Developer Merus has scooped up a Nashville, Tennessee-area mall that it plans to redevelop as a $450 million mixed-use property with nearly 900 housing units and 130,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Cincinnati-based Merus on Tuesday said it had acquired RiverGate Mall, a 57-acre property at 1000 Rivergate Parkway in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, from Hendon Properties of Atlanta. The purchase price was $33 million, according to the brokerage Avison Young.
The mall opened in 1971, serving shoppers in North Nashville, Madison and Goodlettsville. Merus said it plans to transform the former enclosed mall by phases into a walkable, connected community with new streets and infrastructure, housing options, neighborhood-oriented retail and dining, entertainment, medical and office space, and public green space.
Merus is part of a wave of real estate developers that are acquiring malls at low prices to reimagine for today’s environment by adding new uses such as housing, entertainment and dining. In West Nyack, New York, for example, Black Diamond Capital Management just purchased the Palisades Center mall in a foreclosure auction and plans to revamp it.
Demolition on the existing roughly 514,000-square-foot RiverGate Mall, located next to retailer Dollar General’s headquarters, is set for this spring. Development will continue in phases through the early 2030s.
At full build-out, the project is expected to include roughly 700 multifamily units,100 townhouses and 80 independent senior housing units; more than 130,000 square feet of retail and dining space; a center green and plaza for community programming and gathering; new roads, utilities and pedestrian-focused infrastructure; and donated land to support future rapid bus transit.
When it’s done, the redevelopment is expected to represent roughly $450 million in total value, subject to final design, phasing, entitlements and market conditions.
“Stepping into a site like this comes with a responsibility — not just to redevelop it, but to do it right,” Patrick Poole, senior vice president and Nashville market leader for Merus, said in a statement. “Our focus is taking a property designed for a different era and reimagining it as a walkable, active district where people can live, work, gather, and spend time.”
Merus is partnering with Fulmer Lucas, Smith Gee Studio and Pinnacle Bank, its lending partner, on the redevelopment. The project is supported by Tax Increment Financing benefit packages from the cities of Nashville and Goodlettsville.
“This opportunity offered a rare, large-scale redevelopment opportunity in the Nashville [Metropolitan Statistical Area],” John Tennant, executive managing partner at brokerage Franklin Street,which represented the seller, said in a statement. “The site attracted interest from both local and national developers despite a challenging capital markets market. There haven’t been many sites in the Nashville market of this scale to come to market in the last decade."
For the record
Merus was represented by Jordan Powell of Avison Young. Franklin Street brokers Bryan Belk and John Tennant represented the seller, Hendon Properties, while Hartman Simons & Wood executed legal work on behalf of the seller.