The Daily Memphian

By Tom Bailey

An East Memphis building with a history of rich aromas is about to be reborn.

The smells will change, but promise to be as pleasing as sizzling bacon or baking biscuits.

Southall Café will open as soon as mid-August.

The building is about 40 yards south of the Norfolk Southern tracks at 669 S. Mendenhall. The place is highly visible along the busy Poplar Corridor, at least when a train isn’t rolling through.

That’s where Tobacco Corner Ltd. operated for decades.

“It took some time to get the smell out,” Southall partner Mark Pender said of ridding the white-brick building of the tobacco odors. “We left it open a long time.”

Southall Café will be a “chef-driven” breakfast and lunch restaurant using a lot of locally sourced ingredients, Pender said.

He’s a beekeeper himself, so the honey should be fresh.

Eighty percent of the menu is completed. The chef, whose identity has yet to be announced, will finish the menu with daily and brunch specials.

This is the 57-year-old Pender’s first experience as a restaurant owner, but he is a career veteran of the restaurant world. Most recently, he served as operations director for Sweet Grass in Cooper-Young, 117 Prime steakhouse and Belle Tavern Downtown and Sunrise in the Edge District.

His partners for Southall are attorney John Bobango of the Farris Bobango law firm and Mitchell Spurlock, an entrepreneur who was a founding board member for Triumph Bank and who co-founded Power Transport.

The concept for the breakfast/lunch eatery emerged after plans fell through for the building to house a MediCi Italian Kitchen, specializing in Neapolitan pizza.

The café’s name — Southall — refers both to its South Mendenhall location and to a family name in the Bobango family, Pender said.

On Friday, July 10, the construction crew put some finishing touches inside, including installation of cosmetic aluminum coverings over steel beams above the arched windows.

Another crew installed internet cables for point of sales, WiFi, phone service and eight security cameras.

A few of the booths were already in place. Southall should be ready to open next month as soon as the 25-by-45-foot patio is built on the building’s south side, Pender said.

The north side is closer to the rumbling trains. The café will embrace the occasional passing train with a discount special or shot of coffee for customers, Pender said.

Otherwise, the high-quality windows are expected to dampen the noise.

Southall Café anchors the north end of Williamsburg Village Shopping Center, which Boyle Investment Co. is transforming and even rebuilding.

Southall is part of phase 1 of the center’s renovation, along with new wine bar called The Hen House and the gift and stationery shop called Mrs. Post.

The Phase 1 renovation is about 75% complete.

Now that crews have completed such infrastructure work as running new water, sewer and power service to the buildings, said Jonathan Aur of Boyle Investment Co., “we’re finally getting to see the fun stuff: The beautiful new roofs, copper trim, the dormers, the storefronts.”

Attorney Mary Lauren Stewart is Bobango’s daughter and is part of the Southall Cafe ownership group. Asked what the restaurant will be like, Stewart replied, “Kind of an elevated breakfast and lunch restaurant. Taking good Southern cooking and elevating it.”

Pender likened the concept to an upscale breakfast restaurant in Denver called Snooze: An A.M. Eatery.

Snooze’s menu describes its French toast as “French-toasted brioche, completed with whipped mascarpone cream, seasonal fruit and Slopeside pure Vermont maple syrup.”

Snooze describes one version of its eggs Benedict as an English muffin “topped with shaved Tender Belly ham, perfectly poached cage-free eggs and smoked cheddar hollandaise.”

In Pender’s judgment, Southall fills a need East Memphis’ Poplar Corridor.

“We felt like breakfast was under-served in this area,” he said. “You have Staks (Pancakes at Poplar Avenue and Perkins Extended) and Blue Plate (Café at Poplar Avenue and Reddoch Cove).”

He anticipates routinely drawing breakfast and lunch diners from Highland Street on the west to near Germantown on the east, and from Summer Avenue on the north to Park Avenue on the south.

Southall Café’s hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The weekend menu will be brunch only.

The Daily Memphian

By Jennifer Biggs

It’s time to get the calendars out. Once Labor Day passes, the events start coming fast. Here are some coming soon.

