put in place zoning protections and design guidelines for Gallatin and other pikes.  Codes will now focus more on form than on limiting function.  I think that this will improve the look of Gallatin and the pikes more than trying to limit the pawn shop uses.  Technically, some of the check cashing and title loan places on Gallatin actually are the more attractive businesses there.  Sad but true.  Personally, I'm much more disgruntled about the Discount Beer & Tobacco places or even the gas stations, whose patrons generate tons of litter in the form of cigarrette packaging, lottery tickets, beer bottles, and refuse.  Having Codes enforce the existing regulations by actually giving fines would make a big difference.

Edited by bwithers1
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I was told by one of the tenants that the apartment property at the top of the hill on Shelby Ave (apx 910 Shelby) was being sold/renovated and that all of the tenants have to be out by July 1st. If you are looking from downtown this is the property with the red roof you can see sticking through the trees at the top of the hill.

 

Work on this property will begin this week, should be a welcome renovation to that area.

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Guest 5th & Main Urbanite

I am very excited for this project. It has been a long time coming. The residents will have a great view of the park and the old churches.

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Construction has started with equipment on site.

Yeah, I saw it there at the 715 Woodland site this weekend, too.  I'm glad that they didn't start early or we would have had an East Side answer to Lake Palmer!

 

I do wonder why the "official" groundbreaking isn't until August.  Usuallyin Nashville there is an "official" groundbreaking and then nothing else happens for months.  

 

Big props to all the people who came out to East Park for the Hot Chicken Festival on July 4th despite the rain.  It looks like at least some Nashvillians are learning how to use an umbrella.

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Guest 5th & Main Urbanite

I worked the chicken festival. It was great.

 

More News:

 

1) The old Sine Systems Building will be a new Mexican Restaurant at 972 Main Street. Opening in August.

 

2) 715 has broken ground, but will only take up a fraction of the large surface lot. Asphalt was removed today.

 

3) The Filling Station will start construction soon on Main Street.

 

4) Ken's Sushi will be opening soon. They are now taking applications.

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I worked the chicken festival. It was great.

 

More News:

 

1) The old Sine Systems Building will be a new Mexican Restaurant at 972 Main Street. Opening in August.

 

2) 715 has broken ground, but will only take up a fraction of the large surface lot. Asphalt was removed today.

 

3) The Filling Station will start construction soon on Main Street.

 

4) Ken's Sushi will be opening soon. They are now taking applications.

The Mexican Restaurant at the old Sine building near 5points is the same management from Las Fiestas in Inglewood, people in East Nashville will love it.

Also, The Hop Stop is also under construction at the former Red Dog Scooters location at the corner of Gallatin Rd and Trinity Ln, this is the same management as the Village Pub over on Riverside Village

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