Nashville-based Southern Land Co. has entered the world of corporate blogging in a different way.

The company has hired a reporter to write about the real estate market and housing trends on a separate Web site from its own. The site address is www.whatsforreal.com.

New apartment development hopes to capitalize on influx of workers

Development on Williamson County's first apartment community in 10 years is under way in Cool Springs just off the McEwen interchange on I-65.

The 10-acre development, to be known as Dwell, will include 14 apartment buildings and 258 upscale units in the middle of Southern Land Company's mixed-use McEwen development.

FRANKLIN — Development on Williamson County’s first apartment community in 10 years is underway in Cool Springs just off of the McEwen interchange on I-65.

The 10-acre development, to be known as Dwell, will include 14 apartment buildings and a total of 258 upscale units in the middle of Southern Land Company’s mixed-use McEwen development.

In December, Franklin-based Southern Land Co. announced that Whole Foods would anchor McEwen, the 90-acre mixed-use development it's building at Mallory Lane and McEwen Lane. A fall 2009 opening is planned.

David Wilson, executive vice president of Southern Land Co., said his company began working on a contract with Whole Foods nearly two years ago.

The McEwen store is expected to be 45,000 square feet, 15,000 square feet larger than the Galleria Boulevard location.

"We have a signed lease with Whole Foods that we're moving forward with," Wilson said, adding that construction is on target. Of the Galleria location, he noted, "I think this is a great opportunity for residents to start shopping at Whole Foods early."

Movie launches McEwen 

"You can't con today's homebuyer," said Jim Cheney, a spokesman for developer Southern Land Co. "You've got to be on top of your game. You've got to be speaking genuinely and showing you've put the time and energy and thought into what you're going to offer them."

Earlier this year, Southern Land Co. produced a 17-minute documentary about the making of McEwen, the upcoming mixed-use development off McEwen Drive that aims to combine retail, office and residential space in a pedestrian-friendly environment.

Lace up your running shoes or attend an inspirational dinner with the Life is good co-founder to help needy kids.

This year's Life is good Festival, which raises money for The Boys & Girls Club of Franklin/Williamson County and the Life is good Kids Foundation, is scheduled for June 7.

On the city's wealthy fringes, developers have started to incorporate some of the same techniques that have made Green Hills popular again.

In the McEwen development, for instance, Southern Land Co. is building a neighborhood on the south end of Cool Springs that will combine offices and shops with 1,000 residential units. Whole Foods has already signed a deal to anchor McEwen's town center when it opens in the fall of 2009.

"Green Hills is a great area that attracts a lot of national and regional tenants," said Paul Neuroth, Southern Land's senior vice president of leasing. "We have not had a cohesive project like that where retailers can go to."

The elaborate McEwen Drive interchange has been open since the fall, standing as a gateway to destinations not yet built.

But plans abound for a slew of retail, restaurant and commercial developments west of the interchange, where Mallory Lane and McEwen Drive intersect. Each of the four corners at this junction will eventually be home to projects that will likely transform the area that until recently was little more than pastoral landscape beyond Cool Springs.

Save for new traffic lights, asphalt and striping, the McEwen Drive extension from Mallory Lane to Cool Springs Boulevard might already be open to Franklin commuters.

In this edition of the NAI Nashville Market Report podcast, I spoke with Timothy Downey the President and CEO of the Southern Land Company about their new mixed-use development in the Cool Springs area called McEwen.