$270-million mixed-use project announced for Cool Springs

Two developers have teamed up to create plans for a $270 million mixed-use project on McEwen Drive just west of Interstate 65.

Boyle Investment Company and Northwood Ravin announced this morning that they want to build about 750,000 square feet of Class A office, more than 100,000 square feet of restaurants and specialty realty, and 580 upscale apartments on the 45-acre site known as Northside McEwen. There are also plans for a 150-room hotel on the site.

A press release said the developers aim for a mid-2018 completion.

“We are plowing ahead,” said Kristin Cales, marketing director for Boyle. “There are a lot of projects going up in Cool Springs, but we believe Northside will be very different than those, being 45 acres it will be very intimate, with parking around back, and all buildings up front against street. There will be wide sidewalks, and it will be very walkable, with essential green space for a gathering place. It will be really unique.”

The property may have a new plan but not new entitlements. It is entitled, through the McEwen master-planned community, for more than 870,000 square feet of commercial space, 580 attached residential units and 150 hotel rooms. However Cales said they will not necessarily use all that space.

“We will go block by block- it is almost like a puzzle with the space where we can swap pieces in and out, and be flexible so we can react to the market for the space,” she said. “Whatever our first site plan is, it may change with the market.”

The buildings, which the developers will build on spec, and will be vertically integrated.

“Boyle and Northwood are co-owners in the site and every asset class, so will be vertically mixed, with ground-floor retail and above it residential or office,” Cales said.

NR McEwen Property Owner LLC, which includes Northwood Investors from New York and Northwood Ravin from Charlotte, bought the property from Amstar for $27 million.

Cales said they will be submitting infrastructure plans to the city of Franklin this month, and hope to begin construction before the end of 2016.

The first phase of construction will be 165,000 square feet of office, 33,000 square feet of retail, and 340 multi-famly apartments.

The Memphis-and-Nashville-based Boyle and Charlotte-based Northwood Ravin, along with Northwestern Mutual, are also partners in the mixed-use Capitol View project in the Gulch in Nashville.

Originally Published by Franklin Home Page

By Cory Little