From her front porch, Ernestine Crutcher can no longer keep an eye on the schoolkids at the bus stop down the street.

A new three-story development under construction across the road — the first major commercial project on her block in decades — stands in the way.

Crutcher's Cleveland Park neighborhood is just now being swept into the region's development boom. Nashville is growing by more than 100 new residents a day, in a post-recession boom that seems boundless and is quickly transforming suburban sprawl into dense urban corridors.

This is the latest East Nashville enclave to undergo a transformation that equates to higher property values and higher housing costs. New residents from all over the world are moving onto streets that have remained largely untouched for decades.

Douglas Market, a run-down convenience store with bars on the windows, was torn down to make way for the dense upscale, but view-blocking, development.

In its place, the $5.9 million brick modern-industrial Douglas Market Lofts will bring four live-work lofts, a dozen townhomes, a fresh market, coffee shop and other small shops to the corner of Douglas and Lischey avenues.

"I think it's going to be OK once I get used to it," Crutcher said. "I like that they're bringing this area back to what I remember as a child."

Douglas Market Lofts

Crutcher was glad to see Douglas Market go because, she said, "they only sold stuff for a person who drinks or smokes."

Tom McCormick, a Nashville developer building the new project with several investment partners, said he was attracted to the community because it's popular and residents are open to redevelopment.

"People in this neighborhood want what the rest of Nashville has: a safe, walkable neighborhood with some shopping," McCormick said. "They will be able to come here to get some milk, bread and fruit."

Douglas Market Lofts will open in the spring with home prices starting just under $400,000.

Some of the units are designed with two-car garages and rooftop decks. The coffee shop and convenience market will be in the ground-floor commercial portions of the live-work lofts. Two additional shops haven't yet been decided, but McCormick said he hopes to bring in local small business owners.

"The feeling will be like 12 South," McCormick said of his development. "There's opportunity here because it's an emerging neighborhood."

The project is part of a new specific zoning plan along Douglas Avenue — Cleveland Park's northern boundary — allowing dense commercial development on certain parcels.

Cleveland Street serves as the neighborhood's southern boundary, with Ellington Parkway to the east and Dickerson Pike to the west.

Douglas Market Lofts is McCormick's second East Nashville project. The first was the redevelopment of of a 112-year-old Victorian building that once served as a women's school for the blind into eight condos called Lockeland Springs Lofts.

He's working with a team of local investors, including former president of the Metro Planning Commission Jim McLean and his two sons, Jimmy and Kerry. Akbar Arab, owner of TNG Contractors, is another investor who is overseeing construction.

"When you're a developer, you're cooking a stew," McCormick said. "What you're working toward is that it tastes good and there's a demand for it. This project is a unique live-work concept to create a walkable neighborhood."

A day care across the street from Crutcher's home, purchased for $135,000 in 2006, is listed for sale at $1.6 million. A few doors over, New Beginning Baptist Church is asking $2.9 million for its two properties.

Speculators show up at Crutcher's door routinely, asking to buy her home on the spot.

"A guy pulled up to my house once and said he wanted to make me an offer for my house," Crutcher said. "He said: 'I've got $400,000 in my car right now.' I said: 'You need to go ahead on.' If I wanted to sell, I'd have a for-sale sign out here."

A new era

Metro Councilman Brett Withers, whose district includes part of East Nashville, said Cleveland Park, neighboring McFerrin Park, and much of the surrounding area has long struggled with high rates of crime and poverty.

Investment brought needed development financing, but also dramatically changed the character of historic neighborhoods.

"When you go back 20 years ago, businesses and investors were also East Nashvillians who were pulling themselves and their neighbors up by their bootstraps," Withers said. "Neighbors would help each other work on their houses because you couldn't get a bank loan."

For-sale signs are now a common lawn ornament on the street lined with craftsman-style single-family homes on wide, grassy lots.

But Crutcher isn't ready to sell her white house with blue trim, even thought the property's value has risen astronomically from its 1981 purchase price of $33,000. It's now valued at more than $400,000.

"We did know everyone who lived on this street. But now we don't know everybody," she said. "The people moving in aren't too friendly."

Vestiges from the old era clash with the new.

Little Cee's Home Cooked Meals and Fresh Produce is still serving hearty meat-and-three plates with chitlins and catfish for less $10, even as new nearby Gallatin Avenue shops charge nearly $5 for a cup of coffee and $10 for a hot chicken sandwich.

"People used to be afraid to come over here, property values were relatively low, and property equity was so low it was difficult to get a home renovation done," Withers said. "The very rapid pace at which (redevelopment) is happening is something to behold."