The Avenue Murfreesboro Offers Upscale Shopping, Dining Experience
Oct. 17, 2007, was a red-letter day for Middle Tennessee shoppers, who gave their credit cards a workout at the opening of The Avenue Murfreesboro – the city’s chic new retail address.
“At 4 o’clock on grand-opening day, more than 75 percent of the entire shopping center lot was filled,” says Angie Carter, The Avenue’s general manager. “This is one of Middle Tennessee’s best emerging markets, and we have had strong reaction from the consumers around here. They were looking for this type of shopping experience, and retailers felt that Murfreesboro was ready.”
The Avenue Murfreesboro– a concept of Atlanta-based Cousins Properties – features an open-air, pedestrian-friendly design that attracts sophisticated national retailers and restaurants as well as unique local merchants and eateries. So far, there are eight Avenue developments, most in the Southeast. Cousins partnered with Faison Enterprises, headquartered in North Carolina, on the 810,000-square-foot, $150 million Murfreesboro project.
“We saw the confluence of a number of factors,” says Mike Cohn, Faison’s senior managing director. “We saw a market with great growth, we saw a great site and we saw a market that had a significant number of retail needs that either weren’t being served or were being served in a very unconsolidated way. Thus, we had the opportunity to deliver a large, multipurpose, consolidated project.”
The center is anchored by Belk department store and big-box retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Best Buy. Other well-known tenants of The Avenue Murfreesboro include Hollister, American Eagle, Ann Taylor Loft, Talbot’s, Victoria’s Secret, The Children’s Place, Coldwater Creek, Stride Rite, Yankee Candle, Harry & David, Chico’s and Linens-N-Things. Restaurants along The Avenue Murfreesboro entrances include Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Mimi’s Café, Longhorn Steakhouse and Chili’s. The development will eventually be home to more than 110 retailers and restaurants.
Holly Sears, Vice President economic development with the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, calls The Avenue Murfreesboro “a key component” of Murfreesboro’s Gateway, a large commercial district born in 1998 when the city purchased about 400 acres between Stones River Mall and Thompson Lane. In 2003, Middle Tennessee Medical Center bought 68 of those acres as the future site for a health-care campus. Two years later, Medical Center Parkway opened, stretching from Broad Street near downtown to a new interchange on Interstate 24. The Avenue Murfreesboro is at the interchange, along with the 10-story Embassy Suites Murfreesboro Hotel and Conference Center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2008.
“We are very excited about the synergy that’s going to happen between the two properties,” Carter says. “People at the hotel and conference center will be able to come here and enjoy a dinner and shopping and be able to relax after a conference. We feel that it’s absolutely a win-win for both projects.”
Carter stresses that The Avenue Murfreesboro isn’t just about shopping, however.
“We offer a whole Avenue experience, with a grassy area right outside some of our quick-food options,” she says. “Families love that area.”
The Avenue Murfreesboro also features Camp Avenue children’s park, where students from five high schools are working with a professional artist to create five tile mosaics depicting different Aesop’s fables.
Many retailers these days are looking to align themselves with similar retailers, Carter says, and the result is a collection of like-minded businesses targeting a similar clientele at the region’s newest shopping destination.
“The Avenue is a reaction from retailers looking for a shopping center where they could target an affluent market,” Carter says.
They found what they were looking for here.
