West End Apartments (15 stories, 305 units, 5,000 sq. ft. of ground level retail, internal garage)

[markhollin]

West End Apartments will be a 15 story, 305 unit residential development being undertaken by a partnership of H.G. Hill Realty and Chartwell Residential.  It will also feature 5,000 sq. ft. of ground level retail and an internal garage on 1.5 acres at 2900 West End Ave.  (NW corner of West End and 29th Ave. North) Various grocery stores have operated in the 1 story structure on the site since 1950.  That building is about to be razed by Environmental Abatement Inc. via a $10,000 permit issued today.

Baker Barrios will be the architect; Catalyst Design Group will handle engineering. No renderings yet.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2022/10/13/piggly-wiggly-demolition-permit-h-g-hill-west-end.html
 

This screen shot from Smeagolsfree's excellent development map shows the site highlighted in teal at the center of the frame:

[Rick Dalton]

Big improvement. This area is infested with homeless.

[sambo]

1 hour ago, natethegreat said:

Big improvement. This area is infested with homeless.

Don't see it changing that much until they get rid of Parthenon towers. I wish a developer could buy it from Metro.

[donNdonelson2]

2 hours ago, sambo said:

Don't see it changing that much until they get rid of Parthenon towers. I wish a developer could buy it from Metro.

What does Parthenon Towers have to do with the abundance of homeless folks in the area? That building is section 8 housing, so those residents are not homeless. Is there a homeless service agency located in that building that offers aid to them? Or perhaps they just like to take shelter in the picnic pavilion?

Edited October 14, 2022 by donNdonelson2

[Flatrock]

Looks like Bombay Palace is going to make it...and for that, I'm grateful. 

Regarding Parthenon Towers - I don't think there's a correlation w/ homeless around the pavilion....which there are fewer of these days at Centennial Park. I believe Metro took a stand (there, at least).

[nashmoney]

3 hours ago, sambo said:

Don't see it changing that much until they get rid of Parthenon towers. I wish a developer could buy it from Metro.

Not sure why anyone would advocate for getting rid of any low income, disability, and senior housing. Any city would love to have a 20 story housing complex to house citizens, especially during these trying times.

Developers buying up affordable housing in Nashville's core has already created affordability issues in the city. 

Where would you expect for those hundreds of citizens to go? 

BTW... I have a family member that lives in that building. Yes there have been homeless people at the park shelter, but the majority of the people you may see sitting outside of Parthenon towers are just enjoying the outdoors, listening to music, or chatting with friends. 

Not everyone can afford to live in $3k 1bd apartments or purchase half a million dollar townhomes. 

Here are some pictures I took from my relatives house at the Parthenon towers from the 8th floor back in March. 

Also, the closure of the piggly wiggly hit those residents the hardest. Many do not have transportation and would walk or use their mobility chair to shop for groceries. Now the closest affordable grocery store is either the Kroger in bell meade, Rosa parks or Charlotte Ave. Whole foods and publix downtown are kind of expensive for people on a fixed income or ssi. 

Edited October 14, 2022 by nashmoney

[Flatrock]

44 minutes ago, nashmoney said:

. I have a family member that lives in that building.

I have also had loved ones living in that building. And I feel very protective of it.

[PillowTalk4]

I used to live in that area off 31st Ave. N. in the late 90's and I would walk or bicycle to that grocery store when it was I believe an H.G. Hill store.  That Piggly Wiggly serves more than the people living in Parthenon Tower.  It simply would not survive on those residents alone.  The need for a small grocery store in that area seems vital to the community as a whole. 

I know H.G. Hill Stores are no longer owned by the Hill family, but since their realty company is involved in this development, there may be some effort on their part to work with the Fleming Foods (owner of H.G. Hill Stores) to open a store at ground level of the residential building.  If not H.G. Hill maybe some other grocery store will consider opening there if ground retail is part of this development.

