If a new Bellevue library were built on the grounds of Bellevue Middle school, it could be modeled on the new library branch in Goodlettsville, which shares land with Goodlettsville Elementary.

-- Gary Layda

After a few slow months, signs of life and new development are beginning to stir in Bellevue.

A new developer, North Carolina-based Crosland, has met with local officials on the Bellevue Center property, sources confirm. Also, Metro has zeroed in on four possible sites for a long-awaited new Bellevue branch library, an updated land-use plan is being written, and several new businesses have opened.

What happens with the former mall is central to Bellevue, says Councilman at Large Charlie Tygard. The challenge for developers, he adds, will be to attract national retail chains to the nearly 90-acre property, once home to department stores and specialty shops such as Eddie Bauer and Williams-Sonoma. These days, only a Sears and Sears Automotive Center remain open.

“We’d really like to see more day traffic and something that would draw that to allow businesses to flourish,” Bellevue Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tonya Robbins says of the mall property. Diversifying the mix of land uses would help, she says.

Crosland’s track record is instructive. It helped develop Mt. Juliet’s Providence MarketPlace, which includes Belk and JC Penney department stores, Best Buy and Dick’s Sporting Goods. There’s a Kroger and a movie theater, plus Panera Bread, Fulin Asian Cuisine and an Olive Garden, among other eateries, as well as a host of other retail and service locations, the shopping venue’s website shows.

Shopping areas like Providence MarketPlace have cropped up in several neighboring counties, and Metro itself needs to get one, local attorney James Weaver says. His law firm, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, represents the owner of the Bellevue Mall property, Inland Western Real Estate Trust.

“Look at a map of Davidson County,” he says. “You’ll see big retail islands – Providence MarketPlace, Indian Lakes in Sumner County, Cool Springs in Franklin, The Avenue-Murfreesboro in Rutherford County.

“There’s none in Davidson County. That’s a problem,” he says, adding those developments are pulling sales tax dollars from Metro.

“It is absolutely essential that we figure out a way as a county to develop these retail islands,” he says. Bellevue is a logical site because the needed zoning is already in place at the mall property, he explains.

As mall talks continue, planning moves ahead for a new Bellevue branch library.

Metro’s capital budget contains $1 million for land acquisition, says Bonna Johnson, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, adding potential sites have been narrowed to four.

One possibility would be to build the new library on the grounds of the Bellevue Middle School, land the city already owns, Tygard says. If that site is eventually selected, he says, the library could be good for the school and vice versa, sharing synergies as the new Goodlettsville branch library does with its next-door neighbor, Goodlettsville Elementary School. Plus, funds that would have gone toward land for a library could be used to actually build it, he adds.

Along with the Bellevue Middle site, two others are along the Highway 70 corridor, Tygard says, and a fourth on Highway 100. He declined to give specifics on the other three sites. Johnson says the city hopes to make a final decision on a site in the next 60 days.

Cost of a new library is estimated at $10.9 million, the amount listed in the city’s capital improvement budget, which is essentially an unfunded project “wish list,” she says. Funding library construction would require Metro Council approval.

Meanwhile, the city is revising its 8-year-old Bellevue community plan, which the Metro Planning Department uses to guide development. About 100 attendees listened at a recent meeting to planners outline ideas for community gathering spots or centers and the roadways that serve them.

Planners showed artist renderings for three possible uses of the Bellevue Mall property, each scenario calling for mixed-use with varying levels of residential development along with offices or retail uses. Planners also outlined ideas for Bellevue’s two other centers, the small neighborhood center at Bellevue Road and Old Harding Pike and what they call a community center at the intersection of Highway 70 and Old Hickory Boulevard.

Attendees used Post-it notes to register their comments on the various scenarios. Planners are reviewing the comments and plan to post them on the department’s Bellevue update web page, available nashville.gov/mpc/.

The next meeting is set for Sept. 15, 6-8 p.m. at the Harpeth Heights Baptist Church and will cover transportation, open spaces and plan implementation. A draft plan review is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on Nov. 3 at Cross Point Church, and a draft document review is to be held on Dec. 1 from 6-8 p.m. at the church.

“I think folks are anxious about the mall,” Tygard says.

While there are some signs of life – Athens Restaurant moving into what was a Mrs. Winner’s, a Verizon store taking the place of the old Applebee’s restaurant on Highway 100 area and a new Mexican restaurant just opened near the Pinnacle Bank across the street from the old Bellevue Center Mall – “the mall holds the key,” Tygard adds.