Antioch: Nashville's rising phoenix with a 'PR problem'

David Plazas | The Tennessean

Editor's note: This is Part VI of the "Costs of Growth and Change in Nashville" series on the affordable housing crisis, which runs on the last Sunday of the month.

Watch: Antioch, Nashville's resurgent, emerging community Southeast Nashville is the fastest-growing area of Davidson County, and it is a resurgent, emerging and thriving community.

Antioch today is a resurgent community that is hitting its stride.

The ghost of Hickory Hollow Mall, however, haunts this Southeast Nashville community to this day and perpetuates the fib that it is in decline, decay and despair.

The mall’s rise, fall and eventual death killed the area’s longtime major retail center and gathering place.

It is past time to exorcise that ghost because there is a vibrant, balanced and diverse community that is attracting employers and new residents because of its growth and potential.

“Antioch is going to be the place to be,” said Metro Councilwoman Jacobia Dowell (District 32), who represents the area where the mall property sits. “It’s going to be our second urban center of our city.”

That bold declaration is not wishful thinking; it is an assertion based on the facts.

Antioch is the fastest-growing part of Davidson County and the county's largest ZIP code, too: 37013. The area is so massive that there is a second ZIP code, 37011, within its boundaries, and five of 35 district Metro Council members represent parts of the area.

The area grew from 35,771 residents in 1990 to 90,073 in 2015, and its growth from 2010 to 2015 exceeded Nashville as a whole, according to Census figures.

The real estate website Zillow labels Antioch’s market “very hot. Land and homes are affordable compared with many other parts of town, especially those in or near downtown Nashville, although, like elsewhere, prices and rents are rising. Zillow lists Antioch median home values at $184,200 compared with $228,500 for Nashville as a whole.

The future of Antioch involves major investments by businesses such as Ikea and Bridgestone as well as a 600-acre regional park, which is poised to become a new community point of pride and for gathering.

Make no mistake, Antioch is not in decline.

It is a phoenix rising from the ashes, and it may well become a center that rivals the popular Nashville downtown.

In fact, community leaders are banking on that.

Read More: Is Nashville in an urban crisis?

Challenging misconceptions of crime and blight

Antioch is one of the most dynamic, culturally, racially and socioeconomically diverse and interesting places in Metro Nashville.

The area extends from Nolensville Road in the west to Percy Priest Lake in the east and comprises communities as diverse as Percy Priest, Lenox Village and Cane Ridge.

"It's a community that's a hidden jewel because of its close proximity to the lake," said Metro Council member Karen Y. Johnson (District 29).

The former predominantly white rural area once known as Mill Creek is now a majority-minority suburban community in the midst of its next stage of transformation.

The area epitomizes the city’s famed welcoming and hospitable nature, and Antioch has been practicing “Yes, in my backyard,” or YIMBY-ism, long before Mayor Megan Barry promoted this counter-NIMBY-ism concept.

"We’re in an area more than welcoming, more than affordable," said Metro Council member Tanaka Vercher (District 28). "We are the model for that welcoming dialogue that everyone is speaking of nowadays for the 'it city.' "

Whereas other communities have rejected or been resistant to mixed-income living, Antioch has 147 apartment complexes with a higher-than-average number of residents who receive Section 8 housing vouchers, and it also has the county jail and Metro Animal Control.

The community is younger and has higher percentages of African-Americans, Hispanics and foreign-born people than the county as a whole. Nearly a third of residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to census figures.

However, Antioch still gets pegged by detractors as being dangerous, congested and unpleasant.

That is an unfair reputation not supported by Metro Nashville Police Department statistics, which show Antioch’s crime rate is in the bottom half of all Metro Council districts.

Employers know the reality, which is why they are investing their money and creating jobs there. They see a healthy middle-class population willing to work, play and shop.

Read More: Can 'old Nashville' and 'new Nashville' co-exist?

Car dealer paved the way for Ikea’s arrival

Ben Freeland, owner of Freeland Chevrolet and other businesses, invested in Antioch in 2008 at a time when people thought he was unwise to do so because of the negative stereotypes. It was in the midst of the Great Recession, which disproportionately affected the area in terms of foreclosures and saw the loss of major retailers like Target.

“I just found a whole different set of reality," said Freeland, who did his research and interviewed about 150 people. “It was a vibrant, growing area. Everybody was blinded by the mall and old stereotypes of crime. The more I got to know people the more impressed I was.”