[smeagolsfree]

It's only going to have 5K of retail, so not enough for a grocery retailer. Even at 10K it would be small.

[Melrose]

14 hours ago, Flatrock said:

I have also had loved ones living in that building. And I feel very protective of it.

There's a certain pocket of posters on here that have very problematic, knee jerk and ignorant reactions about the unhoused,  which very quickly seems to extend to less privileged folks generally and then even worse.....

[bnacincy]

Shame about losing the storefront there-although I am looking to seeing a rendering on this project.

Maybe somebody like Publix could build something in the area behind this somewhere?

[NashRugger]

I feel like they should be required by Metro to rework the proposal to include more than enough retail space for a grocery. A Publix or whatever in an urban format would still do very well there given the density of residential in very close proximity, the university, etc. 

Honestly, if Hill is hell bent on not replacing the Piggly Wiggly with another grocery, they deserve nothing in my eyes. The closest true grocery stores are the Kroger on 12th and then Whole Foods on Broadway. 

[Baronakim]

5 hours ago, NashRugger said:

I feel like they should be required by Metro to rework the proposal to include more than enough retail space for a grocery. A Publix or whatever in an urban format would still do very well there given the density of residential in very close proximity, the university, etc. 

Honestly, if Hill is hell bent on not replacing the Piggly Wiggly with another grocery, they deserve nothing in my eyes. The closest true grocery stores are the Kroger on 12th and then Whole Foods on Broadway. 

What are you talking about?  While the number of urban groceries is not large, you have arguebly have  missed a number of them modrately close in to downtown.  You failed to mention the Turnip Trucks (though they are not particurly large), the new Publixes on Gallatin Pike and Melrose,  the large Kroger in Melrose and on 21st as well as the old Kroger on Rosa Parks,  in Belle Meade and Charolette.   These are all on busy bus routes.  I think once the area gets cleaned up somewhat more, a large grocery on Dickerson Pike would seem to be a good location for a new one once the East Bank develops more as well as in the East bank itself.  Likewise once the public housing on Lafayette gets replace as over on the East bank, a massive stoe near Traveca would be viable.  The land is cerainly there but the area as it exists now area is JUST NOT SAFE.  Furthermore, profit margins of large scale groceries are small, so it is a no brainer that a grocery of size on West End is not viable due to the value of the land.  The old Piggley Wiggley has hung on for so long only because the old one was already there.  If the economic factors would support grocery stores serving big bucks university housing like Vanderbilt or Belmont, you can be sure there would already be ones in operation.   Make no mistake, I loved the old grocery when I worked on West End at Lowes Vanderbilt, but it was very limited in scope for my needs.

IMO the surge in downtown residential is more slanted to new residents supporting the plethera of restaurants rather than in home food prep.  A large proportion of these new residents not only do not own vehicles.  but their in-house food preparation is fairly minimal compare to traditionally.   The food delivery  services seem to be thriving, just as Uber and Lyft servive non vehicle owning residents.  Affordable land of sufficient acreage on existing arteries just isn't there to build new stores. Times change and a universal habit of in-home dining is almost Jurassic.   Please remember that even Walmart could not make neighborhood markets work and closed them rather rapidly.    Please note that the majority of existing urban supermarkets are located in and serve older neighborhoods protected by some kind of overlay.   The construction of dense multifamily projects near them is just a bonus for the existing stores.  The Urban Core is a differnt kind of beast so far as I see it.  I consider the new Publix in Melrose to be a fair miracle in that it built a parking garage.  Look, even fast foods joints are falling by the wayside....it's a new culture folks.  If West End/ Midtown lost a Jack-in-the- Box, Taco Bell, Checkers and (soon to disappear IMO) Wendey's centennial, White Castle and Qudoba. To a large extent, how are large supermarkets formats still relevant? The trend is to Megastores these days.   Sorry but "requiring by Metro" IMO is a fantasy situation you are proposing.  You can provide retail space, but requiring specfic  tenents is a strech.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Baronakim
Pontification

[gannman]

6 hours ago, NashRugger said:

I feel like they should be required by Metro to rework the proposal to include more than enough retail space for a grocery. A Publix or whatever in an urban format would still do very well there given the density of residential in very close proximity, the university, etc. 

