Major facelift in the works for Farragut Center
A facelift is in the works for Farragut Center, 11414 Kingston Pike, and Farragut Municipal Planning Commission members were pleased as they approved a site plan for the project during its meeting Thursday, June 15.
Brad Burns, designer with DaVinci Design and Contracting, which presented the plan, presented samples of the colors and awning metal material, as he explained how the upgrades would look. He surmised the center, located near the corner of Kingston Pike and South Campbell Station Road, was constructed in the late 1970s.
“Most of the brick has been patched up and added,” he said of the current façade.
However, Burns noted the brick around Prestige Cleaners “is not bad and has not been messed with.”
“I’m not offended by you painting the brick,” said Vice Mayor Louise Povlin, an FMPC member.
“These older buildings are what gives these small business or first-time opening businesses an opportunity to get into our Mixed Use Town Center, which is what we need,” she added. “I don’t have a problem with these older buildings and having them fixed up. I think it’s fabulous that they’re working to improve appearances.”
Still, she is concerned about signage that would not meet the Town’s MUTC standards, while Commissioner Noah Myers was concerned adding and removing signs as businesses come and go would eventually damage the new awning.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a site plan for façade modifications and lighting updates to the center, which houses such businesses as Prestige Cleaners, Lentz Veterinary Clinic, His Security & Technology, LLC. and Riverdog Bakery, Farragut.
However, there were a few conditions, such as the color the applicant plans to paint the brick and the sign.
“There are a few things they are proposing,” Community Development director Mark Shipley said. “They are proposing to paint the existing brick, which is on three sides of the building, to a medium gray-kind of charcoal Terratone color.
“It’s pretty close to the color of Domino’s Pizza to the east of this building, which is also owned by the same person,” he added.
Shipley said the owner also plans to replace the cedar shake awning with a metal material, adding decorative veneer to the support posts along the frontage to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and replacing the 8-foot fluorescent tube lights along the front of the building, under the awning, with 6-inch LED fixtures, which will be recessed into the awning.
“The lights they are proposing is a good change,” he added.
The director also said the building is “at an age where maintenance and updates are needed.
“The wall-mounted sign on the building is also outdated and nonconforming in terms of the style and illumination,” Shipley added. “New signs are supposed to be backlit or externally illuminated.
“As part of this project, we tried to work to create a façade that would help tenants, in the future, to have less expensive signs to meet that requirement.”
Shipley suggested gooseneck lighting.
In other business, FMPC:
• Approved unanimously a proposed façade design for a soil nail wall at Kingston Pike Village, being constructed behind Little Joe’s Pizza, near Kingston Pike, The builder plans to use a brick and Trex façade;
• Approved a site plan modification, with some conditions, for Tommy’s Boat Storage and Retail, 1470 Outlet Drive, beside TopGolf, involving 10.86 acres. Conditions include providing a new landscape plan and updating external lighting sheets in final plan set; and ...
• Appointed Farragut High School rising senior Leo Davis as FMPC youth representative for the 2024 fiscal year. He has an interest in law and politics.