Sip & Shop at Regalia is 5-7 p.m. Sept. 12 at Regalia Shopping Center at Poplar and Ridgeway. Tickets are $20 online through Sept. 11 and $25 on site. Beer and wine will be served by Great Wines & Spirits; there will be food from Salsa Cocina Mexicana, Sweet LaLa’s Bakery, Ronnie Grisanti’s Italian Restaurant and Owen Brennan’s, and live music by Michelle and Jeremy Shrader’s Quintessentials on the patio. There also will be shopping specials at many of the stores. Purchase your tickets online and be entered in a drawing for two $100 gift certificates for use at Regalia shops and restaurants.

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here. All proceeds will benefit Memphis Opportunity Scholarship Trust (MOST), a need-based scholarship program for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

Nashville Post

Mississippi-based L.A. Green chooses North Gulch building for first store in Tennessee

A women’s clothing and accessories boutique based in Starkville, Mississippi, will open its first location in Tennessee in November at Capitol View in the North Gulch.

L.A. Green will operate from the mixed-use building home to retail, The Residences at Capitol View and, this fall, a Publix grocery store. The address is 1012 Nelson Merry St.

Lauren Ann Cooper founded the L.A. Green franchise in 2011. Along with her Starkville home store, she has opened locations in Buckhead, Atlanta, and Tupelo, Mississippi. L.A. Green carries more than 50 brands, including its own private label — Forever Lovely.

Anna Caroline Toms is the local franchise owner. Toms, who is currently working as the office manager at the Starkville L.A. Green, expects to have one employee and will use interns to assist.

“After months of searching for the perfect spot to call L.A. Green’s new home, I kept finding myself going back to Capitol View,” Toms said. “I fell in love with the area as a whole and every person I interacted with there. With each visit, I could see how quickly Capitol View was growing into something special and the enthusiasm of the other business owners and residents was inspiring.”

L.A. Green is the latest in a string of women-owned businesses opting for Capitol View. Among others are SVM Boutique, Valerie Boutique and VICI.

Nashville Post

HCA Healthcare’s local division TriStar Health will open its fifteenth CareNow Urgent Care location in the North Gulch.

CareNow will offer care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, as well as physicals, vaccinations and check-ups, and X-ray and lab services. The 3,000 square-foot clinic will be located at 1020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and feature six exam rooms, according to a press release. The building, which also includes apartments, will soon see the opening of a Publix grocery store.

“This new downtown location allows our providers to offer patients in the rapidly growing North Gulch community convenient access to high-quality, non-emergency care close to where they live and work,” Heather Rohan, TriStar Health President and Chief Executive Officer, said in the release. “The new clinic is fully designed to offer the best possible experience for our patients.”

Nashville Business Journal 

Downtown residents and workers will soon have a new health care option steps from the State Capitol.

TriStar Health is set to open a CareNow Urgent Care clinic at 1020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Aug. 6, according to a news release. The 3,000-square-foot clinic will be housed inside the Capitol View development and will feature six exam rooms.

The downtown location, TriStar’s 15th CareNow clinic, will provide care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, and offer occupational medicine services, such as drug testing, to local employers, according to the release.

“This new downtown location allows our providers to offer patients in the rapidly growing North Gulch community convenient access to high-quality, non-emergency care close to where they live and work,” TriStar President and CEO Heather Rohan said in the release. “The new clinic is fully designed to offer the best possible experience for our patients.”

StyleBlueprint

Just north of the bustling Gulch neighborhood sits a 32-acre development called Capitol View. The first of its kind in Nashville, the “multi-use urban district” is home to retail stores, restaurants, fitness studios, apartments and more. The joint venture of Northwestern Mutual, Boyle Investment Company and Northwood Ravin was established in 2017 and also includes the corporate offices of HCA and LifeWay. The development brings a unique, walkable mini-neighborhood to the heart of downtown, offering string light-lined streets and healthy local eats, as well as larger national brands that specifically selected this area to open their doors in Nashville.

One of the familiar friendly faces you’ll find in Capitol View? Nashville’s beloved M.L. Rose. The craft beer and burger joint was one of the very first to open in Capitol View in 2017. Owner Austin Ray explains that it’s not the first time that he and his team have chosen to open in a not-yet-established neighborhood. They went in early to both the Melrose and Charlotte Avenue locations and with purpose. He tells us, “It’s been one of the most rewarding things as a neighborhood pub owner watching neighborhoods grow around a location.”

