NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A plan to completely reimagine a residential area of East Nashville is taking steps forward. It’s a major project that could temporarily displace nearly 200 affordable housing residents.

The development would replace the Berkshire Place Apartments with a nearly 20-acre mixed-use development along the 1500 block of Porter Road and Cahal Avenue in South Inglewood.

The site is approved to hold 800 residential units, 10,000 square feet of restaurant use, and 25,000 square feet of retail or office use, plus space for courtyard gardens, an amphitheater, a promenade, and a nature trail.

“I appreciate progress,” said South Inglewood Resident Christina Mullen. “As I walk my dog every day, I see the neighborhood changing and, you know, changing for the better where dilapidated buildings are being torn down and new buildings are being put up, and it just makes the area feel that much more desirable.”

Mullen said the potential development was a selling point for several South Inglewood residents.

“I think it would make it a little busier over here, but busy in a good way,” said Mullen. “I could just go straight over there to the park, and then like I said, just the idea of retail and restaurant mixed-use right across the street is pretty exciting to us.” 

Mullen said she’s attended multiple in-person and virtual planning meetings for the mixed-use development and feels confident that the current Berkshire residents would be well taken care of and be offered an upgrade in their living situation at no change of cost.

The city is working with the developers to offer some affordable housing units within the future development so some residents won’t have to move. The district’s councilwoman, Emily Benedict, has said the feedback has been mainly positive.

However, some residents have expressed concern about the disruption to their lives.