Lenox Village

Lenox Village will offer 'one-stop' living

Center to feature shopping, dining and living choices

By SUZANNE NORMAND BLACKWOOD
Staff Writer

Lenox Village is about to begin work on its new lifestyle center, offering more opportunities for people to work, play and shop where they live.

David McGowan, president of Lenox Village LLC, said the lifestyle center would feature a coffee shop, a bookstore, a clothing boutique and a couple of family-style restaurants. Restaurants will be the anchor tenants, he said.

McGowan said lifestyle centers, so called because they are designed to "cater to the lifestyles of the area," generally feature small shops and have easy access with no indoor hallways like shopping malls. They also include a mix of residential and office space.

Local examples include the Hill Center in Green Hills to The Avenue in Murfreesboro, new shopping centers.

Shops will be smaller

McGowan said the project is being referred to as "The Village Lifestyle Center," which means it will have smaller retailers and neighborhood shops.

The 400,000-square-foot center would feature 40,000 square feet of office/retail space as well as 273 condos. Residents will share a clubroom, conference room, lobby and elevators, and they will have a private movie theater.

Residents and business owners will have private courtyards. And each restaurant will have a patio and outdoor seating.

"We'll have parking along the outside of the building," McGowan said. There will also be a 504-car garage, part of which will be underground.
"We're trying to do everything we can to reduce the surface parking," McGowan said. But, he said, wherever they park, "People (will) have a very short walk."

A park near the lifestyle center will include lighting and sidewalks. "It will be set up so we can have public events, seasonal events," McGowan said.

Old-style design
A buzzword in mixed-use development these days has been "new urbanism," which Lenox Village has strived to accomplish at the development off Nolensville Road in south Davidson County.

But the concept is not really that new, McGowan said. "It's building communities like they were before World War II," he said.

Such developments include a mix of housing types with multiple price points. They "hit different buyer profiles," ranging from young singles to young couples to empty nesters to the elderly.

These communities also include a mix of retail and office space, with occupants ranging from doctors' offices and insurance agents to hair stylists, day spas and bookstores.

The office/retail is also within walking distance. This is for the purpose of building a sense of community, as well as respecting people's busy schedules, McGowan said.

"Everyone's time is precious now with kids and sports," he said.

Demographics play role
Construction of The Village Lifestyle Center is expected to be completed by the middle of next year. Lenox Village has three other commercial buildings in its overall plan. The Regent Building is expected to be completed the middle of next year. The Park View and The Village Shops have occupants and have space available for sale or lease.

A small pocket of retail/office space also exists called The Shoppes on Sunnywood.

McGowan said Lenox Village targets a certain retail/office mix based on the area's demographics. The average family income at Lenox Village is about $90,000, he said, while the average family income within a five-mile radius is about $73,000.

Prathima Bandi, who owns Community Cleaners, purchased space at Lenox Village because she and her husband, Sudhir, saw it as an investment.

"The area is growing right now," she said. Within Lenox Village alone, 3,000 homes are expected to be built when the development is completed.

Although this is a new business, Bandi said her husband had a dry-cleaning business in Chicago years ago. She feels confident they chose the best spot for attracting a strong customer base.

"We thought it would be a good place for us to start off," she said.