Austin was searching for a third M.L. Rose location, and once he learned about the development, he knew he’d found it. Capitol View is readily accessible to so many of Nashville’s hottest areas — near Bicentennial Mall and Germantown, right on the border of downtown, connecting with the Gulch via not just 11th Avenue but also the Gulch Greenway, and then you have Marathon Music Works just around the corner. Austin tells us, “The connectivity was unprecedented.” That’s likely why you will see so many local and non-local businesses establishing first, second or, in this case, third locations in the development. Well, that and the parking. Marla Skipper of SVM Boutique puts the thoughts of all residents into words: “The perks of free parking are unmatched!”

Sercy + Co. opened its first location in Capitol View earlier this year, filling their shop with beautiful, thoughtful gifts from candles, candies and books to cards, glassware and journals. The idea stemmed from the Southern tradition of “sercies,” or little just-because gifts meant to make you smile. The bright store invites browsing and shopping for a special surprise, and we recommend chatting with the fabulous team who can guide you through the stories of each item they carry.

New to Nashville, VICI, a popular women’s clothing store, will open its first location outside of California at Capitol View. They have a giant online presence but just two brick and mortar stores in California. They have a very loyal customer base in the Nashville area, though, so they began the search for a storefront here. Like Austin, they were struck by the walkability and accessible location of Capitol View and decided they’d found the place. Their VP of Buying and Marketing, Aimee Dudum Colorado, tells us, “Capitol View will be the perfect home for VICI, centrally located and next to all the errands and appointments a VICI girl does on the daily!”

Mark Traylor, a partner of Capitol View, explains the mission behind their development. “Our vision for Capitol View is to provide Nashville with the first all-encompassing district where you can shop, eat, work and live without leaving the neighborhood. Capitol View has been intentionally built to foster community, and we’re proud that so many retailers, restaurants and businesses have chosen to open their doors here.”

A community is forming, and we hear that straight from the source. Austin of M.L. Rose laughs, “If you have the beer place, you end up getting to know everyone.” It just so happens that M.L. Rose’s bar has been a gathering place for not just the residents of Capitol View, but also the new retailers, restaurateurs and other business people in the community. Their outdoor-facing bar is usually seated with a mix of people, all interacting with one another, both at the bar and in Capitol View. Below, find out what’s open, what’s coming and what else you can expect for the future of Capitol View.

NOW OPEN

Food & Drink:

• Clean Juice: This place is so much more than juice and smoothies! They have açaí bowls, toasts, grain bowls and salads. We’re fans of the protein toast, topped with avocado and hard-boiled egg. The menu is organic and clean, and the interior is too.
• M.L. Rose: It’s a Nashville favorite for a reason. Visit on Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. for trivia, and enjoy their wide selection of both craft brews and craft burgers. (SB TIP: It’s one of Nashville’s least-known patios … for now!)
• Starbucks: For a necessary pre-workout dose of caffeine
• Your Pie: Don’t let the chain vibe deceive you! This build-your-own pizza place is fresh and addictive. They have whole wheat and gluten-free crusts as well as reasonable prices.

Fashion & Shopping:

• Sercy+Co: This charming store is stocked with Southern gifts and goods. Duck in to browse or find a goodie for a birthday or “just because” gift.
• SVM: The shelves of SVM hold chic, on-trend clothing at affordable prices. Their fabulous team will style you for a night out or help you find the perfect pair of jeans.
• Valerie: This Tennessee women’s boutique got its start in Cool Springs and chose Capitol View as its second location. Find trendy clothing, fun t-shirts and other accessories.

Health & Beauty:

• Club Pilates: Club Pilates also chose to open in Capitol View due to its convenient location (and ample parking!). Try one of their many class options from early morning to evening, seven days a week.
• drybar: drybar brings its famous “blow dry only” salon concept to Nashville. Whether a visiting bachelorette party headed to Broadway or a local attending a Saturday event, drybar is your resource in Capitol View.
• Jón Alan Aveda Salon: This high-end salon offers hair cuts, colors and treatments, spa treatments and more.

Coming Soon …

• Central BBQ
• HOTBOX Fitness
• MassageLuXe
• Publix
• Rukus Cycling Studio
• VICI
• WeWork

… and more! Stay tuned.

The Memphis Business Journal

By Jacob Steimer

Boyle Investment Co. is preparing Schilling Farms for more office buildings, retail bays, and, potentially, apartments.

The 443-acre Collierville community has had a dearth of shovel-ready office lots since Boyle sold a 3.4-acre site to Mueller Industries in 2017, Boyle’s Les Binkley said. This drove the firm to start grading 54 undeveloped acres in the northwest corner of the community this summer, with hopes it could eventually hold three office buildings.

