Pollo Tropical coming to Nashville West in 2015

Mr. Ward reports for The Tennessean that Pollo Tropical is expanding their footprint with the opening of two new restaurants in the Metro area, one of which will land in the rapidly expanding Nashville West shopping area. The restaurant is scheduled to open mid-2015.

No other details are known at this time, but here is a short description of what you can expect from the menu:

From the article:

"Pollo Tropical is known for its fresh, flame-grilled chicken marinated in a blend of tropical fruit juices and spices and for made-from-scratch side dishes, soups, salads and wraps."

Victory Tattoo setting up shop across from Richland Park

New tattoo parlor opening up along Charlotte where Restore day spa was. This from their Yelp! description:

"We are pleased to announce that Victory Tattoo is a brand new shop opening in September 2014 in West Nashville, TN. Victory Tattoo will be a clean, sterile comfortable environment for you to get a custom tattoo as well as come in as a walk-in. The West Nashville neighborhood is rapidly growing, boasting many vintage and thrift stores, coffee, bars and restaurants including Calypso Cafe, M L Rose, the new Hattie B's Hot Chicken, and many more attractions."

Second Annual Nashville Outlines Block Party set for Aug 23

From nowplayingnashville.com:

Second annual Nashville Outlines Festival, presented by the Stone Fox, will be returning to West Nashville next Saturday. Voted Best Show of 2013 by the Nashville Scene, it will feature live music, food and drink, and activities for every age group. Included are:

• An extensive crafts market
• Third Man Rolling Record Store
• Kids Corner, with water play, hula hooping, face painting, and sidewalk chalk
• Food trucks and an outside bar, as well as food served indoors;
• Pop-up skate park
• Live art mural painting
• Live music on a garden stage

The most notable addition this year is the Nations Neighborhood Association's street scape installation along 51st Avenue, with bike lanes, temporary landscaping, and outdoor seating as a vision of how to make the neighborhood bike and pedestrian friendly. Later that night the after party inside by Future-Everything Artists Collective will feature a live showcase and dance music. Don't miss it!

OneC1TY unveils plans for C1TYblox

While OneC1TY has already broken ground for it's first building (TOA headquarters), last week it announced an additional one acre parcel will begin construction with hopes to be complete by year's end. C1TYblox is a unique development, in that the buildings will be pre-fabricated shipping containers.

The small retail district is being touted as a "food, fitness and event village" and it's unique design will be the first of it's kind in Nashville. Read more about this exciting development from William Williams' article below:

Cambridge Holdings Inc. announced today its OneC1TY health care and technology-focused mixed-use project under construction on Nashville’s west side will feature retail spaces made of repurposed shipping containers — the first of its kind in the city.

To be called C1TYblox, the collection of 21 repurposed shipping containers will be assembled and arranged to create a mini retail district spotlighting food, fitness and event spaces, according to Ryan Doyle, general manager for One City (stylized as oneC1TY). To date, Nashville’s retail space offered via retrofitted shipping containers has been more limited in scope: for example, the restaurant space in The 404 Hotel and Kitchen in The Gulch.

Doyle said he is hopeful the Metro Codes Administration Department will issue a permit early next week to allow for the construction of the one-acre food, fitness and event village on oneC1TY Nashville’s 19-acre campus, to be located at Charlotte Avenue and the 28th/31st Avenue Connector. The Carter Group will serve as general contractor, with an end-of-year completion date targeted. C1TYblox is expected to be operational up until the final phase of the multi-building oneC1TY master plan is completed within the next few years, Doyle said.

“C1TYblox will serve an important role as an accelerator and business incubator while we continue to develop the permanent oneC1TY community around it,” Doyle said. “It will allow us to bring in companies and services that share our mindful living philosophy, and it will play a key role in providing amenities to oneC1TY tenants, residents, visitors and the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Avo, a natural foods-oriented eatery that will offer a plant-based menu, is the first announced tenant for C1TYblox (read more here).

C1TYblox will face the soon-to-be constructed C1TY Boulevard and will feature parking immediately off Charlotte Avenue. Construction of oneC1TY’s infrastructure, green spaces, outdoor amenities and first office building began in late 2013.

C1TYblox will include a mix of programmable outdoor space, restaurants and fitness-oriented service businesses (with an emphasis on local ownership). Doyle said the use of shipping containers will allow Cambridge to provide services at oneC1TY far sooner than it could with conventional construction. It also will complement Cambridge’s and oneC1TY’s commitment to environmentally sensitive development, he added.

New York-based SG Blocks will manufacture the pre-fabricated containers, with delivery to the site set for this fall.

“Our business model revolves around speed and sustainability, and we know that oneC1TY and the community will greatly benefit from and enjoy these spaces,” said Paul Galvin, SG Blocks chairman and CEO. “We are disrupting the traditional real estate model by helping developers make use of their properties more quickly and efficiently. C1TYblox will serve as a great accelerator for the larger development of oneC1TY.”

Doyle said he has observed the useful application of reused shipping containers during his travels. For example, he said devastated natural disaster areas in New Zealand have become retail destinations, density and traffic have been generated in redeveloping neighborhoods in London, and pop-up music venues have been created in public spaces throughout Melbourne.

“Now we are bringing our version of this strategy to Nashville as the building blocks for incubating business, fitness and food concepts within the oneC1TY community,” Doyle said.

Gary Gaston, design director at the Nashville Civic Design Center, called the move “innovative.”

“It’s just an ingenious way to activate the site while all the work is happening,” Gaston said. “It will add a lot of energy to the site.”

