Starwood Capital JV Breaks Ground on Nashville Community

Novel Edgehill. Image courtesy of Crescent Communities and Starwood Capital Group

A joint venture of Crescent Communities, Starwood Capital Group and Pearl Street Partners has begun construction on a mixed-use multifamily project located within a Nashville, Tenn., opportunity zone, dubbed Novel Edgehill. First units are scheduled to be ready by late 2021.

READ ALSO: Nashville Multifamily Report – Fall 2019

The 270-unit Novel project will offer studios, one- and two-bed apartments throughout four- and five-story buildings. The property also will incorporate a dedicated coworking space and 6,000 square feet of retail space that will include a cafe from Land of a Thousand Hill Coffee. Residents will also get access to a rooftop sky lounge, a pool deck with a heated spa and an outdoor dining area and firepit, according to Khris Pascarella, a principal at Pearl Street Partners.

Located at 801 12th Ave S., Novel Edgehill will be near Tennessee’s interstates 40 and 65 and several colleges, including Vanderbilt University and Belmont University. The property will also be blocks away from The Gulch, a previously-abandoned industrial area that was transformed into a walkable LEED-certified neighborhood with hotels, high-rise condos, murals, retail and restaurants.

Being within an opportunity zone and in a central location to major companies moving in like Amazon, AllianceBernstein, Smile Direct and EY, Novel Edgehill is expected to attract a young, diverse workforce that’s looking to move to Nashville, according to Ben Collins, senior managing director for Crescent’s west region.

“This is a time of unprecedented large scale employment announcements in Nashville and there will be thousands of employees moving to Nashville from around the country and around the globe,” Collins told Multi-Housing News. “NOVEL Edgehill is positioned to be the perfect home for the ‘new Nashvillian.’”

The companies involved in the mixed-use project have been working on the plans for Novel Edgehill for a while, but Crescent and Pearl Street officially purchased the 2.9-acre site in January, while a Starwood affiliate provide the project financing. The developers sought out the architecture firm KTGY and Manuel Zeitlin Architects to design the development while Hawkins and Partners handled the landscape design and CID was the interior designer.

EXPERIENCE IN TENNESSEE

Like its latest, Crescent has completed several projects with the Novel name-branding. In January 2019, the company sold their 337-unit Novel Bellevue in Nashville to The Praedium Group. A month prior, Crescent sold their Novel Music Row, also in Nashville, to Dinerstein Cos. for $79.2 million.

Throughout Nashville, the company has developed more than 2,236 units and invested a total of $422.5 million. Crescent has also partnered with Pearl Street Partners on several other occasions including Novel Bellevue, Novel Music Row, Novel Lockwood Glen and Novel West Nashville.

Crescent also recently announced plans for another mixed-use development in Franklin, Tenn. The development called Bigby will include 350,000-square-foot Class A office and retail space and 330 residential units roughly 30 minutes away from Nashville.