Demonbreun condos in works

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By CHAS SISK

A Music Row developer is planning a 14-story condominium and retail project on Demonbreun Street a block east of the roundabout.

Jim Caden has proposed 106 condos and 5,300 square feet of retail space next door to the strip of shops and restaurants that he built on the 1500 block of Demonbreun four years ago. City officials have approved designs.

Units in the development, called The Rhythm at Music Row, will sell for $230,000 to $600,000. With units ranging in size from 780 square feet to 1,440 square feet, the project is meant to be an alternative to similarly priced developments in the Gulch and elsewhere in town.

"This is attractively priced for young professionals," Caden said.

The building will stand on the north side of Demonbreun, on the site of the headquarters of Nashville Lifestyles magazine and an adjacent parking lot. It's just down the block from the Two Doors Down sports bar, The Tin Roof nightspot and other restaurants and clubs.

It joins a wave of development along Demonbreun, which city officials are trying to promote as an arts district.

"It's showing that midtown, downtown is coming back," said John Eakin, a Nashville developer who is working on an office, retail and condo project nearby.

Wakefield Beasley & Associates, a Norcross, Ga.-based architecture firm, designed the building, which will feature a three-story parking garage, a swimming pool and other amenities typical of downtown Nashville condominiums.

Financing for the $30 million project is still being finalized, but Caden and his partner, Nashville developer and former fast-food franchisee Rhett Smith, expect to start reserving units July 15.

Construction could start as early as this fall. Caden and Smith hope to open in 2008.