Photo: Ktb615 via Wikimedia CommonsBreak out your hardhats, Bellevue. It's time to blow shit up.

Pre-boomtown-status Nashvillians may recall once-upon-a-mall Bellevue Center, a shopping complex out Bellevue way that closed in 2008. For a long time, folks postulated what just might become of the defunct Bellevue Center — our own J.R. Lind, in the virtual pages of the also-now-defunct City Paper, suggested that the spot might make a good home for an IKEA.

Well, no dice on the IKEA, but it does indeed look like something is to become of the old center. Developers Crosland Southeast are turning the spot into something they're calling One Bellevue Place, a "retail-driven, walkable, multi-use redevelopment of the existing Bellevue Mall. ... The redevelopment includes approximately 600,000 sf

of retail, entertainment and restaurant uses, approximately 300 multifamily residential units, a hotel and up to 150,000 sf of professional/medical office." You can see some renderings and site plans and that sort of thing right here.

But before the developers move forward with One Bellevue Place, they have to tend to the task of eliminating the old Bellevue Center, which still languishes sad and empty like the specter of Old Nashville. According to this Facebook event page, that's going to be done in pretty spectacular fashion, with a party hosted by District 22 Councilwoman Sheri Weiner on Aug. 22. The FB page says the celebration will go down from 3 to 8 p.m., with the "Demolition Ceremony" at 7 p.m., and food trucks provided by "The MoVeMeNT." There's little more info than that available, but more than 700 people have already RSVP'd to the event. Boomtown indeed. See you there?

Update: According to Councilwoman Weiner, "because of the potential for flying debris, there will not be an entire demolition" on Aug. 22. Rather, it will be a "ceremonial start (gash/chunk)." See more details, courtesy of Weiner, after the jump.

As much as everyone would love for the entire building to be demolished that day, it will not be done. It will be a ceremonial start (gash/chunk) to the actual process. Because of the potential for flying debris, there will not be an entire demolition. We will honor the past importance of this property as the community gathering place where so many of us brought our children, played as children and enjoyed the facilities. We will honor the future of the property as a future gathering place where our children will bring their children and where we can watch new families grow and put down roots here. Starting at 3, there will be music, food trucks, bounce houses, face painting and the ceremony at 7pm which should last about 45 minutes.



