Natural products grocery store Turnip Truck will open a new outpost in Midtown by early 2025.
John Dyke, who owns the locally and independently operated business, tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post that build-out of the space to eventually house the Turnip Truck will begin the week of June 10. The grocery store will operate on the main level of mixed-use building The Broadview at Vanderbilt, with a general address of 120 20th Ave. S.
The Broadview at Vanderbilt
The building is situated between Lyle and 20th avenues and offers residential space (reserved for Vanderbilt graduate students) and retail spaces (including cafe 8th and Roast).
Dyke is not disclosing the cost to get operational, terms of the lease or his lender. He says Nashville-based Crain Construction is the general contractor. This will be the second Turnip Truck project for which Crain served as construction manager, with the brand’s Charlotte Avenue locale in West Nashville having been the first.
Dyke says he expects to employ about 50 to 60 full- and part-time workers once opened. Previously, and as the Post reported in 2022, Dyke wanted to be open by mid-2023.
“We spent a year reworking the plan and making sure the plan met the budget we set,” he says of the rescheduling.
Turnip Truck will take a 23,500-square-foot space in what is called the “South Tower” component of the building. With 80 store-dedicated parking spots, Turnip Truck will be accessible to both car and foot traffic.
Two decades ago, the local landscape for anyone searching for organic and local groceries was pretty bleak. Kroger stocked more generic Cost C…
The future grocery will be larger than Turnip Truck’s 18,000-square-foot flagship East Nashville location. It will feature a deli, juice bar, salad bar, hot bar and grab-and-go meal options. Turnip Truck will offer 50 percent more food service at the future Midtown location than it does at its East Nashville, Gulch and Charlotte Avenue locations.
Dyke says the nearby Gulch store, located on 12th Avenue South, will remain open after the Midtown business becomes operational.
“We just re-signed a lease and will do interior and exterior updates,” he says of the Gulch Turnip Truck.
Dyke says his company joined the Instacart network about six weeks ago.
“We are looking at some new food services and catering programs,” he says, adding he is eyeing up to five future locations for the Turnip Truck.
Turnip Truck owner John Dyke
The Midtown building to house the Turnip Truck sits on a site that previously accommodated structures home to Noshville and J&J's Market.
Swiftsure Housing Partners LLC, which is affiliated with Pennsylvania-based Balfour Beatty Campus Solutions, owns the building and seemingly has a long-term ground lease with Vanderbilt University (read here). According to its website, BBCS provides development and asset/property management services within the higher education sector.
Of note, long-closed Sunshine Grocery began operations in 1972 in a since-razed building located on The Broadview at Vanderbilt footprint. Longtime Nashvillians will remember that Sunshine Grocery relocated in 1989 to Belmont Boulevard and was eventually acquired in 1998 by the parent company of Wild Oats. The Belmont Boulevard store closed in 2003.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