Honestly, if Hill is hell bent on not replacing the Piggly Wiggly with another grocery, they deserve nothing in my eyes. The closest true grocery stores are the Kroger on 12th and then Whole Foods on Broadway. 

Turnip Truck is opening a 23,500 sq ft grocery store in the new Vanderbilt graduate housing complex.

[smeagolsfree]

The folks that are hurt most by the demise of the Piggly Wiggly would not be helped by the addition of a Publix. I really do not think there are enough rooftops in the area yet to support a Publix at that location. 

The Turnip Truck at the new graduate housing will help out with the Vandy students, however I think that is a risk as their prices are way too high IMO for the typical college campus grocery store.

[markhollin]

1 hour ago, smeagolsfree said:

The Turnip Truck at the new graduate housing will help out with the Vandy students, however I think that is a risk as their prices are way too high IMO for the typical college campus grocery store.

The Vandy students that have to worry about grocery prices are very few and far between.  ; )

[donNdonelson2]

Here’s a question for those who posted about having someone they know who lives at Parthenon Tower. Do you know if there is any sort of regularly scheduled shuttle service for residents to get to a grocery stores or drug stores? (I’m sure some percentage of the residents there would have limitations due to handicaps.) If a transportation service is available, that certainly minimizes the impact of the loss of Piggly Wiggly.

[smeagolsfree]

6 hours ago, markhollin said:

The Vandy students that have to worry about grocery prices are very few and far between.  ; )

I will be there are a number of Belmont students that would have rather had something else there. It was a bad choice and if Vandy had allotted more space they could have gotten an urbanTarget at that location which would have been a much bigger hit.

If you have eve been to Target on White Bridge on move in week you will know what I am talking about as the store is full of Vandy and Belmont students.

The Kroger on 21st is not that far away and the Turnip Truck will never put them out of business with their prices. Do you do most of your shopping at TT, Mark? 

I know if I were down there, I would still be a savvy shopper and avoid the high end groceries and not be paying 8 buck for a jar of peanut butter.

[NashRugger]

On 10/16/2022 at 5:28 AM, gannman said:

Turnip Truck is opening a 23,500 sq ft grocery store in the new Vanderbilt graduate housing complex.

That's why I said a "true" grocery store because I love Turnip Truck dearly, they're not really geared more towards the typical format and product offerings say versus Publix or Piggly Wiggly. 

I believe there are more than enough residents within at least 4 square miles to have a Publix work. A lot of folks can't and won't afford Turnip Truck or Whole Foods, and the nearest comparable stores to Piggly Wiggly (Kroger) are well over a mile away in any direction. 

[uberkarnie]

apologies for the low light, but I guess they pulled this one down today.

[PillowTalk4]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:02 PM, donNdonelson2 said:

Here’s a question for those who posted about having someone they know who lives at Parthenon Tower. Do you know if there is any sort of regularly scheduled shuttle service for residents to get to a grocery stores or drug stores? (I’m sure some percentage of the residents there would have limitations due to handicaps.) If a transportation service is available, that certainly minimizes the impact of the loss of Piggly Wiggly.

I don't know anyone who lived or lives there.  I will say that when I lived in the area I observed be vans that would pick up people who lived there and took them to various places.  I also knew someone who worked with a non-profit social services organization that picked up people there to take them to nearby grocery stores, doctor appointments, etc.  

[markhollin]

Site scraped clean.

Looking SW from 29th Ave. North, 1/2 block north of West End Ave:

Looking NW from intersection of West End Ave. and 29th Ave. North:

[MLBrumby]

Any movement on this one?