Rolling Mill Hill Catches
Metro's Eye
November 11, 2002 | The Tennessean
 |
|
By RICHARD LAWSON
Staff Writer
When Mayor Bill Purcell breaks ground today for the new downtown energy system he fought hard to get, he will announce the latest effort to redevelop adjacent Rolling Mill Hill, which encompasses the old Metro General Hospital.
Purcell is expected to announce that the Metro Development and Housing Agency will issue a request for proposals to conduct a market feasibility study of the area, which is flanked by Hermitage Avenue and the Cumberland River.
Tom Jurkovich, director of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Community Development, said the MDHA's board will be asked to approve the request tomorrow.
''We are going to move aggressively on this,'' Jurkovich said.
Phil Ryan, MDHA's executive director, said his agency hopes to have a plan in place by July 2003.
Four years ago, MDHA selected Atlanta-based Post Properties and Nashville-based The Mathews Co. to do a mix of residential, commercial and retail development.
But Post backed out in 1999 when MDHA wouldn't provide the company more economic incentives.
Metro officials hope the $43.6 million, gas-fueled Nashville District Energy System will spark Rolling Mill Hill's redevelopment, the result of anticipated cost savings from replacement of the trash-burning Nashville Thermal Transfer Plant as a source for heating and cooling downtown.
The nearby Gateway Bridge, now under construction, also will help make the area more attractive, Ryan and Jurkovich said.
''It's time may not have come,'' Tony Giarratana, who built The Cumberland Apartments downtown, said of Rolling Mill Hill. ''But it's a lot closer.''