Townhomes and shopping centers to come in the future

MTSU area lands $10M project
Nashville Business Journal - by Nashville Business Journal

Regent Homes has slated land across from the president's home at Middle Tennessee State University for a $10 million retail and residential development.
East Main Village will offer 9,533 square feet of retail space and 44 townhomes in a brick, two-story building with frontage along Middle Tennessee Boulevard.
Builder David McGowan says the target market for the two-bedroom, two-car garage townhomes is university employees and students. The location is a five-minute walk from the center of the MTSU campus. Townhomes are expected to be priced in the $170,000s.
McGowan closed on the land a year ago and plans to buy more land but is seeking commercial rezoning first. The project goes before the planning commission for a public hearing May 7.
McGowan says he expects coffee shops, restaurants and services like a copy store in the retail spaces. He has letters of intent from restaurants that he won't release yet. Some of the restaurants will have outdoor courtyard dining and parking will be located behind the stores and townhomes.
Local real estate agent says the project should be good for the near-campus location. He says parents often buy townhomes for college students and the area is good for professors and other campus employees.
Jim Walls, a 32-year resident of the area, says most residents in the neighborhood would welcome restaurants and a coffee shop to the street, though there is concern about the commercial area encroaching onto a historic residential area of East Main Street.
Walls says many parents have bought condos in a new nearby development for their children attending college and the community has not had increased traffic from it.
Commercial and residential ends of the project will be open by fall 2009, McGowan says.