South Walk

Busy news week.  A bunch of stuff is happening in Nolo. There’s a survey floating around.  The school board made plans to hire their new superintendent.  Nolensville was named the Best Place to Live in TN.  The school year is ending and graduations are taking place. Having said that, shout out to Derek Adams for recording tonight’s Meet the Developer meeting so I didn’t have to leave my couch.  Who would have thought that Derek Adams could have set up a camera and livestreamed the show to Youtube? Oh yeah, Derek Adams when he told BOMA he could do it for free.

All right, down to business.  The meeting with Matthew Chilvers was pretty awesome.  There was a lot of information over the course of an hour and 48 minutes that Matthew talked about.  I have to admit, with every answer he gave, I became more excited about the South Walk project. Remember, I’m allowed to have an opinion.  This is a blog, not the New York Times.

Who is Matthew Chilvers?

Matthew and his wife Julie have lived in Nolensville for 20 years, where they have raised their 7 children.  Matthew has been a successful entrepreneur since the age of 20. Most notably, he owned a musical instrument store for 20 years that he sold to buy some land on Nolensville Road.  Man, wish I had that idea 20 years ago. He also owns Outland USA which operates out of, you guessed it, Nolensville TN.

What is the vision for South Walk?

The idea behind South Walk came from a trip to Italy.  Matthew wants South Walk to be an upperscale development that encourages people to interact with each other while they’re out and about.  It would include a small grocery, restaurants, and storefronts along the main route with parking in the back. Over many of the storefronts would be office space or residential flats.  He also talked about gelato for a little bit, with some sinfully tempting pictures. Any time you freeze sugar, I’m all in.

What’s this I hear about a plaza?

You may have heard of Avalon, a mixed use development in Alpharetta that has much in common with South Walk.  Both developments include a plaza. The plaza in Avalon includes an ice rink, yoga in the park, music events, street festivals, tastings, and more.  The idea for South Walk’s plaza is similar and may include any or all of these. Additionally, the South Walk plaza could host the farmers market that is outgrowing the space at the old school house.  The plaza would be multi use and available throughout the whole year at the size of about half a football field. I don’t know about you, but I have 3 kids and that sounds phenomenal.

Why mixed use?

There’s so much info on this that I’m going to go old school and use bullet points

• Efficiency in building – only one foundation for multiple purposes
• More desirable to merchants and restauranteurs due to the people occupying the offices and residences that will naturally shop and dine where they live or work
• The concept allows the developer to make it rain on design and architectural embellishments.  Meaning, we fancy now. (he even mentioned fountains and art, take that Brentwood)
• Allows the development to be walkable when engineered that way from the beginning
• All of this attracts higher end retailers and chefs to make South Walk the best of the best

What stage is the project at?

The project is in the Concept Stage.  It needs to pass through the Planning Commission.  After that, BOMA needs to vote on it, followed by a Public Hearing, followed by another BOMA vote.  Along the way, changes can be made to suit the towns requests.

What was the Planning Commission’s initial feedback?

The initial feedback from the Planning Commission was, “Go home Matthew”.  The Planning Commission boldly told the developer that they don’t see the plan happening, and to come back with changes.  When Matthew asked what type of changes, they did not make any useful recommendations. Just not that. Their opposition seemed to be strongest in regards to the residential component.

What’s Matthew’s next move?

Matthew is planning on presenting the same or a very similar plan at the June Planning Commission meeting.  This is where YOU come into play. If you like South Walk and want to see it come to fruition, call BOMA. Call the Planning Commission.  Send Emails. Let them know. This is the biggest project proposed in Nolensville and if you like the concept, let the boards knows. Otherwise, Matthew is at the mercy of the people who refused to think outside the box.  

If not South Walk, then what?

Listen, Matthew does have options.  He will make money. He owns acreage with Nolensville Road access.  He’s sitting on a gold mine. He presented this plan because he loves Nolensville and wants to make something that everyone in Nolensville can enjoy and be proud of.  If this does not go through, he can develop some of the acreage with your standard strip malls and sell the rest. At the end of the day, that land will get developed.  He wants to develop it with the best possible concept for Nolensville.

What does the residential aspect look like?

The concept calls for 168 flats/condos and 50 townhomes.  The Townhomes would be in the back, behind Nolen Park. The flats/condos would be above the retail buildings.  The flats would be ~1100-1600 sq feet and the town homes would be ~1600-1800 square feet. Price point is TBD but not entry level.  

What’s up with all the concrete?

The parking currently includes a few hundred spots more than required.  There are 2 reasons for that. First, the final usage may change from current plans which may require additional spots if something like a shoe store is swapped out for something like a restaurant.  Second, the developer wants to allow for enough parking for things like festivals. Parking garages are out of the question as it costs $18k/spot to build, which would add $20M to the project. And underground parking ain’t happening with all this rock.  

Timing?

7 phases spread over 5 years is the most realistic answer here, but this can and will change as the build gets underway.  

Money?

When asked for projected tax revenue, Matthew used the Market Square estimate to come up with about $2.5M-$3M in annual tax revenue, based on square footage alone.  He did mention that setting tax revenue projections this early in the process is unusual. He only used Market Square as a baseline because the question asked of him referenced Market Square.  

From the developers standpoint, the project is $150M and he needs to line up investors once the Concept is passed.

Has Town Hall been involved in the process?

Yep! You wouldn’t know it based on how the Planning Commission meeting went, though.  Matthew had been in talks with town staff since the very early stages. He incorporated their feedback, such as including a playground and wider walking paths.  He mentioned that he specifically talked to Jimmy Alexander, Sarah, and Don and their feedback never once mentioned anything about density or residential concerns.  In fact, he did mention that they kept telling him they love it and to keep going. The resistance from the Planning Commission was a surprise (read: dude got blindsided).  

 

Obviously, I am in favor of South Walk.  The reason is because Matthew came off as an extremely honest, prepared, successful yet ethical Nollensvillian.  His Nolo love shined through with every question he answered. We need something like this in Nolensville. If it’s not this, it will be more strip malls, more traffic, and more driving to Cool Springs to do fun things with our kids.  Like with every project, there are some cons. Traffic is the most glaring. They would need to install traffic lights and add lanes. I can only guess what the noise levels in Nolen Park during construction periods would be, and the residential aspect will require more study of how school buses would navigate through the development.  Matthew had two memorable quotes. First, when you consider projects of this size, you need to make a pros and a cons list and see which one outweighs the other. Second,  this project is not the Nolensville of the past, but is it the Nolensville of the future?

 

-The Insider
Planning Commission:

Mayor	Jimmy Alexander	jimalexander@comcast.net
BOMA Liaison	Jason Patrick	jpatrick@nolensvilletn.gov
Chair	Douglas Radley	d.radley@comcast.net
	Ashlee Walden	ashleedwalden@gmail.com
Secretary	Bob Haines	bobhaines@comcast.net
	Larry Gardner	dozerman823@yahoo.com
Vice Chair	Andrew Grosson	andy.grosson@gmail.com
	Jimmy Reaves	jimmyreaves@comcast.net
	Joan Lawler	joan@joanlawler.com

BOMA:

Mayor	Jimmy Alexander	jimalexander@comcast.net
Vice Mayor	Jason Patrick	jpatrick@nolensvilletn.gov
Alderman	Tommy Duggar	tdugger@nolensvilletn.gov
	Larry Felts	lfelts@nolensvilletn.gov
	AndDerek Adams	dadams@nolensvilletn.gov