Museum Lofts gets the OK to build next to museum
A planned 68-unit apartment building in a high-profile spot won a zoning variance Wednesday from the Board of Adjustment, perhaps in part because Herbert Hilliard remained seated and silent when the board chairman asked if anyone objected.
Construction should start by fall on the four-story Museum Lofts at 138 Huling, which is next door to the National Civil Rights Museum.
Hilliard chairs the museum’s board. He and the museum have no objection to Museum Lofts even though the project received an exception to build more apartment units than the 40 units per acre that the rules allow.
“I think it’s a good development,” Hilliard said after the meeting. “We’ve had some meetings, and we talked about some things with the aesthetics of it.
“But it’s replacing a very bad eyesore, that pink building over there,” Hilliard said of a couple of long-vacant buildings on two parcels bounded by Huling, Mulberry, St. Martin and some residences.
“So anything is going to be a significant improvement,” the retired First Tennessee Bank executive said.
The $10 million Museum Lofts will be the seventh project developer Vince Smith has carried out Downtown. The design will be contemporary.
“We’re trying to complement the museum and take a little bit of the eyesore out of the neighborhood,” Smith said. “It’s such a treasure for our city. For people to have to walk by something that’s in a little disrepair, we hope to improve the site and have a nice property. Something we can all be proud of.”
Asked if the National Civil Rights Museum ever considered buying the adjacent property for future expansions, parking or other uses, Hilliard smiled and replied, “We’re not in the real estate business. We don’t buy real estate to hold.”
Zoning caps the density at 40 apartment units per acre; Museum Lofts, to be built on six-tenths of an acre, equates to 113 units per acre.
Still, the Office of Planning and Development planners recommended that the Board of Adjustment approve the exception in part because Museum Lofts will put more people on the surrounding sidewalks.
“This development would further activate and contribute to revitalization of this section of the South Main District...,” the staff report states.
The “podium-style” building will have 72 private parking spaces on the ground level, with the apartments on floors two, three and four.
The apartment’s parking spaces help the museum because providing such private parking is not required of apartment projects in the South Main District, the application states. By having its own parking, Museum Lofts preserves nearby public parking for museum visitors.
Asked to whom Museum Lofts will be marketed, Smith responded, “My experience Downtown is you really get a bunch of different people. A lot of millennials.
“You also find some empty nesters. I think it’s a nice quiet part of Downtown, which will appeal to people who are wanting the urban feel but not wanting to be on a busy corner.”
Other Downtown projects Smith has developed include 266 Lofts, Cabinet Shop lofts, Printers Alley, Annex Lofts and 420 S. Front Condos.
He anticipates having partners in the Museum Lofts project.