Developer proposes to raze Downtown warehouse, erect 30 condos

A developer proposes to build 30 condos where a Downtown-based wholesaler of filters — air, fuel, oil, heating/air-conditioning, water — has operated in a 93-year-old warehouse for three decades.

Downtown developer Phillip Woodard last month purchased 455 S. Front from Jack E. Carter, owner of Carter & Co., for $1.165 million, according to public records. Woodard proposes to raze the two-story, brick building on 1.3 acres.

The condos at the northwest corner of Front and Butler would be called Butler + Front Townhomes. Woodard's proposal, filed with the Land Use Control Board, shows each condo is multi-level with a double-garage occupying part of the ground floor.

The units would range from 1,700 to 3,000 square feet.

Woodard declined to discuss the project in detail until after he has met with neighbors. He is among them, having built a modern home practically next door to the warehouse at 11 Nettleton.

His house has won architectural design awards, and the same firm, archimania, is designing Butler+Front Townhomes.

The application to the Land Use Control Board seeks approval for a residential subdivision. The property is now zoned industrial. The board will consider the request at 10 a.m. March 8 at City Hall.

Carter & Co. has another two months to inhabit the space in leasing back the 50,000-square-foot warehouse that has housed its office and filters for 33 years. The company is looking for another home of about 30,000 square feet.

The brick, light-colored warehouse features minimum ornamentation. The building erected in 1925 is within the boundaries of the South Bluff Warehouse Historic District. But the 1986 application for the historic status neither cites the property as a contributor to the district's historical importance nor even refers to 455 S. Front.

In addition to the large brick building, a one-story, tin-sided structure on the property houses a different part of the Carter & Co. business. The service and repair of emergency generators is headed by Carter's 42-year-old son, Jammie, 42.

Jack Carter recently turned 70, is retiring and turning over Carter & Co. to his son.

The South Main district neighborhood has changed over the past 20 years from industrial to residential, Jammie Carter said. "Now, neighbors are walking their dogs, traffic has increased and parking is an issue,'' he said.

But the re-population of Downtown "is good for the city,'' he said. "... We're looking to move to a nongentrified area.''

Carter & Co. sells filters to "everybody,'' Jack Carter said. "From automotive to river boats, tow boats, AC/heating, factories, compressors, dust collectors, compressed-air control systems.

"I've had some bad and good times, but I never stopped until this time,'' the elder Carter said. "I turned 70 last month. I don't want to play anymore.''

Most of Carter & Co.'s business is selling wholesale to other businesses. The business also sells filters with its own private labels.

Carter moved his company into the then-vacant building about 1985.

Butler+Front Townhomes would be the latest of a number of residential developments Woodard has built Downtown over the past 20 years.

He started with 20 condos at 138 St. Paul, built five condos called GE Five at 125 G.E. Patterson, developed 20 units called 2 West also on G.E. Patterson, built apartments called Madison 19 in the Edge District, and more recently developed four townhomes on Tennessee called Tennessee Four.