Downsizing to high-rise condo
Forest Hills couple waits for the opening of The Adelicia, new lifestyle in Midtown
By NANCY DEVILLE | ndeville@tennessean.com | 259-8304
Published: Monday, 07/02/07 Elaine and Randolph Blake are counting the days until they can move into their brand-new Midtown condominium.After enjoying years in a spacious Forest Hills home, the 60-something couple thought it was time to consider downsizing and The Adelicia, one of Nashville’s newest condo developments, seemed to be the right fit. The Blakes are renting an apartment until construction is complete later this year.”We lived in a very wooded lot that was seemingly a little bit more than we wanted to take care of,” Elaine Blake said. “We knew that we wanted a condo but hadn’t looked at all. People told us The Adelicia was a new and interesting place to look. It offered a little more than most of the condos at the time. It seemed it was a good match for our wanting to downsize but still have amenities and a really nice place to live.”My husband will be able to walk to work, and hopefully more services will come to that area as these condos develop.”Nestled between Music Row, Vanderbilt, Peabody College and Scarritt-Bennett, the 18-story tower on 20th Avenue South will include a retail space and 186 luxury units, offering a mix of street-level brownstones, condos and penthouses. The project will include a fitness center, rooftop amenity deck, gated parking garage and a private dog park.”This area was ripe for the picking in terms of bringing in boomers and empty nesters that were interested in urban living,” said Ray Hensler of Corner Realty Partners.”This project is going to set the standard at the high end when it’s completed: for quality, attention to detail and location. The project has it all in terms of quality and offering people good value for all that.”The project is expected to be complete by this November.The units will offer private balconies, hardwood floors, granite countertops in kitchens and bathrooms and stainless steel appliances, along with views of the downtown skyline and surrounding colleges and universities.”Buyers will benefit because there is a full array of retail, restaurants and services already in Midtown,” Hensler said.”With the additional residents that move in, there will be even more retail and more restaurants. Some areas of town are starting from scratch trying to create neighborhoods. The advantage that Midtown has is that it’s already an established neighborhood. We were lucky to find one of the few sites that could be intensely developed.”Jay Pennington, owner of South Street and Bound’ry restaurants across the street from The Adelicia, welcomes the project. Although the condo tower is in a former parking lot that many restaurant patrons used, Pennington believes it’s a good addition to the area:”When we moved into the area 15 years ago there weren’t too many people living there. Now it’s going to be excellent to have more people in the neighborhood.”Midtown has changed immensely. When we first moved in, the area had gone downhill. Now it’s probably one of the most thriving areas in Nashville now.”