Avalon Community will have shopping

Medieval-themed development turns focus to commercial
Avalon Square will include boutiques, pharmacy and condos
Williamson A.M. • July 4, 2008

FRANKLIN — After seven years of planning and construction, Avalon is nearly complete. The huge, King Arthur-themed subdivision off Cool Springs Boulevard was designed with five distinct neighborhoods.
Two of those — The Village and The Hamlet — are essentially built out, according to Avalon developer Richard Johnson. These two sections of 83 single-family homes were built in prices that ranged from $525,000 to $1 million.
The Meade, a neighborhood of 257 townhouses and single-family homes being built by Newmark Homes, is about 75 percent finished, he said. Homes there were built in the $325,000-$550,000 price range.
Only four lots are still available in The Vale of Avalon, a neighborhood of 51 homes ranging in price from $800,000 to more than $2 million.
Last but certainly not least is the Tors of Avalon, "tors" being an Old English word for hilltop. When it is complete, the Tors will have 55 custom-built homes, Johnson said. There are 13 lots available for sale in this hilltop section; four of them are premium, multiacre lots that range in price from $1.1 million to $1.6 million. The smallest of these is five acres.
The developers are beginning to turn their attention to the creation of Avalon Square, which will be across Cool Springs Boulevard at the corner with McEwen Drive.
This final phase of Avalon is envisioned as a shopping village that includes a food market and pharmacy, as well as boutique shops.
Avalon Square will also include luxury townhomes and condominiums with appeal to empty nesters who want to downsize, as well as people who work from their homes.
That project is expected to get under way as the construction of McEwen Drive reaches completion. The Principals Group is developing Avalon Square in partnership with Parkes Construction.
See well past Cool Springs
"This is the last development (in Franklin) that will have hilltop lots," Johnson said, noting that from some of these locations, a homeowner will have a view extending miles beyond Cool Springs. The completion of this $300 million development has been reached in a remarkably short time, considering the large size of the subdivision, which will have 446 townhouses and single-family homes when totally finished.
The first homeowners did not move in until 2005.
Johnson and his business partner at The Principals Group LLC, David Schwab, were experienced in neighborhood development before Avalon. They developed The Governors Club in Brentwood, an upscale enclave built around an Arnold Palmer signature golf course, and two equestrian neighborhoods in Williamson County, Lynnwood Downs and Brandon Park Downs.
In creating Avalon, the pair accented the streetscape with structures that repeat the medieval imagery, including stone walls and bridges built throughout the green spaces, and maintained the theme with street names such as Knights of the Round Table Road.
Within Avalon, the entrances to the different neighborhoods are marked by turrets with gates. The neighborhood also incorporates miles of walking trails with meditation parks. Almost half of the 645 acres that comprise Avalon are being left in their natural, wooded state.