farragutpress

Town Center update; Chase is open

April 24, 2024 by Tammy Cheek

As Biddle Farms Farragut Town Center progresses, developers continue their negotiations with future commercial tenants.

Meanwhile, the second business to open in Town Center is Chase bank, welcoming customers beginning Tuesday morning, April 23, at 11242 Kingston Pike. Offering banking services, as well as investing services from J.P. Morgan, the branch will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday; and closed Sunday.

At present, Tupelo Honey, SuperChix and Parlor Doughnuts are among the restaurants already signed on to occupy space. Negotiations continue with other potential tenants, according to Budd Cullom, president of Biddle Farms Commercial and of CHM, LLC.

“SuperChix and Tupelo Honey will be the first ones opening,” Cullom said. “SuperChix probably in July, and between July and the end of the year” for the rest of the retail and restaurants.

Some Town officials toured the development Friday, April 19, with potential sign ordinances in mind. “Nice” and “impressive” were the adjectives used to describe the project during the tour.

“The retail and restaurant (part of the development), counting the (already open) Aldi, is about 65,000 square feet, plus or minus or a little over,” Cullom said. “That doesn’t count Chase. “The apartments … I think they’re over 300,000 square feet total.

“We’ve got townhouses that are coming up on another phase,” he added. “Those are back behind the apartments, almost back to Campbell Station Road.”

From a sundeck of the apartment complex facing the future Main Street and Kingston Pike, across from Lendon Welch Way at the entrance to Farragut High School, one can see the restaurants that will be flanking Main Street on both sides and the Town Green, situated between the apartments and the restaurants, which will have outdoor seating.

“There’ll be really nice grass, and the Town will own this and have events here (on the Green),” Cullom said. “You’ll be able to walk along Main Street there.”

Regarding landscaping along the front, “It’s important that street (Main Street) look good, for the whole project, to me,” Community Development director Mark Shipley said.

There will be 186 apartment units, according to Joe Fielding Jr., president of Biddle Farms Residential. He expects the units to be available in the next few months.

“We hope to have our first residents in late June,” Fielding added.

Canopy signs

Meanwhile, Farragut Municipal Planning Commission members looked favorably on the use of canopy signs in the development during its meeting Thursday, April 18.

Likewise, Town staff supported allowing canopy signs, Shipley said Thursday.

“As the Biddle Farm project is moving along, it’s become evident that there’s some signage that some of the tenants would like to have that is not currently provided for in the sign ordinance,” he said.

Namely, one of the Biddle Farms’ future tenants, SuperChix wants a canopy sign with curved letters on top of a 20-inch-thick canopy.

Shipley explained a canopy is a permanent metal structure on which the sign will be placed.

However, looking at the proposed sign, Commissioners Noah Myers and Jeff Devlin questioned the size of the lettering for the SuperChix sign.

“I’m definitely open to (canopy signs) … (but) I think we need to talk about size and scale,” Myers said. Still, he added, “I think this (canopy signs) would be a great addition to our downtown district.”

Shipley said the letters are 36 inches tall, which is 7 square feet too large, according to the Town’s sign ordinance.

While Cullom agreed with Commissioners that the size is important, he pointed out the size of the letters are proportionate to the height of the two-story building.