Freeland's investments in the community and his founding of the Crossings Nashville Action Partnership and the rebranding of the mall area as the Crossings Business District have gone lengths to propel Antioch forward.

In 2015, for example, Community Health Systems announced plans to locate in Antioch and employ 2,000 people.

There are major challenges, of course, like bad traffic congestion on the major corridors such as Bell Road near Interstate 24 where the mall property is; fewer amenities than other areas such as transit, sidewalks, stoplights and green space; and a higher number of schools over capacity in the Antioch and Cane Ridge clusters compared with other school clusters in the county.

"We've got an exploding community there full of diversity, full of new Americans,” said Shawn Joseph, director of Metro Nashville Public Schools. "We can't build schools fast enough.”

City leaders since Mayor Karl Dean’s administration and into Barry’s administration have been actively addressing the needs, making infrastructure, library, community center and green space investments, but the rapid growth makes it hard to keep up.

Although Ikea announced in May that it was building its first Nashville store in Antioch, construction will not begin until 2019 due to needed infrastructure upgrades.

“Ikea will be the catalyst for even bigger things to come for the area," Vercher said.

Read More: How public housing will ease Nashville's housing crunch

Some folks can't stop hating on Antioch

Many Antioch residents took to social media to celebrate the Ikea announcement, but several critics left ugly comments, such as these, on The Tennessean's May 24 Facebook post about the news:

"Antioch? Wonder how long it will take for someone to get shot or mugged in their parking lot."

"You better think 2 or 3 times before putting it there...I won't get on that interstate (I24) even for IKEA!"

"Worse crime area in Nashville besides parts of east Nashville. Not an inviting location."

"Great choice.....for car-jacking and shop-lifting."

Metro Councilman Fabian Bedne (District 31) took offense to the insults and made this Facebook post: "I am really shocked by all the comments regarding IKEA that describe Antioch as a dangerous place. I am honestly at a loss about it. I wonder if they ever came this way."

"The real Antioch is not a violent place at all. It’s a safe place," Bedne said. "It became easy to perpetuate that concept that Antioch was unsafe. It came out of some stories from Hickory Hollow Mall before it closed. We have less crime than East Nashville."

Dowell suggested that some of the negativity might stem from prejudice based upon geography and its diverse population.

"Nashville has always been very community and ZIP code sensitive," she said.

Think about the pride that some residents have at living in exclusive and affluent areas like Belle Meade, Green Hills and Forest Hills, and more recently Germantown and East Nashville.

Alma Sanford, however, came to Antioch in 2001 precisely for the diversity — and the lake.

The retired attorney with deep Nashville roots became involved in the community and today chairs Freeland's Crossings Nashville Action Partnership and works on managing local political campaigns.

Sanford saw how the people of Antioch came together during the hardest times: the recession, the closing of the mall and the devastating 1,000-year flood in 2010.

"I had seen my community on its knees," she said. "We have fought to make it a good place."

In spite of the efforts she understands that Antioch struggles to shed the negative view that outsiders tend to have of it.

"We've got a PR problem," she said.

Read More: A dilemma for renters in Nashville

Alma Sanford on Antioch Alma Sanford has been an active and engaged member of the Antioch community of Nashville since 2001. She explains what drew her there, what appealed to Ikea about the area, and fighting misconceptions about Antioch.

America's malls are dying

Part of Antioch's image problem emanates from the fact that the mall property still exists, and while portions of it have been revitalized with the Nashville Predators' Ford Ice Center, Nashville State Community College, a Nashville Public Library branch, community center and park, the heart of the mall, known today as the Global Mall, still operates as a shell of its former self.

Hickory Hollow Mall opened in 1978 and became a draw for Antioch.

"When the mall came in, it was wonderful. I loved Hickory Hollow Mall. It was so convenient," said Rep. Sherry Jones, who has lived in Antioch since she was 8 years old, served on the Metro Council and now represents District 59 in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Over time anchor stores like Dillard’s, J.C. Penney and Sears left. Then the mall closed in 2012.

"The area just kind of stopped, the mall went away," Jones said. "There we were, not much of a farm community anymore, but with not that much draw to it since the mall closed."

A combination of factors caused its decline, from competition in areas like Cool Springs, Murfreesboro and Mt. Juliet to the general phenomenon of malls losing popularity across the nation because of the rise of e-commerce and discount retailers.

A Credit Suisse report released in May predicted that a quarter of the malls in the United States will close by 2022 because of the latter.