The completion of C1TYblox by year’s end will come approximately 10 months before the first permanent building, which will rise four stories and span approximately 125,000 square feet, is completed on the oneC1TY campus.

When oneC1TY is fully developed, the mixed-use urban node will be home to companies representing the health care, life sciences and technology sectors of the global economy, comprising more than 1 million square feet of Class A research/office, retail, residential and green spaces.

Charlotte Avenue not losing momentum

These tidbit updates have been a lazy way to update this blog, but full time job and three little ones in the house have taken precedence. So without further ado, I deliver to you the latest positive news concerning Charlotte Avenue...

Rendering for HCA North Gulch building released

GS&P has released an early rendering for one (are there two planned?) of the buildings to house HCA subsidiary Parallon. More details from Getahn Ward here.


Primrose School moving in near 19th & Charlotte Avenue
Some more news from Mr. Ward - a new Primrose Academy will be opening at 1915 Charlotte Avenue. An open date was not released. Read more here.

Monty's Barbershop opening in Sylvan Park

Monty's Barbershop, a popular barber in the Arcade is on the cusp of opening a second location in Sylvan Park at the corner of Charlotte and 46th Avenues. Open date should be in the next week or two.

Avo, a raw restaurant opening near OneCity
As progress is being made at the OneCity site, one of the first retail establishments is already set to open early this fall. Avo is a plant-based restaurant that will serve inventive food and fresh cocktails. This unique concept will operate with a very unconventional kitchen—no fryers, gas or ovens—and of course all ingredients will be locally sourced and gluten-free. Check out the article in The Tennessean.

Hattie B's opening date?
West siders will soon be able to quench their thirst for some hot chicken as Hattie B's is set to open tomorrow (Thursday, July 24). Let's hope they have more success than Nuvo did.

Madison Mill moving in 2015
The giant industrial site that sits on the northeast corner of Sylvan Park will be moving their operations to Ashland City sometime in 2015. According to sources there are already plans in the works to develop the site. There are talks of possible apartments with some mixed use. This potential development would sit just south of the Hostess adaptive re-use and across the RR tracks from the upcoming Hill Center Sylvan Heights.

Craft brewery at former Moose lodge
TailGate Beer a craft brewer founded in San Diego has relocated to Nashville and plans to occupy the space at the former Moose Lodge at 7300 Charlotte Pike. They have plans to use the property as a beer hall and outdoor event space. They are temporarily located in MetroCenter. No opening date has been announced yet.

Investor buys two buildings fronting Richland Park
Two small buildings along Charlotte that front Richland Park were recently purchased by an investor. Hollywood Salon and ReStore. At this time it seems that he will continue to lease the space. No news on whether there will be new tenants or not.

Charlotte Avenue tidbits

Charlotte - the "last frontier"
Great interview with Jimmy Granbery on the "last frontier" that is Charlotte Ave. appeared in the NBJ last week. Highlights include:

• Hill Center Sylvan Heights looks to break ground this fall
• 4 separate office buildings (10K SF apiece) slated for former police precinct location fronting Nashville West shopping center

Read the entire article here.

Calypso Cafe now open
The new Calypso Cafe on Charlotte opened up a few weeks ago. Patrons have commented on the improved parking and increased space.

Climb Nashville hopes to open mid-June
Climb Nashville is hoping to waltz through inspections so that they can open their doors in the next week or so.

Hot chicken for west siders
The sign is up at Hattie B's - according to their Facebook page, they are hoping to open their doors later this month.

Two steps forward, one step back...
With the oncoming groundbreaking for Hill Center Sylvan Heights, the car wash and Cashville storefronts that are near Charlotte/40th will soon have to be razed. Well, for those of you that thought we could celebrate having one less check into cash store on Charlotte...think again. Cashville will be packing up and reopening in the new building that is being completed just a few doors down from ML Rose.

Lofts and Burgers and BRT, OH MY!

Let me first apologize for being off the blog for so long now. Life has been really busy lately, and I really haven't had a chance to dedicate a lot of time to writing. 

But the good news is, we have a lot to catch up on. Most of this might be old news to most of you, but each tidbit is definitely worth mentioning...so without further ado...

Major announcement made today for North Gulch site:

Gethan Ward over at The Tennessean broke the news from Boyle that some apartments and a 49,000 SF urban grocery are part of the development plans on the giant canvas that Northwestern Mutual has cobbled together near 11th & Charlotte. Very exciting news.

BRT Lite for Charlotte in the works?

Mayor Dean in his recent budget proceedings announced that he wants to include funds for BRT Lite (non-dedicated lanes) for Charlotte Avenue in the 2015 budget year. Read more here. 

Flip Burger announced as tenant at Hostess development

Top Chef alum Richard Blais is brining his "boutique burger" concept to Nashville and he chose the adaptive re-use project that is now in demo mode at 42nd/Charlotte. They hope to be open at the end of the summer. Read the details here. 

L&L Restaurant Supply owner has plans to revitalize

Tamay Ozari who owns the iconic L&L Restaurant Supply building on Charlotte near 39th Ave has plans to give the space a major facelift. Plans include 240 apartments, an organic grocery and restaurant. While this is fabulous news, Ozari mentioned that groundbreaking on this project is still a good two years out. Read the details here. 

Ozari is also bringing 2424 Lofts to Charlotte which will consist of 32 one-bedroom apartments sited just across Charlotte from Centennial Hospital. You can read about that project here.

The Sheds project names it's first tenant

A healthcare tech start up named InVivoLink announced Monday it would occupy 7,500 square feet, aiming to make the move in late summer. Read the details here.