An 188-acre tract in Donelson, unbuilt since its 2008 approval, is being rezoned for a massive development. A Specific Plan amendment filed with Metro Planning on July 14 would allow light industrial and complementary commercial uses across 17 parcels and 188.53 acres at 555 McCrory Creek Road, the wedge of hillside bounded by McCrory Creek Road, Neilworth Lane and Elm Hill Pike on the north and west and by I-40 on the southeast, near Nashville International Airport.
The 188.5-acre SP boundary between I-40 and Old McCrory Creek Road; Nashville International Airport lies to the southwest, Hickory Bend to the north. Redrawn from Barge Design Solutions.
The filing revives Buchanan Point, a project Metro Council approved in 2008 and Mathews announced in late 2010: 185.94 acres for up to 2.7 million square feet of office and retail-commercial space, including office buildings of up to seven stories, a hotel and 120,000 square feet of retail. None of it was built. The updated plan is adding a few acres on an adjoining parcel. The Nashville Post reported in 2012 that the developer, The Mathews Co., was "constantly marketing the property" and would "build to suit," "sell parts of it" and "work with tenants," and had no start date. The amendment replaces that office-led program with light industrial, office-flex and commercial uses. The new plan would easily allow for several million square feet of industrial uses across various outparcels.
Ownership of the site was consolidated in January. Title to sixteen of the seventeen parcels inside the SP boundary transferred to McCrory Creek Investments, GP through a deed with no recorded sale price. The seventeenth parcel, about 30.5 acres, had been acquired by the same entity in January 2022. The January deed also brought in the 2.59-acre parcel at 555 McCrory Creek Road, which was not part of the 2008 ordinance; that addition is why the amended boundary is 2.59 acres larger than the original. CityScout's records show McCrory Creek Investments holding 22 parcels in the area, five of them outside the SP boundary.
The owner contact on the filing is Bert Mathews, president of The Mathews Company and a partner at Colliers International Nashville. Mathews is a third-generation Nashville developer whose family business dates to 1938. The company developed 333 Commerce, the AT&T tower that remains Nashville's tallest building, in the early 1990s, and its airport-area track record includes the Airlane I, II and III business service centers on Air Lane Drive, developed from 1981 to 1984, according to the company’s project history.
The site is organized into two subdistricts. An Office/Flex district sits at the western entrance off McCrory Creek Road, where the plan describes it as transitioning from the adjacent existing commercial frontage. The larger Core district lies farther east and south toward I-40 and permits office, commercial and light industrial uses. Seven outparcels are shown along the road frontage, the pads Mathews described selling or building to suit in 2012. The application does not state a building program, and its ceiling depends on standards in the SP text. Light industrial buildings are single-story, so a buildout on the same footprint would produce less floor area than the seven-story office plan the 2008 entitlement allowed.
Office/Flex (ochre) at the Elm Hill Pike entrance; Core subdistricts A and B (blue) permit light industrial toward I-40. Green marks the 50-foot buffer facing Hickory Bend. Source: Barge Design Solutions, case 2008SP-013G-014.
A companion street-plan amendment, filed August 7, would shift the planned alignment of McCrory Creek Road and establish a three-lane boulevard within a 75-foot right-of-way, with a 12-foot multi-use path, sidewalks and planting strips. The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider that case on September 24.
The main SP amendment remains under review. It was initially listed for the commission's August 27 meeting; the case was postponed for a Planning Commission hearing on September 10 at 4 p.m. at the Howard Office Building. Metro Fire has approved the submitted plan, Metro Water approved it with conditions, and seven other Metro departments have requested corrections.
There has been some neighborhood discussion regarding the site, especially regarding the potential industrial uses. In the Hip Donelson Facebook group, residents raised the question of a data center, citing Barge Design Solutions' listing of data centers among its specialties; Barge is the applicant. District 15 Councilmember Jeff Gregg, whose district includes the site, responded in the thread: "No Data Centers will be built on the site."
District 15 Councilmember Jeff Gregg responding to residents in the Hip Donelson Facebook group in July.
Residents in the same discussion raised tree clearing, wildlife habitat, traffic and stormwater, and noted that the 2008 site plan had been removed from the public case link, preventing a direct comparison with the amendment.
Status: Under review · Filed: July 14, 2026 · Site: 188.53 acres, 17 parcels · Next: Planning Commission, September 10 · The complete case file, plan sheets, agency reviews and the people attached to the project are in CityScout.