Gary Gaston, executive director for the Nashville Civic Design Center and co-author of "Shaping the Healthy Community: The Nashville Plan," confirms the phenomenon of the dying mall, but he said what's coming in its place in Antioch is far better.

"Now what’s resurrected around that is truly exciting," he said. "It’s incorporating a much more sophisticated approach to development.

“It’s a mixed-use community. It’s not all shopping or all residential. It’s incorporating a wide variety of things," added Gaston, referring to design that incorporates transit, pedestrian and bicycle access and not just the historical focus on the automobile.

Read More: The costs of growth and change in Nashville

The 'eyesore' that is the Global Mall

Not long after Hickory Hollow Mall closed, the Global Mall Partnership purchased the 600,000-square-foot center for $1 million, or $1.26 per square foot.

In 1996, the previous owner had purchased it for $126 million.

Less than half the storefronts are filled and the escalators are blocked off.

The businesses there cater to immigrants with restaurants, legal services, fashion, a grocery store and events space. MNPS has an enrollment center.

However, people expecting a vibrant mall in the traditional sense would be shocked.

"Neighbors see it as somewhat of an eyesore with all the other things," Vercher said. "There hasn’t been a holistic vision for that property."

Metro tried twice last year to purchase the property, but the owners, who had once expressed interest in selling it for $9 million to $20 million, refused to sell.

However, former anchor stores were repurposed. Consider:

J.C. Penney: Metro bought the building and built a library, park and community center.

Dillard's: Nashville State Community College took over that building.

Sears: Crestview Funds purchased it. The new Bridgestone Operations Center will be housed there.

To further illustrate the point of Antioch's resurgence, this is a list of The Tennessean's top business stories about the area just from 2017:

Read More: Nashville student: 'I don’t want things to be gentrified'

'Antioch can't solve Nashville's housing problem'

Like Nashville as a whole, housing costs — and equity — have risen in Antioch.

The Davidson County Property Assessor's Office, in its quadrennial reappraisal, estimated that property values rose between 31 percent and 39 percent from 2013 to 2017 in the five Metro districts that represent Antioch, placing it near the countywide average of 37 percent.

Values did not skyrocket in Antioch like they did in Inglewood, Cleveland Park, The Nations, Wedgewood-Houston or Germantown, but it still means the cost of housing has increased.

"It won't be long before Antioch will be less affordable," Jones said.

Nevertheless, Antioch has been the focus of state and local efforts to build more housing and rental units for low- and moderate-income residents.

The Southeast Nashville Metro Council delegation — Vercher, Dowell, Bedne and Johnson — have been vocal about their concerns that the present strategy will concentrate poverty, exacerbate inequality and absolve other council districts from having to allow, embrace or build mixed-income housing.

On Aug. 15 they may be getting a new ally as there is a special election to replace Sam Coleman, who resigned his seat after Metro Council appointed him to a judgeship.

Dowell said Antioch's diversity was purposely planned and thinks other districts need to share the responsibility of building more housing options.

"Antioch can't solve Nashville's housing problem, and we should not be expected to do so," she said. "I agree everybody deserves housing, but does it have to be in one area?"

Listen: Til the Good Lord Takes Me There Songwriter Molly Jeanne Freer, 13, was inspired by a Tennessean column about Sallie Dowell, who refuses to sell her home on Southside Avenue in Nashville.

Johnson said there are a lot of starter homes but not enough "move up" homes or senior living residences, and she openly questioned the Tennessee Housing and Development Agency's emphasis on building subsidized housing in Antioch at a Tennessean forum on housing in April.

"We’ve got to be careful that we’re not converting certain areas to just high income and subliminally trying to create low-income communities in the hopes that nobody talks about it," she said.

Gaston of the Nashville Civic Design Center worries that the growth will have the added consequence of exporting one of the city's biggest housing problems to Antioch.

"The real issue is to make sure we’re not displacing long-term residents," he said.

Long-term residents are being displaced across Nashville, especially in the areas in proximity to downtown. As Antioch looks to build a center to rival downtown, it must face this issue head on if residents want it to remain a balanced community.

Reach Opinion and Engagement Editor David Plazas at dplazas@tennessean.com or 615-259-8063 and on Twitter at @davidplazas.

About this series

This is the sixth in a series of monthly columns on growth, housing, displacement and the future of Nashville’s neighborhoods.

Opinion Engagement Editor David Plazas and photographer George Walker IV are telling the stories of the community and individual residents.

We welcome topic ideas and are looking to interview people of diverse perspectives on this issue. Email us at dplazas@tennessean.com or gwalker@tennessean.com.