Hotel emerges at $270M mixed-use development in Cool Springs

One of Greater Nashville’s largest hotel developers plans to start construction this summer on a hotel that will be part of a $270 million mixed-use development in Franklin’s Cool Springs commercial hub.

Franklin-based Chartwell Hospitality will own and operate a 150-room SpringHill Suites, which is a flag of Marriott International Inc. (Nasdaq: MAR). The project accounts for all of the hotel rooms planned as part of the Northside McEwen development, which is also set to contain about 750,000 square feet of office space, about 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 580 residential units. As seen on our Williamson Watch map, the Northside McEwen development is one of the biggest projects happening in what is the fastest-growing county in Tennessee — a county that led the nation in job growth during the bulk of 2015 and 2016.

The SpringHill Suites is part of a flurry of hotel activity in Franklin. The city approved permits for five hotels last year totaling almost 700 rooms, almost six times the rooms approved in 2016. Chartwell, one of the longest-tenured hotel developers in the region, is also going through a growth spurt of its own. The company owns and operates eight area hotels and is under construction on four more: one in downtown Nashville, two in Green Hills and a full-service Hilton in Franklin.

Once the SpringHill Suites is open, Chartwell will officially own more than 2,000 hotel rooms in the region — nearly double its existing portfolio. Chartwell owns properties in 12 states and has about 1,400 employees.

Franklin Synergy Bank (NYSE: FSB) is providing a construction loan, said Rob Schaedle, managing partner of Chartwell. The company has hired McMurry Construction Co. Inc. to build the SpringHill Suites. McMurray also is the builder on Chartwell’s dual-hotel project in Green Hills and the Hampton Inn & Suites that Chartwell is developing within the Capitol View development at 1100 Charlotte Ave.

Site plans show the hotel located at the main entrance into the Northside McEwen development, fronting McEwen Drive and the to-be-extended Aspen Grove Drive. Northside McEwen is spearheaded by the Franklin office of Boyle Investment Co. and North Carolina-based Northwood Ravin.

Chartwell and Boyle have paired up on a number of occasions, including the Capitol View project and also the Franklin Hilton, in which Chartwell bought land from Boyle located between two of Boyle’s office buildings.

Originally Published in the Nashville Business Journal

By Adam Sichko