Hidden Creek Community in Gallatin will bring a college plus jobs

Hidden Creek Community to get development boom
The Tennessean• May 21, 2008

The Hidden Creek Community, a commercial and residential development on Big Station Camp Boulevard, will not only bring a new four-year college to Gallatin, it will create at least 400 jobs, according to developer Dan Downs.
The planning commission’s approval Monday of the development was the final consent Free Will Baptist Bible College needed to finalize the land deal to move its campus to the Station Camp area.According to Downs, the project will also feature a new Publix grocery store, retail shopping spaces, restaurants and a Walgreens, creating hundreds of new jobs in Sumner.“It is estimated that some 400 jobs will be created by the Publix Center on Big Station Camp Boulevard,” he said. “This does not consider the additional jobs that will be created by the college and the rest of the Hidden Creek community.”According to Clay Walker, executive director for Gallatin’s Economic Development Agency, Free Will Baptist Bible College’s decision to move its campus here brings new jobs to the area. Walker said he couldn’t say how many jobs the commercial area of the development would generate.“I certainly wouldn’t dispute those numbers. I know in our recruitment of Free Will that the project alone has the promise of three-digit employment numbers,” he said. “Free Will’s benefit is not only in job creation, it’s in the enhancement it brings. Any job created is an important job.”The revenues generated from commercial establishments like Hidden Creek help local governments balance the books without placing undue burden on the taxpayers, Downs said.“The Hidden Creek community will generate millions of dollars annually to Gallatin and the county from sales tax dollars and property taxes,” he said. “We all know that retail and commercial development makes the city money while residential development places a burden on city funds and services, which is not recouped from the tax dollars contributed by homeowners.“Communities like this are what every county and municipality are trying to create through their comprehensive plans and transportation plans. “It is a place where people can live, educate their children, work, shop, worship and recreate all in the immediate area without the use of an automobile. “The achievement of this type of community has long been the goal of insightful planners and has now become a necessity given the ever-increasing cost of fuel and the impact it is having on every budget and the overall economy.”Planning commissioners approved the rezoning of two separate tracts making up a total of 51.26 acres on the western side of Big Station Camp Boulevard. The growth-and-development advisory board had previously approved 408 acres on the northeast side of that road.According to city records, Hidden Creek will be constructed in three phases with the first phase consisting of the college and four areas of retail development. Future phases show the college’s growth plans.Free Will has on the drawing board plans for a natatorium, which is an indoor pool facility, and spaces where pre-kindergarten programs would be held. There is no estimated timetable for construction of these future plans, according to Col. Mark Johnson, the college’s full-time relocation consultant.“It would also be a teaching opportunity. We require our teaching-education majors to be partly in the public schools and partly in private schools. That’s one reason we think it would be a good addition,” Johnson said.Construction is slated to begin on the first phase of the Hidden Creek Community in 2010, with the second phase beginning in 2014 and construction on the final phase on track for a 2017 completion.




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