Major developments coming to Dickerson Pike
The Pike will include more than 600 apartments and townhomes, plus restaurants, shops and a park.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Several major projects are set to be built along Dickerson Pike including homes, apartments and businesses about a mile from the new Oracle campus.
Developers said they are looking to transform the area into the next corridor in Nashville to be built up. Construction fences and for sale signs currently surround properties along the road where more than a dozen projects have been approved by the Planning Department.
Gretchen Fronk’s home backs up to one of the largest developments planned for a 12-acre area across from Shwab Elementary School. It’s being called The Pike and will include more than 600 apartments and townhomes plus restaurants, shops and a park. She’s excited to see the current eyesore go but is hoping local businesses are not forced out.
“Some of it needs to be rebuilt. It looks rundown and old,” Fronk said. “As they bring the city of Nashville out more to the east side, and businesses come in and things like that, I think it will look aesthetically better, but I am not sure if that is all there is to be said about it because there is a lot of charm about East Nashville. A lot of our restaurants here are not chains, they are family owned, that have been here for a long time. I hope those get to stay as well.”
Katie Wylly lives across the street and would like to see Dickerson Pike become a corridor to downtown. She said there need to be more sidewalks along the road that’s been named one of the most dangerous and deadly stretches in the state.
Wylly is concerned about construction noise and people being priced out of the area, but thinks the road is currently underutilized and these projects will bring more options to their neighborhood.
“We don’t really have easy access to the downtown area or any of the amenities, so we are excited for a corridor that hopefully increases pedestrian access,” Wylly said. “Not a lot of the businesses are still active there. We don’t find as residents that we really use Dickerson for anything except a thoroughfare to get to our house. The hope is there will be easily accessible bars and restaurants and activities to do that are close by.”
The Pike development, first reported by the Nashville Business Journal, will break ground early next spring and will take about two years to complete. It’s being managed by Nashville real estate development company Wedgewood Avenue and New York-based investment firm Aria Development Group.
“We are proud to bring a development of such high caliber into the community,” Wedgewood Avenue principal Beau Fowler said. “Working with the community, council member and planning department to entitle something exceptional, we are now shovel-ready.”
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