The Nashville Ledger
By Joe MorrisPrint
It’s been written off, even making its way onto a website chronicling dying shopping centers. But Hickory Hollow Mall isn’t finished yet.
An exodus of anchor tenants and smaller retailers in the last decade, coupled with negative coverage due to alleged gang activity on and around the premises, spooked shoppers and led to empty parking spaces.
In the last 12 months, however, the facility’s fortunes have taken a decided turn for the better, albeit in a bumpy fashion. After a few stops and starts, Metro Nashville is moving into the site in a big way, and Nashville State Community College is heading a multi-pronged educational component for other portions of the mall.
The increasingly sunny picture for Hickory Hollow is a sign that, if properly managed and marketed, even a foundering property can find new life, says Bob McCalla, managing partner at Cumberland Commercial Partners.
“The mall had become economically obsolete, just from the competition that it didn’t have back when it opened,” McCalla said. “The power centers to the south and east of it have drawn away business and, because of the way it’s built, there aren’t a lot of ways to split it up. They needed someone who required a large floor space, and they’ve gotten that with these two deals.”
The parking, and the location near major thoroughfares and the interstate work to the mall’s advantage like they always have, McCalla adds.
“I can’t think of any city that doesn’t have a mall like this, one that’s failing for economic reasons,” he says. “It’s the nature of the beast right now. But if you can get the right mix of tenants, or lease and sell the larger buildings, then you can still be viable. The malls in Green Hills and Cool Springs haven’t faced this problem, but Hickory Hollow has and it may have found a way to still be successful.”
The arrival of Metro has been particularly roundabout and, if nothing else, a study in perseverance.
About a year ago, Mayor Karl Dean announced an $18 million plan to put a library and archives, public health and community centers and even a park on the site. The plan also called for an expo-type center to house the flea market and other ongoing events that would be homeless due to Dean’s simultaneously announced decision to shut down the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.
Some aspects of the plan, such as relocating the flea market to Antioch, got a negative reception. For its part, Metro only conceded that the high rent for the former Dillard’s building made the plan unworkable for the flea market.
Earlier this year, vocal foes of moving the Metro Archives out of Green Hills won their battle as well. Once again, cost was cited as the deal breaker, this time to lease the former JCPenney building.
But by late spring, Metro had moved from leasing failures to buying success.
A $3.25 million offer was made for the JC Penney building and its 12.31-acre site, enough room for a library, community center and small park. Negotiations are moving ahead, and the city is moving ahead with its plans for the property, the mayor says.
“Southeast Davidson County is one of the fastest-growing areas in Nashville, and I am working to make sure that the facilities and services there keep pace with the needs of its residents,” Dean explains.
“Vanderbilt’s work with One Hundred Oaks is an example of an innovative new use for an underutilized suburban mall. I believe the project at Hickory Hollow can be another model for grouping community services in a way that both serves residents and benefits surrounding retail and commercial areas.”
Meanwhile, the state has agreed to pay $3 million the Dillard’s building for Nashville State Community College, giving the school a satellite campus to its White Bridge Road location. If that deal goes through, it could join an alternative high school and a charter school on the site.
If all these plans take place, the area between Macy’s and Sears would house non-retail facilities while the larger, former stores at each end will house Metro and NSCC. It’s a mix that Angie Carter, Hickory Hollow’s general manager, thinks will work out well for all parties involved.
“Malls change and evolve,” Carter says. “Look at how this mall has changed over the years. We are excited to see what the property will become. It’s always been a great facility, and to have people reuse this space in new and exciting ways presents some welcome challenges to us as well.”
The foot traffic will be somewhat different in that not every visitor to the property will be there to shop, but there’ll still be enough people who will need to pick up various items, not to mention eat and drink, to keep the connecting retail corridors jumping, she predicted.
“People will come here to eat, shop and work,” Carter says. “This is the latest way in which we have remade ourselves. This mall has come a long way from Hot Dog on a Stick, and we’re going to guarantee the new tenants and owners a safe, secure and comfortable place for their students, employees and guests to visit.”
Nashville State sees its new property as a multi-part win. First, it’s big enough to house existing programs and have room for expansion. Second, as an empty shell there’s not a lot of teardown costs. And third, the mall comes with plenty of parking space. Add location, an area from which NSCC already draws heavily, and it’s a bit surprising the school didn’t snap up the property before now, says Dick Tracy, executive director of the Tennessee Board of Regents’ Office of Facilities Development, which is handling the transaction.
“A big part of our students come from the 37013 ZIP code, and so when we began looking at a new campus that was the area we focused on,” Tracy says.
“But we needed at least 40,000 square feet, and there was nothing. It was either warehouse space with no parking, or a spot with parking but not near enough room. And then we looked at leasing. We talked with CBL a few years ago about the Penney’s and Dillard’s buildings, but that didn’t work out for a variety of reasons.”
If all goes well, renovations will begin in the coming months and classes will start in the fall of 2012. The college’s main campus holds around 14,000 students, and it’s expected to have anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 at the new site.
“We’re just going through the process,” Tracy said. “We’re taking the building and the seven acres it sits on, which gives us access to the public street as well as all the parking. CBL will manage the overall property, and we will maintain our own facility.
“We relieve pressure on our main campus and pick up more students, and the mall gets a lot more traffic,” he said. “Not everyone who goes to the mall will take a class, but a lot of people who take classes will go to the mall. It was affordable land; it had good parking and was accessible. Now we’re going to talk to the city to see what we can do with the facility that they’re going to be putting in, so that we’re all working on this large property together.”
The increasingly sunny picture for Hickory Hollow is a sign that, if properly managed and marketed, even a foundering property can find new life, says Bob McCalla, managing partner at Cumberland Commercial Partners.
“The mall had become economically obsolete, just from the competition that it didn’t have back when it opened,” McCalla said. “The power centers to the south and east of it have drawn away business and, because of the way it’s built, there aren’t a lot of ways to split it up. They needed someone who required a large floor space, and they’ve gotten that with these two deals.”
The parking, and the location near major thoroughfares and the interstate worked to the mall’s advantage like they always have, McCalla adds.
“I can’t think of any city that doesn’t have a mall like this, one that’s failing for economic reasons,” he says. “It’s the nature of the beast right now. But if you can get the right mix of tenants, or lease and sell the larger buildings, then you can still be viable. The malls in Green Hills and Cool Springs haven’t faced this problem, but Hickory Hollow has and it may have found a way to still be successful.”
