Crosland Breaks Ground on Griffin Plaza June 15

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 12, 2007 – Crosland, one of the Southeast’s leading privately held diversified real estate companies, will break ground Friday, June 15 on Griffin Plaza, a $35 million, 10-story mixed-use, “green” development of rental residences and retail located at 300 12th Avenue South, near the Demonbreun Street entrance to The Gulch, announced Bill Barkley, president of Crosland’s Tennessee division.

Griffin Plaza will blend two existing historic properties with a new, sleek, modern structure situated around an urban “pocket park.” It is Crosland’s second Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™)-registered project with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the first LEED-registered apartment building in Nashville. Crosland is also developing Terrazzo, a LEED-pre-certified mixed-use development at 700 12th Avenue South in The Gulch. As with Terrazzo, Crosland will seek pre-certification for Griffin Plaza through the USGBC Green Building Rating System for Core and Shell Development.

Gallery style retail space designed for shops and restaurants will encompass 32,000 sq. ft. on the ground floor plaza level, with 22-ft. ceilings, mezzanines and floor-to-ceiling glass. The adjacent historic houses will also provide unique retail space for small boutiques and cafes. All retail will open onto the pocket park, featuring multiple outdoor seating areas and space for special events.

Approximately 150 rental residences will comprise 150,000 square feet on the top nine floors. All units will feature an open, loft-like design with 10-ft. ceilings, floor-to-ceiling operable awning windows and contemporary finishes. Most units will have balconies and views of Downtown or Music Row and the pocket park below. A range of floorplans will offer studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom configurations, ranging in size from 550 to 1,400 square feet.

The plaza is designed as a pocket park – a small-scale, urban open space to encourage pedestrian traffic and serve as a community gathering place for residents, retail customers and neighbors. The park will be terraced to create multiple levels, with hard and soft landscaping to provide green space, a water feature and flexible seating areas.

A five-level, 100,000 sq. ft. sub-surface parking structure will serve residents and retail customers.

"Griffin Plaza is just the right addition to the ongoing development in the Gulch," said Mayor Bill Purcell. "The project incorporates a healthy mix of new urban development and redevelopment, and provides affordable and market rate rental housing in the heart of our downtown."

“MDHA is pleased to be a partner in Griffin Plaza, and we’re particularly pleased that Crosland did a very good job of blending the historic buildings with the contemporary new development,” said Phil Ryan, MDHA Executive Director. “In addition, the project is attractive because it is LEED-registered and it diversifies our downtown residential new development with a rental apartment community that is 20% affordable.”

“We’re seeing our original vision for The Gulch come to fruition with the addition of Griffin Plaza,” said Barkley. “We’re redeveloping a blighted area, preserving historic property, creating new urban retail, and providing market rate and affordable rental housing. We believe that achieving these goals is essential to creating a viable community in The Gulch. In addition, we’re making The Gulch greener with our sustainable design and the urban pocket park.”

Barkley says the retail space is very vibrant. “We expect this dramatic space to attract new-to-the-market retail to The Gulch. The historic buildings serve as bookends to the innovative gallery style retail, creating a uniquely Nashville place. Griffin Plaza is what The Gulch is all about – building a sustainable community that connects Nashvillians with our past, present, and future,” he said.

“Site preparation was completed last week with the demolition of a historically non-contributing warehouse built in the 1970s,” according to Burgin Dossett, Crosland’s vice president of development. “Full construction will begin this summer, including renovation of the historic houses. Completion is slated for early 2009.”

Pre-leasing for the retail portion has already begun and a residential leasing office will open on the site in the spring of 2008. Crosland will manage the property.

Hastings Architecture Associates and Manuel Zeitlin Architects are the architectural firms for Griffin Plaza. Hawkins Partners is the landscape architect, and The Parent Company is the general contractor.

Griffin Plaza is the third development Crosland has announced in The Gulch since the company acquired Nashville-based Armistead Barkley in 2005 and established a Tennessee regional office. Armistead Barkley was a founding developer of The Gulch, the designated master developer of The Gulch, a $400 million urban redevelopment project.

Crosland also is developing two other projects in The Gulch. Terrazzo is a $65 million, 14-story, high-end condominium, retail and office project currently under construction at the southeast corner of 12th Avenue South and Division Street. Also, 701 12th, the working name for a 16-story, contemporary residential project across the street from Terrazzo, is still in the early design stage.

Additional information about the development can be found on the web site, griffinplaza.com.

About the Historic Griffin Houses

Before the area now known as The Gulch was industrialized in the early 20th century, it was an upscale urban neighborhood of homes, shops and commercial buildings.

In the late 1800s, when the Union Railroad Station was beginning construction, the site at 12th and Laurel was a family compound of four homes built by Patrick M. Griffin, a lifelong railroad employee. One of the Griffin daughters held the property until the 1950s, when it was sold for commercial use. In 1997, Nashvillians Rick & Sheryl Horton bought the two remaining homes and preserved them. The Hortons will remain involved as development partners in the project with Crosland.