The Metro Council will hear the first reading of an ordinance rezoning Metro’s Global Mall site during Tuesday’s meeting.
The legislation aims to change the zoning from a shopping center regional (SCR) to a specific plan (SP) based on the Global Mall master plan, which was announced in August.
“I'm really excited that we are finally continuing with the plan that was started by the previous administration,” Councilmember Joy Styles, whose District 32 contains the Global Mall site, tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post. “I'm grateful that this administration is finally moving on it.”
Styles says she does believe the site has taken a back seat to the East Bank development.
Anchor buildings will stay, but the rest of the former Global Mall at Crossings to be torn down
“The invisible city has taken a lot of people's attention,” she says. “The reality is that's kind of nonexistent, and we really have to piecemeal that project, and the mall exists. There's a greater opportunity to do work at the Global Mall than the need to move forward with the East Bank. ... This community has been waiting for this site to be vibrant again for over 10 years. So this should definitely be a priority.”
If the zoning ordinance passes its first reading, the second scheduled reading would be as soon as Aug. 6 to give time for notice of a public hearing. The third reading for the Metro Council ordinance would then be at the following meeting, but the Metro hearing dates could change if the legislation is deferred for any reason. Before the legislation can officially be adopted by the council, the Metro Planning Commission will also need to approve it.
At a meeting on July 25, the planning commission will consider the change in zoning for the property as well as vote on whether to adopt the draft plan for consideration as an amendment to the greater Antioch-Priest Lake Community Plan.
The planning commission is still accepting community feedback until July 11 for the Global Mall’s draft master plan. Some of the recommended uses in the plan include a transit center, performing arts center, housing for artists, a hotel, day care, education facilities and community green space.
The first piece to be developed will be the transit center, which Styles says is being designed now. The transit center in the plan has already received federal funding through WeGo Public Transit. In September — just a month after the mall’s draft plan rolled out — WeGo announced a $5 million Federal Transit Administration grant for a regional mobility center in Antioch that would be a part of the redevelopment of the Global Mall. On WeGo’s website, those funds are part of a total of $17.5 million raised for the transit center, which will implement local and express services.
Styles says after that she would want to focus on the artist housing and performing arts center. There will be a master developer for the site, but the city will put out a request for proposals after the zoning and draft plan are adopted.
While Vanderbilt University Medical Center was once a major part of the plan for the mall area, they aren’t completely out of the picture now, Styles says.
“I would love to have Vanderbilt present; however, they don't need the entirety of the site,” Styles says.
Initially, VUMC would have leased part of the center of the mall for medical offices, but now the city plans to demolish that area, partially because of water damage. Metro chief development officer Bob Mendes told the Nashville Banner that VUMC decided not to go through with the initial plans in part because of negotiations about the roof.
Styles tells the Post there’s still space for VUMC to have something more like a walk-in clinic or specialty office in the area.
“That still gives Vanderbilt a presence in the southeast that it does not have,” she says.
The Global Mall area for the SP zoning includes more than 57 acres of Metro-owned land. The goal of the master plan is to have three subdistricts: an arts village, an innovation village and an opportunity village.
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
