By William Williams, wwilliams@nashvillecitypaper.com
December 30, 2004

The juxtaposition borders on jaw-dropping.

Architecturally cutting-edge residences for the urbane and hip – mimicking those futuristic living spaces the intelligentsia read about in Dwell, Metropolitan Home and Metropolis magazines – are rising within West Nashville’s blue-collar Sylvan Heights neighborhood.

Given that this particular segment of Sylvan Heights is reminiscent – both in its architecture and infrastructure – of ramshackle rural America, circa 1950, the re-invention of the area is both bold and exciting.

Local developer Brett Massey, a strong proponent of the local New Urbanism movement community, is driving the effort with the homes, which perch precariously on a hill overlooking Interstate 440, Midtown, downtown and beyond.

“I drove around town looking at interesting parcels,” Massey said, describing how he discovered what will be called Nevada Heights for sales and marketing purposes. “Then I found [local architect] Manuel Zeitlin.”

That was a few years ago, as various matters complicated the development of the hill. Now, with the difficulties addressed and with fellow developer Dreaminc. a part of the mix, the 13 lots have one finished home, two residences that are almost completed and receiving significant interest from prospective buyers.

Massey has developed a handful of traditional homes in more suburban areas of the city. However, he yearned to tackle something more offbeat.

“I’ve always been intrigued with this type architecture,” he said.

Massey is working with Eric Scowden, an associate designer with Manuel Zeitlin Architects and the lead designer for some of the Nevada Heights homes.

“My experience and the reaction we’ve gotten from the first three is that there is a large market of young professionals that are interested in this type of lifestyle and home,” Scowden said.

Scowden describes the function and form of the homes as “contemporary with a modernist vocabulary.”

“The style is based on an efficiency of living space and on simplification of lifestyle,” he said.

For exterior materials, Scowden has used aluminum print press plates, glass, cement fiber board and formed-in-place concrete. The interiors are open, with clean lines.

Compared to nearby houses – many of which can still be bought for less than $100,000 – the Nevada Heights residences are not cheap. Prices range from $200,000 to $500,000, with those costs driven by practical considerations.

Scowden said affordability will remain an issues “until technology and the fabrication process are refined.”

Still, Massey is not concerned about selling the homes.

“I’ve got more buyers than I have lots,” he said. “The barrier has been broken.”

By RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer

For more than a decade, east Nashville has been a place for people to buy that old house, which may need a little or a whole lot of tender loving care, but is more affordable than similar neighborhoods on the west side of town.

Slowly, though, east Nashville has been getting a different buyer — one looking for urban amenities but not the headaches of an old house and is close to downtown. That means, condominiums and town homes.

Young professionals, musicians and artists have been attracted to the area in part because of the pricing, but also the amenities such as some nice restaurants and bars, which have shown staying power.

There isn’t the groundswell of condo development as there is in downtown or in parts of west Nashville. But it’s picking up.

This week, Affordable Housing Resources kicks off sales for the 10 town homes reaching completion at the corner of Scott and Eastland avenues. The nonprofit group typically focuses on residential development that mixes market-rate housing with units reserved for low-income buyers.

This project will be all market-rate, with units priced in the upper $100,000 range, said Eddie Latimer, executive director of Affordable Housing Resources.

More on the way

Meanwhile, last week, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency approved a development agreement with local attorney Whitney Kemper for a mixed-use development at the intersection of 11th and Fatherland streets.

That part of the multi-phase, 4-acre project will have condos in the upper two floors of a 31,000-square-foot building.

”We’re not, I don’t think, going to have any problems selling them,” Kemper said.

Another attorney, Fred Williams, is working with Bristol Development on a condo project with 30 to 40 units on the 900 block of Woodland Street. Lynn Ellsworth, owner of CODA Realty, is mulling what to do with the Bank of America across Woodland Street from the City View Lofts, which Ellsworth built. The 30-unit project was completed this year.

”I think we’ve got them all sold now,” Ellsworth said.

Development areas

Typically, condo and town home development crops up in places where prices for single-family homes have risen beyond the reach of some buyers but haven’t diminished the desire to live in the area, West End or the Midtown area, for example.

Of course there are the buyers who just don’t want to own a house and do yard work.

In some more desirable parts of east Nashville, home values have risen dramatically in the past few years, rivaling what has occurred in parts of west Nashville.

Neighborhoods such as Lockeland Springs, Historic Edgefield and Eastwood Neighbors have seen home values increase 40% to 50% or more in three years based on homes listed for sale now and their purchase prices in 2001.

In west Nashville, condo development has tended to reshuffle residents on that side of town, whereas the east side attracts new residents, real estate officials said.

”It sells at a discount to Hillsboro Village and West End,” said Sam Yeager, a partner in Bristol Development, which has an apartment project under construction in Midtown that the firm is considering converting to condos.

Demand topping supply

Latimer said he thinks demand for condos is greater than what is being built or is on the books.

”If you put in 1,000 units, you’d sell them,” he said.

Affordable Housing Resources developed Row 8.9n on Eighth Avenue across from the Farmers Market, as well as homes on Ireland Street around the corner. Both sold out quickly.

He said the ”creative class” concept applies to east Nashville or any of the urban areas drawing new residents. That concept was made popular by economist Richard Florida, who published a book two years ago titled The Rise of the Creative Class.

As Florida defined it, this class is usually well-paid, highly educated and values creativity, difference, individuality and merit. And they lean toward living in urban areas.

Real estate agent Mark Deutschmann, who is developing condos downtown, as well as marketing others, said of why east Nashville would be popular: ”I feel like it’s almost urban chic.”