The warehouse on the site is slated for demolition, with Tiny's Construction filing a $354,899 application on September 1 to take the 1952 building down to its slab. The building is a 117,529-square-foot distribution warehouse with 16 dock doors, last marketed in 2020.
A shell permit filed January 7, which the Nashville Post picked up in March, and seven finish-out permits filed February 19 describe a four-story, 435,293-square-foot building: 262 apartments and ground-floor commercial space wrapped around a garage on 5.8 acres between the rail line and Craighead, east of I-65 near the Fairgrounds. A master permit filed in December had called for 228 units and was cancelled January 7, and the nine permits now add up to $66.75 million in declared value, about $255,000 an apartment before land and soft costs.
The Vintage brand name comes from TDK, a Murfreesboro firm, founded in 1959 as Keach Construction, that builds and keeps its own properties and lists more than 20 Vintage-branded apartments across the Southeast, with Imagine1 as its partner on Vintage Station North at the Mt. Juliet rail station, Vintage Edge on Nolensville Pike, and the $82 million Vintage Pleasant Grove going up now. CityScout's records have TDK as the contractor on Vintage Edge and Vintage Century Farms in Antioch and as developer of The Vintage in Smyrna, with Centric Architecture on five of its filings.
Centric is the architect here and Catalyst Design Group the civil engineer, and TDK, which acts as its own general contractor, will build it.
The building never had a public hearing, and the zoning is why: Nashville rezones land two ways. A Specific Plan ties the zoning to a drawn plan, so the building shown at the hearing is the one that gets built, and any major change goes back to Planning and Council. A base district sets rules and leaves the design to the owner. This site is MUL-A-NS, a mixed-use district for apartments, retail, restaurants and offices, with the A for walkable building placement and the NS for no short-term rentals, and once it is on the map anything it allows goes straight to Codes.
This project took the second path: Planning recommended the rezoning 7-0 in December 2022 (minutes) and Council passed it 37-0 two months later, with Centric as applicant and MSA Investors as owner, and the first time the building itself appeared in a public record was the master permit last December, nearly three years on. The shell shows what the district allows: four stories and 60 feet, pulled to the street, with the steeper part of the site kept under conservation policy and the rail line to the west and the houses to the north noted in the staff report.
The project is one shell with the residential fit-out split into seven finish-out permits, lettered A through G, running from 15 units in Building A to 71 in Building B. B also carries the amenity space, and A has a basement garage and an occupied roof. The only commercial space is a ground-floor shell in Building C whose size and tenant are still to come, so the retail fit-outs will be their own permits later.
Getting the site served meant rerouting a sewer main, which Council signed off on in April (resolution RS2026-1887), and the state stormwater permit that covers grading the site is in Imagine1's name and expires September 30.
Council approved rerouting a sewer main to serve the site in April (resolution RS2026-1887), and the state stormwater permit for grading is in Imagine1's name and expires September 30. All nine permits are still in review. The shell has cleared most departments since January and the site plan was approved July 30, but the shell application runs through October 10 and the seven finish-outs came due August 19, so they need an extension or a refile.
MSA Investors has owned the land since 1998. Its phone number, a "Williams Hawkins" listed as developer on the grading permit, and Charles W. Hawkins III's ownership of the Boot Factory next door all point to Charles Hawkins Co., an industrial landlord. MSA keeps title while Imagine1 and TDK bring the apartments.
There is no construction loan on record. That makes a $66.75 million build the open item, ahead of the demolition permit, the finish-out extensions and the stormwater renewal.
Status: Under review · Filed: shell January 7, finish-outs February 19 and demolition September 1, 2026 · Site: 5.8 acres, 492 Craighead Street · Program: 262 apartments, 435,293-square-foot shell, $66.75 million declared · Next: demolition permit issuance · Expires: shell application October 10 · The complete permit set, review comments, sewer resolution and the people attached to the project are in CityScout.