“There is activity in the [Memphis office] market we want to be able to capitalize on,” Binkley said.

The concept site plan for the 54 acres, which Boyle submitted to the Town of Collierville earlier this year, shows four retail buildings and a large apartment complex alongside the three office buildings.

Binkley did not give a timeline for the project but said his firm will likely start the expansion by building a pair of 10,000-square-foot retail buildings near the corner of Schilling Boulevard West and Poplar Avenue. The office buildings would start being developed as soon as each one is substantially leased.

The apartment complex will be built “eventually” but isn’t in the firm’s immediate plans, Binkley said. His company decided to go ahead and grade the entire 54 acres, though, since it will be easier than doing it piecemeal.

Nashville Business Journal

Real estate developers have teed up at least seven mixed-use projects in the pipeline on the east side of I-65, in the Cool Springs commercial hub.

But for right now, you’ll find most of the construction equipment on the other side of the highway — bringing to life a 45-acre property that’s been a target for development for at least the past dozen years.

The first buildings in the $270 million McEwen Northside project debut later this year. It’s a landmark checkpoint for developers Boyle Investment Co. and Northwood Ravin, as well as their financier, a wing of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

The site on McEwen Drive, across from a Whole Foods and a Bricktop’s restaurant, cycled through a number of owners and potential developers over those years. Thomas McDaniel, who oversees Boyle’s Middle Tennessee office portfolio, said on a site tour this month that the project’s mix of office, retail and apartments plays off work Boyle has been doing in this part of the market since at least the mid-2000s, when the company created the Meridian mixed-use development on the other side of I-65.

“We believe this is tailor-made for us,” McDaniel said.

Tenants announced so far include Williamson Inc., Club Pilates, Tiff’s Treats, Prose nail boutique — and Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille. McDaniel said the fact that the Houston-based chain is choosing Cool Springs for its first Middle Tennessee location validates the vision behind McEwen Northside.

“On the amenity side, [Cool Springs] is really just national chains. It’s not walkable. There’s no ‘district.’ We’re trying to counteract all that,” McDaniel said.

Click on the slideshow with this story to nose in on the progress Bell & Associates Construction is making.

Community Impact Newspaper

With more than 1 million square feet of office, retail and residential space under construction or planned in Franklin and Cool Springs over the next few years, it comes as no surprise for residents to see construction along major corridors these days. However, behind the cranes and steel beams is a growing trend.

Several mixed-use developments—projects featuring a combination of uses, such as office, residential and retail—have been established in the area recently with plans for more coming online.

“I think a major catalyst that helps that along is Envision Franklin—that’s our long-range planning document,” said Amy Diaz-Barriga, current planning supervisor for the city of Franklin. “We’ve always had one as a city, but we did an update to it in 2017. And part of that was to really promote the idea that you should mix living and working and playing all in the same area. It’s a trend all over the country, but we hadn’t seen it here.”

Projects including McEwen Northside, Mallory Green and Harpeth Square have all began development in just the past couple of years and are already under construction, with some tenants already moved in or expected to open as early as this summer. Others, such as East Works District, are still in the early phases of planning.

As part of the city’s Zone Franklin project, a draft of which was released in late May, the city is working to imagine how parts of the city, including Cool Springs, will look as more developers come into the area.

“You can’t expect Cool Springs to be downtown [Franklin],” Ward 1 Alderperson Beverly Berger said. “The culture of that [area]is going to be the new, younger, hipper place to be in Cool Springs. Some people want to be downtown, too, because that’s cool as well. Even though it’s very historic, it’s got a lot of character. But we need to bring more character to Cool Springs. We have good things in the space.”

The next open house for residents to provide input will be held Aug. 15, and the Zone Franklin plan is ultimately expected to be adopted in early 2020, according to a May 29 release from the city.

Meeting demand

As residential growth continues in the area, developers said these mixed-use projects are in response to changing market demands.

“I think we’re beginning to see the demographics begin to change,” said Phil Fawcett, managing partner for Boyle, the company developing McEwen Northside. “We’re seeing an increase in empty nesters. We’re seeing an increase in young professionals, which we’re responding to and changing the character of what we’re delivering.”

A common theme of mixed-use projects in the area features retail, office space and restaurants along the ground floor with residential units on the upper floors and hotels or other uses close nearby.

