North Gulch - Northwestern Mutual - 30+ Acres Mixed Use

[BnaBreaker]

I can assure you, no ikea is "Urban-y". This would be a massive fail if that's what ended up there.

 

Completely agreed.  There may be one somewhere, but I personally have never seen an IKEA, even in Europe, that was anything but a massive big box warehouse surrounded by parking.  It'd be nice to have one in Nashville, I suppose, but they'd be much better suited for Antioch or somewhere else further out.

[Nathan_in_DC]

Completely agreed.  There may be one somewhere, but I personally have never seen an IKEA, even in Europe, that was anything but a massive big box warehouse surrounded by parking.  It'd be nice to have one in Nashville, I suppose, but they'd be much better suited for Antioch or somewhere else further out.

 

The ones in South Philadelphia and Brooklyn are the closest to an urban-y I've ever seen. And they're only urban-ish.  The Philadelphia one still has a large parking lot and was surrounded by things like Home Depot and Best Buy.

 

On a plus side, Ikeas often include underground parking, so they could, theoretically, shrink their footprint by doing more levels and having a redesigned warehouse space, and do all underground parking.

 

Still, if we ever see one in Nashville, this would probably be 3rd on my list of places it would most likely go (1 being Charlotte/Bellevue, 2 being Cool Springs/Brentwood).

[nashvillwill]

I think up around skyline medical would be a good place.

[bwithers1]

This is what I am hoping for!  However, as some of us discussed this at the meet on Saturday, the property has some unique "obstacles" to deal with.  One of the biggest (or maybe the biggest) is how the RR tracks cut through the property (properties).

My source who has seen the plans has said that the development will be "huge."  And this is from a person who handles a lot of technical stuff for Rolling Mill Hill, et al.  But my source is very professional and is keeping his lips sealed.

[L'burgnative]

^ Wonder if it would be possible to build over the tracks (no digging, but still buried), much like you see done in some urban interstates ?

[Guest]

I am sure plans have changed, but the RR tracks were to be used for street car within the complex. This is back when it was to be a large-scale Target/Grocery Store/Movie Theatre/Bowling Alley/Retail/Restaurant Destination...

They pitched the development to a UBS Fund and to Magic Johnson's firm prior to NW taking over.

[samsonh]

Target/movie theatre would be severe underuse of this land. This will be intense urban development similar to the gulch, but with patient big money backers.