Creating Places: A Citizen Observer's Look at Nashville's Built Environment


Writer's Note: William Williams' interest in the manmade environment dates to 1970, at which point the then-young Williams started a collection of postcards of city skylines. The collection now numbers 1,000-plus cards. Among the writer's specific interests are exterior building design, city district planning, demographics, signage, mixed-use development, mass transit and green/sustainable construction and living. Williams began his Creating Places column with The City Paper in February 2005. The column in its original form was discontinued in September 2008 and reinvented via this blog in November 2008. Creating Places can be found on the home page of the website of The City Paper, at which Williams has worked in various capacities since October 2000.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Creating Places: Midtown musings

I remain very bullish on Midtown and feel the Bristol Development Group project, which could include a Publix, on the Music Row Roundabout would be a major driver of additional infill. In many respects, Midtown has more potential than SoBro — if anything because it covers a vastly larger geographic area. Why more development is not happening in Midtown borders on baffling. To date, the only two major project underway are Elliston 23 and Hilton Home2 Suites, with Park 25, the aforementioned Bristol project, the hotel at FYE (which I think will happen) and the mixed-used Marriott project at 18th and West End (which seems 50-50) the most high-profile others that cold start in 2012. I suppose some developers might be waiting to see what the city wants to do with mass transit, with a Midtown component likely, before they move forward.

2 comments:

  1. Midtown needs a Publix desperately. Or even one in the gulch! Too many apartments are going up and so the market for one is ripe. Some people may say..."but, we have the Turnip Truck". It's cool for a few things, but its just not practical for a week's worth of groceries.

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  2. A-Mous,

    Good points. But I actually think the Truck and a Publix could play nicely off one another in a symbiotic relationship of sorts.

    WW

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