Franklin Mall Adding Apartments, Hotel
What to do with underperforming malls has vexed mall owners primarily since COVID-19. Besides shuttering sinking stores, owners have devised a plan that basically rigs them business. Build apartments and hotels on the property. CBL Properties and RaganSmith Associates have decided to do just that at the Cool Springs Galleria in Franklin, Tennessee, just outside Nashville.
The Nashville Business Journal reports the proposed plan includes the development of 76,700 square feet of retail and restaurant space, around 600 apartment units across two buildings and a 120-room hotel in the parking lots west of the Galleria, wedged between the mall and Mallory Lane. The project will be completed in six phases and include adding open green spaces to the 86.5-acre mall site. It still has to be okayed by the local planning board.
CBL Properties opened Cool Springs Galleria in 1991. It is Tennessee’s largest mall, with more than one million square feet of retail space and more than 150 stores.
