Planning commission approves Belle Meade Plaza site rezoning

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

The Metro Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday night — after about five hours of debate and citizen feedback — to approve a specific plan rezoning request related to a high-profile development proposed for the Belle Meade Plaza shopping center.

Nashville-based Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners plans to acquire the property, which includes a retail and office building hugging the White Bridge Road viaduct and recognized as the home of Agave’s Mexican Restaurant and Belle Meade Premium Cigars, among other businesses and the Kroger structure. The address is 4544 Harding Pike.

The Metro Council will now need to vote to approve the rezoning to allow the multibuilding project to materialize. The property sits within Metro Councilmember Kathleen Murphy’s District 24, with Murphy having previously noted the project proposal offers numerous positive elements. With planning commission approval, a simple majority vote approval is needed from the council.

Thursday night’s meeting drew both proponents and opponents of the plan. Many of the people who have concerns about the future project live in Belle Meade, with the property to be reinvented not located within that satellite city.

“Thank you to the planning commission for hearing our proposal and helping this project get to the next step,” Pablo David, AJ Capital vice president for government relations and community relations, emailed the Post. “We look forward to continue working with Councilwoman Murphy, her council colleagues and the community as this process continues.

As the Post recently reported, and according to multi-page Metro Planning Department document, the heights of all the planned buildings have been reduced. In addition, a Nashville Department of Transportation study shows multiple findings that AJ Capital said it plans to incorporate. These include the widening of a portion of Harding Pike and the alteration of signal light placements (to improve traffic flow).

The document shows maximum building heights of approximately 100 feet, 130 feet, 140 feet and 150 feet. Previously as envisioned, the buildings could have stood of 210 feet (12 stories), 140 feet (11 stories), 160 feet (14 stories) and 170 feet (15 stories).

Each building planned for the site would stand fewer feet than the nearby 1 Belle Meade Place, which rises more than 150 feet and sits at 4400 Harding Pike.

The original concept considered 60,000 square feet of retail space, with the proposal now at 80,000 square feet. The number of parking spaces, originally about 680, was upped to 950 and then reduced to 920.

One of the proposed buildings will include 78 hotel rooms (down from 120) and 388 residential units (down from 500).

AJ Capital officials have said the changes are in response to community feedback. Various public meetings related to the project have bordered on contentious, with many locals expressing multiple concerns. As previously reported, extensive landscaping and full incorporation of Richland Creek as a water feature and river walk are planned. The plan will involve a partial rerouting and restoration of the creek, with flood mitigation to be undertaken. A platform rising above Richland Creek will be part of the effort. About 60 percent of the site’s 10.5 acres will be devoted to green and open space.

Opened in 1961, the two-level modernist Belle Meade Plaza sits on roughly 10.57 acres. The building includes about 205,500 square feet and was one of Nashville’s first mixed-use buildings (retail on level one and office on floor two) oriented in a suburban manner, with the structure separated from the street by surface parking.

Nashville’s May family owns the property, seemingly having paid $14.5 million for it in January 1997, according to Metro records. The property also includes the Kroger structure, with the grocery business to eventually relocate to the former Belle Meade Theater building, the space last occupied by a Harris Teeter.

Sources said the property could command a minimum of $80 million. Tenants include Wells Fargo Bank, Ninki, Pho Ann, CVS, Starbucks, Office Depot and Katy’s Hallmark Shop.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.