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5. The Galleria Mall Could Have Been in Brentwood
By the mid-1980s, the idea of building a mall in Williamson County was a tantalizing idea. The county was booming, and the idea of all that sales tax revenue became very attractive, as farmland was quickly turning into valuable real estate.
Several different developers hit on the idea of building a mall. Several properties were bought and put in the running. Maryland Farms, as yet undeveloped, was one of the first leading sites. Ultimately, however, of course, it lost out and would take another several years to be developed into the commercial area it is today.
“The idea of a Williamson County mall was tantalizing,” wrote Robert Holladay in Franklin: Tennessee’s Handsomest Town. “All the local sales tax would remain in the county; property-tax coffers would be full. Williamson County shoppers would not have to go to Nashville to spend their money.”
Quickly, in what would become known as the mall brawl, several developers appeared to compete with Southeast for the rights to build a Williamson County mall, among them some of the premier firms in the nation. One was CBL & Associates of Chattanooga.
Each proposed a different location. CBL approached Brentwood about the corner of Concord Road and Franklin Pike.
“They were turned down cold by residents and officials who wanted nothing to do with commercial development in the area,” wrote Holladay.
Another proposed a project called Liberty Place at Moores Lane and I-65. Edward J. DeBartolo Corp came up with plans for a Maryland Farms shopping mall in the 50-acre Brentwood Business Park. (Liberty Place would eventually be developed, but on a much smaller scale.)
CBL moved quickest. After Brentwood turned their plan down, they sketched out an ambitious plan for a 1.08 million-square foot galleria on the southwest corner of Moores Land near I-65, inside the new Franklin city limits. The city approved.
At that time, Cool Springs Boulevard was being constructed. The just-constructed (and to this day only half-finished) Mack Hatcher Parkway would need to connect to the mall via a direct route.
Southeast Venture’s hold on the project, moving through bankruptcies and insolvency, fell to the momentum, resources and timing of CBL. CBL teamed up with DeBartolo, also turned down by Brentwood, to buy the 100-acre Southwestern Publishing Company building and 65-acres of the Pratt land south of Moores Lane.
By 1987, Castner Knott had committed to be an anchor; less than a year after that Dillard’s, too.
