Buyers scoop up new homes in old neighborhoods

Lisa Silver and Bob Dendy are trading their large house, 2-acre yard, koi pond and meditation garden in Green Hills for a third-floor condo and rooftop terrace in an urban neighborhood close to Centennial Park. They couldn’t be happier.

“This feels like an adventure, more things around us, more restaurants, more people,” Silver said of their new home in Mezzo Lofts West End, a modern three-story building at 3210 Long Blvd.

Silver and Dendy are joining a wave of homebuyers and apartment dwellers who are turning away from the suburbs. Instead, they want new homes in established, urban neighborhoods.

Developers like Tom McCormick, who created Mezzo Lofts, are working overtime to meet demand. He also developed Lockeland Springs Lofts, with eight condominiums in a completely rehabbed 112-year-old Victorian building in East Nashville.

“There is a true migration back from the suburbs to the city. People are looking for walkability, close proximity to restaurants and entertainment,” said McCormick.

McCormick partnered with Hannah Custom Homes to build Mezzo. For Lockeland Springs Lofts, he worked with TNG Construction.

Lockeland Springs Lofts quickly sold out for an average list price of around $265 per square foot. At Mezzo, where construction is wrapping up, seven of the nine residences were pre-sold at an average list price of $350 per square foot, he said.

Projects cropping up all over

Developers are pursuing numerous infill projects — new residences in established neighborhoods — across the area.

In East Nashville, Southeast Venture and Main St. Properties are planning a 249-apartment development at 416 Woodland St. The site, at the intersection of South Fifth and Woodland streets, is close to Nissan Stadium, where the Tennessee Titans play, and the bars and restaurants along Main Street.

In Franklin, nine luxury homes are being built in Benelli Park, a 4.2-acre development on Boyd Mill Avenue close to the city’s historic downtown. Vandalia, a 17-home cottage development, is located nearby. Ledgelawn, an infill neighborhood of six new luxury homes, is also located near downtown.

Nashville infill builder Jeff Estepp has 16 homes under construction “and 26 in the books that I haven’t even started on,” he said.

All but four are in the Nations, a quickly redeveloping neighborhood in West Nashville.

“It’s all about convenience, being close to the inner core,” he said.

The neighborhood is especially attractive to young buyers even though home prices are going up, he said.

“A lot of them are single, buying a $350,000 house and renting two bedrooms out to their friends to pay the note,” said Estepp.

Buyers crave city living

Regent Homes, the company that developed Lenox Village in south Nashville and numerous suburban neighborhoods, has a number of infill developments under way. They include Mason Rowhouses, a 10-unit townhouse project in the same West End Park neighborhood between Centennial Park and Interstate 440 where Mezzo West End is located.

Mason Rowhouses will range from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. Prices will range from the high $300,000s to the low $400,000s. Also in West End Park, Regent is developing four Charleston side-yard style townhomes at 3101 Bellwood St. Prices will range from $490,000 to $550,000. The company has completed three other projects in the West End area.

In nearby Hillsboro Village, Regent has plans for four European courtyard homes at 2116 Acklen Ave. Prices will average $650,000.

Regent Homes President David McGowan said he spoke with a couple planning to move from the Governors Club, the gated golf community in Brentwood.

“Everybody wants to be closer to work, all the bars and restaurants, all the amenities of the city,” he said of the appeal of infill homes.

Lisa Silver and Bob Dendy are looking forward to an entirely new lifestyle after they move to their new condo this fall.

“We’re so close to banks, restaurants, doctors, so much in walking distance as well as a short ride,” Silver said.

Their two small dogs will have to adjust to living in a top-floor condo without a yard, but the neighborhood has something for them, too.

“There’s a dog park nearby. I can let them run,” said Silver.

Reach Bill Lewis at 615-262-5862 or wlewis77229@comcast. net.