“[Mixed-use is] the trend across the country; there’s always a market segment that wants to live out[side the city]and they want more land there. They’re fine not being connected,” said Steve Bacon, chief operating officer for Harpeth Associates, the developer of Harpeth Square. “But there’s a big part of the segment that think it’s kind of cool that they can get out of the house, or wherever they’re living at a condo or apartment, and walk to somewhere to eat, walk to an event and not have to use the car.”

More than 700 apartment homes are slated for the Cool Springs area, according to site plans, which is expected to add to area growth. In a 2019 survey released in May, 38% of surveyed residents said growth and development were the biggest challenge facing the city, which was the No. 1 response. However, Berger said the development is appropriate for the area.

“What people don’t understand is Cool Springs was designed originally to hold a lot of density to be around the interstate, [for]future apartments, to put future workspaces, like corporations [and]bigger buildings,” she said.

While growth is a concern for residents, Diaz-Barriga said new development does not necessarily mean constructing a new building on previously undeveloped land. East Works District, located on the site of The Carothers Building on Carothers Parkway, has submitted plans to create more buildings and uses in and around the existing development.

“You can always redevelop sites, and I think we might see that trend coming forward,” Diaz-Barriga said. Especially in that I-65 corridor, where there’s lots and lots of parking lots, I think the trend will be that the parking lots will turn into parking structures, which frees up a lot of land to do these developments.”

“When a developer comes with one of these mixed-use centers, I think one of our goals is to see that is truly a mix of uses,” Diaz-Barriga said. “There’s a mix horizontally and vertically, not just a building with some apartments next to an office building next to a shopping center.”

Making connections

City officials and developers say one large advantage to mixed-use centers is their ability to provide more connectivity in the area, either by creating more walkable areas surrounding the development or by tying into existing infrastructure and transit.

Berger said older developments in the area do not necessarily provide the connections to surrounding residences and workplaces that the city would like to see.

“Now we’re finding out that these standalone office parks are really not a good thing, because you’re relying upon your car to get in and out all the time,” she said. “So, when you’re doing that you’re putting more traffic on the roads during the day. But we can improve the uses and keep people from having the need to get in their car and go out all the time during 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Site plans for developments such as Mallory Green and McEwen Northside include sidewalks and trails to connect them to other areas near McEwen Drive and Mallory Lane to allow residents or employees to walk to restaurants, shopping and grocery stores. Additionally, Harpeth Square will tie into the existing sidewalks in downtown Franklin.

“I think that’s good for the street life, and that’s good for the restaurants that are down there,” Bacon said. “It adds to the vibrancy of the community. You want a walkable, connected community, but you got to give them reasons to want to walk and connect.”

Additionally, because several of the new developments are zoned along I-65 in Cool Springs, new residents and employees will have access to public transit, as they are close to the Franklin Transit Authority’s Blue Line routes, which spans from I-65 near the Williamson Medical Center and the CoolSprings Galleria to downtown Franklin. Diaz-Barriga and Berger said they are hopeful connections like these could help take cars off the road, improving area traffic.

“One [thing]I personally hope to see come out of this rise in centers is that it might spur some additional alternative transportation trends,” Diaz-Barriga said. “As things get denser and folks need to move not so far to get to all their different places, perhaps transit becomes more of a reality for Franklin. I think that would be great.”

Nashville Post

Clean Juice will open in Capitol View on Friday, June 21, with a public event from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The downtown location is the third in Nashville for the North Carolina-based franchise.

The store, which bills itself a 100 percent certified organic juice bar, is located at 412 11th Ave. N. in the North Gulch mixed-used building home to The Residences at Capitol View. The restaurant and retail spaces in the building are managed by Franklin-based Boyle Investment Company.

Clean Juice joins other retailers in the structure, including Jón Alan Salon, drybar, Starbucks, Your Pie, M.L.Rose, SVM Boutique, Sercy + Co., and Valerie Boutique. Publix, HOTBOX, Rukus Cycling Studio, WeWork, VICI and Central BBQ are all slated for Capitol View, according to a press release.

“We were immediately drawn to Capitol View because … it bridges … the Gulch, Germantown and downtown, increasing the community feel of the district,” Shane Bowen, Clean Juice at Capitol View owner, said in the release. “Capitol View is creating an urban district for the next generation of Nashville, and we’re eager not only to bring Clean Juice to the area, but to truly connect with the community.”