Details are emerging and images have been created related to a mixed-use development Nashville’s SomeraRoad is planning for Wedgewood-Houston.
Proposed to offer residential, retail and hotel space, Martin & Merritt (a working name) will unfold at 515 Merritt Ave. (an adaptive reuse of an existing building and tentatively to be called The Mill) and at 1300 Martin St. The latter site will include new construction of hotel and residential buildings and will require the razing of various small, nondescript buildings.
Martin & Merritt’s The Mill has already landed Barista Parlor as a tenant, with the café company’s roasting and administrative operations to be part of that space.
The warehouse structure on the site (SomeraRoad will begin updates within 45 days) is recognized as the home of Vintage Millworks and sits across Merritt Avenue from a building accommodating Nashville Design Collective.
Previously, Barista Parlor had been eyeing a summer 2023 opening, which is still planned.
Similarly, SomeraRoad is eyeing a project for 475 Humphreys St. The company in October 2022 paid $2.8 million for that property and for 481 Humphreys St. Those two parcels sit adjacent to three properties for which SomeraRoad spent $2.25 million in December 2021.
The 475 Humphreys project is expected to include a four-story building offering retail space on the ground level and three floors of offices space, the SomeraRoad spokesperson said. SomeraRoad officials have told the neighbors the company plans to relocate to that future structure from its property located in The Gulch and on which is unfolding Paseo South Gulch. The company previously operated its office in Wedgewood-Houston.
SomeraRoad has not yet announced a start date or timeline for either project, and no filings have been made with the Metro Planning Department. Specific plan rezonings are expected to be sought for both, the SomeraRoad spokesperson said.
Andrew Donchez, SomeraRoad partner, emailed the Post that recent community meetings related to both Martin & Merritt and 475 Humphreys were met with “enthusiastic” neighborhood support.
“We consider Wedgewood-Houston our home,” he said. “And with these projects, we are seeking to make significant and appropriate contributions to the built environment that build on the many great things already happening and that benefit the entire neighborhood.”