“Nashville’s Gulch has been certified as the first green neighborhood in the South and one of only about a dozen in the country.
Mayor Karl Dean and Gulch developer MarketStreet Enterprises made the announcement Tuesday morning. The Gulch was one of about 240 projects from 39 states and six countries to compete for the LEED certification. Criteria include smart growth, new urbanism and green building.
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a program by the U.S. Green Building Council. The designation has been limited to buildings until the recent pilot program, “LEED for Neighborhood Development,” was begun. Now, about two dozen neighborhoods in the world are LEED certified, including the Olympic Village in Beijing, China.
In the past decade, Nashville’s 60-acre Gulch has gone from an industrial area that attracted few businesses and residents to one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods, attracting hip restaurants, high-rise condo buildings and national retailers such as Urban Outfitters, which is remodeling the building that formerly housed music venue City Hall.
Gulch development is a public-private partnership between MarketStreet and Davidson County’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. Metro has spent about $7 million on infrastructure improvements since development began.
“The Gulch is a testament to what can be accomplished when the private sector works collaboratively with public entities,” says Jay Turner, managing director of MarketStreet. “This underscores how far the Gulch has come since we started 10 years ago.”