By MINDY TATE, Editor
Williamson Herald
mtate@williamsonherald.com
While it isn’t on the list of “Best Picture” nominees at the Oscars later this month, Southern Land Company’s marketing movie about its newest mixed-use project — “McEwen the Movie” — was a hit with the hundreds of people who saw its premiere Jan. 31.
Known for its innovative marketing concepts —human cannonballs, pyrotechnics, and
exploding golf balls — Southern Land decided the film concept could best show what is proposed to happen on the 93-acre tract on Mallory Lane near the new McEwen Drive interchange by taking to the silver screen with some creative license.
“McEwen is going to be different from anything else in this market,” said Melonee McKinney Hurt, mixed-use marketing director for Southern Land Company. “In typical Southern Land fashion, we wanted to make the unveiling as unique as the imminent community. We are extremely excited about this event and believe that it is something that will not only be informative, but also very entertaining.”
McEwen will include 300,000 square feet of Class A office space, a 140-room hotel, 255,000 square feet of unique shopping, and 950 residential units and covered parking; its total zoning is for more than 1 million square feet of commercial use. Whole Foods Market has already been announced as the first retailer and many other agreements with exciting retailers are in the works.
Promising during the film that “within a year, this place will be completely transformed,” Southern Land’s Vice President of Landscaping Ben Crenshaw said McEwen will bring “a real heart, a real soul” to Cool Springs.
McEwen the Movie examines Cool Springs in the aftermath of suburban sprawl, officials said. As part of the project, Southern Land Company directors asked people of Middle Tennessee what they like and dislike about Cool Springs. These interviews not only provided humor, but also insight from real people who live, work and shop in Cool Springs, every day. Filmmakers also talked to several Southern Land Company executives who are now working hard to bring McEwen to fruition.
“We hope the audience will leave with all of their questions answered and their curiosity at full throttle,” said Alison Cooke, co-director of the movie. “We want McEwen to spark a revolution. We want it to usher in a new era of shopping, entertaining, and living in Cool Springs and Williamson County. After seeing this, we want people to live like they mean it.”
McEwen was designed as a walkable community – the neighborhood will contain office, hotel, retail, upscale apartments and townhomes and condos as well as large open spaces that are designed centrally within the neighborhood for better pedestrian access by residents and tenants alike. McEwen has attracted the attention of retailers, commercial brokers and investors from various parts of the country.
“Amstar is proud to be a part of a project that we believe will revolutionize the region,” said Brad Morrison, a vice president with Amstar Group, a real estate private equity firm that has partnered with Southern Land Company on McEwen. “We feel this is a great location for a dynamic mixed-use neighborhood, and are confident that McEwen has enormous potential.”
Along with man-on-the-street interviews is a computer animated fly-through above McEwen ‘s town center — the retail and residential heart and soul of the larger community. In addition, the physical town center model — nicknamed “MIA: Man It’s Awesome” — was unveiled at the event. MIA is more than 11 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall and will remain in the theater’s lobby in the coming weeks, courtesy of Carmike Thoroughbred 20.
Franklin-based Southern Land Company is a full-service development firm with more than 335 employees between the Tennessee and Texas offices. The company employs architects, landscape architects, homebuilders, town planners, engineers, heavy construction professionals, marketing and sales teams, horticulturalists, and a broad scope of community development professionals.
To learn more about Southern Land Company, visit www.southernland.com.