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Walden brings retail space, urban living to Eastland Avenue |
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Coffeehouse with music joins smoothie shop as tenants; developer seeks
restaurant, builds lofts, townhomes |
| By ANGELA PATTERSON
Staff Writer |
As you drive down Eastland Avenue, you can't help but notice it.
Across the street from Rosepepper Cantina stands a towering structure that's currently under construction, but there are no signs saying what it is, and no one seems to know what it's going to be.
But actually the development, called Walden, has been in the works for more than 1½ years. It took developer March Egerton a while to get the plans approved by the Metro Planning Commission and the Metro Council, but ground was broken on the project in August.
And as early as May, the first of the development's three phases may be completed, marking the first step in creating what Egerton hopes will be a walkable neighborhood where people can live, play and/or work. |
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The first phase, which is under construction, has two parts: the two-story building fronting Eastland, which will house residential and commercial space, and the former nursing home building immediately behind it, which will be transformed into a two-story space for commercial use.
"We tore off the front of the old nursing home to build a structure that will hold retail/commercial space on the ground floor, and eight living units on the second floor," Egerton said of the building fronting Eastland. "The road leading from Eastland will eventually run through the entire development, but until then will serve as parking for the first phase."
The second-floor living spaces, which have interior walls like apartments but will have a loft-like openness to them, will have high ceilings and plenty of windows. Units start at 725 square feet; one large corner unit has 1,130 square feet. Egerton now plans to rent the units, but he said it would depend on the market whether he'd rent or sell.
The ground floor has 8,000 square feet, and two businesses have already signed leases: a shop selling fresh smoothies and juices, and a coffeehouse.
"We're going to have a space close to 2,000 square feet, and we're trying to make a big, comfortable coffeehouse," said Inglewood resident Jarod Delozier, who plans to open the business with his wife, Courtney. "We want a place people can come and be a part of a community. We'd like to be a place you go to at night, maybe after dinner.
"We plan to have homemade chai and live music and family-friendly activities. We're currently taking coffee samples from all over the country, but we'll definitely support local roasters on some level, maybe exclusively. But not roasting allows us to focus on the house."
But Egerton's holding onto the commercial space closest to the street for what will hopefully become a restaurant.
"The key is to get the anchor tenant," Egerton said. "Food tends to drive everything else." |
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For the second part of phase one, the shell of the nursing home building will be incorporated into the new structure, and a second story will be added.
"It will be office space, but I've been considering doing some kind of office condos," Egerton said. "In this type of setting, that product doesn't really exist, and there's been some anecdotal interest in it.
"I like the office condos, the live/work concept, but I think the city's unsure about how they want to treat that. With this SP zoning, I think it'd be interesting to experiment with that. I like the idea of a sellable office unit."
Phase two will be two three-story buildings along Eastland, to the west of phase one, with two floors of residential and ground floor commercial in each. Phase three will be townhomes at the rear of the property, behind phase two.
"This product is directed toward a slightly different population; this is more of a neighborhood feel in a mid-rise building," Egerton said. " It's a different feel than living in an apartment or loft downtown." |
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Councilman Mike Jameson recalls that when the plans for Walden were first announced, in 2006, residents in the immediately surrounding areas had some concerns.
"We had a neighborhood meeting to isolate the issues: Were people opposed to the development generally, or did they have specific issues?" Jameson said of the meeting held May 9, 2006. "It turned out the specific issues concerned access to streets behind the development, and they were worried about traffic."
To alleviate some concern, negotiations led to eliminating a back exit planned for the rear of the development and to creating a side street connecting to 18th Street (which will eventually connect to Eastland). Jameson also said a traffic device, most likely a traffic light, would be installed on Eastland at some point in the development's construction. |
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