Developer proposes replacing Huffines Ridge hotel and high-rise offices with low-rise retail and offices

Developer representatives outlined a revision to the Huffines Ridge Planned Unit Development during a required neighborhood meeting for Franklin City, saying the proposal would replace previously approved high-rise office and a six-story hotel with two-story retail, restaurant and office buildings and surface parking along Carothers Parkway between Liberty Pike and McEwen Drive.

Jeff Roziak, a planner and landscape architect with Gamble Design Collaborative representing the developer GCI, said the site is already partially developed: a multifamily apartment complex occupies part of the property and the project previously included dedication of a roughly 10-acre park that contains the rehabilitated John Henry Carruthers House. "There is a multifamily apartment complex on the site that's built today and is open for business," Roziak said. He added: "The project also included the development and dedication of a 10 acre park that included the John Henry Carruthers House."

Roziak described the previously approved plan as including structured parking, about a six-story office/hotel frontage and a hotel with about 70 units. He told attendees the proposed revision would remove the hotel entirely and reduce the scale and type of commercial space along the parkway. "We've eliminated the hotel entirely in this proposed development plan revision," he said. Roziak said the revision seeks two-story commercial buildings with restaurants and retail on the ground floor and office uses above, supported by surface parking rather than the previously planned parking structure.

The presentation included two different numerical references to the size of the previously approved office program in slides and narration: one slide referenced 50,000 square feet of office commercial supported by a parking garage and a six-story hotel with roughly 70 units, while a later summary in the presentation compared "150,000 square feet of office commercial" under the prior plan to "47,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space" under the proposed revision. The transcript does not record a developer clarification resolving that numerical discrepancy.

Roziak said the site lies in Franklin's regional commerce design concept within Envision Franklin and that the building height overlay had determined the site suitable for six-story development. He said the developer anticipates the revision will proceed to the Franklin City Planning Commission in "a couple of months" and that the item will not go to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen because it does not meet the triggers for BOMA review. "This only goes to planning commission and not to BOMA," Roziak said.

During the public-question portion, one attendee asked about recreational trails on the parkland; Roziak said mountain-bike trails on the park parcel are "largely constructed" and that the trailhead is just now being built. When asked about a construction start date, Ryan Linker of GCI said: "We do not have an anticipated start date. It definitely will not be in the fall, though." He added it was "very, very unlikely" construction would begin before the end of the year, noting the project would still need site-plan review and construction drawings (CDs) after approval of the development plan revision.

No formal vote or decision was taken at the neighborhood meeting; Roziak closed by describing upcoming public meetings and the planning commission timeline and noting the meeting recording will be posted on the City of Franklin's website under the neighborhood meetings tab.