Lutheran church moves forward with office development plans

A Lutheran church in Homewood is moving forward with its plans to develop an approximately 25,000-square-feet boutique office building on its property.

The City Council unanimously approved a request at its June 8 meeting to rezone a 1.29-acre portion of Shades Valley Evangelical Lutheran Church’s property to C-1 Office Building District. The property is located at 720 Shades Creek Parkway, which is across the street from Macy’s at Brookwood Village. The property also neighbors other prominent office buildings, such as the Luckie and Fairway buildings.

The church began discussions with The FiveStone Group approximately a year ago to look for ways to monetize the eastern portion of the property, said David Silverstein, president of The FiveStone Group.

“The church loves being in this location and loves being in Homewood,” Silverstein said. “It’s been here many years and plans to continue to stay there. But in an effort to try to stimulate perhaps some income for the church over time, they approached us to look at the possibility of developing the eastern portion of the site.”

The office building is planned to have two stories of office space and one level of parking underneath. 

“Our goal and objective is to design and build a Class A office building very much in keeping with the other Class A buildings on that corner,” Silverstein said.

The church does not wish to sell the site, he said  — they plan to enter a long-term ground lease of 99 years for the property.

The office building will have a prime location, he said. It will connect to Luckie Drive, which has a traffic signal. It’s accessible to U.S. 280 and Shades Creek Parkway. A nearby sidewalk also leads to Jemison Trail in one direction and leads to the Shades Valley YMCA and Brookwood Village in the other direction.

“It’s a fabulous intersection there at Shades Creek Parkway,” Silverstein said. “It’s fully signalized. You can go east or west on Shades Creek (Parkway), or you can go in any direction on 280. From a development standpoint — and I’ve been in the business a long time — you would love to have such a signalized intersection at the front door of your development.”

The market for an office building like the proposed development in this area is quite strong, he said. 

“We think we will be successful in putting in there the types of office users that will have the ability to pay the rental rates that will need to be charged for a new building like this,” Silverstein said.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Eric Murray, hosted a gathering at the church of a dozen nearby residents before the pandemic hit. The proposal was well received by the residents, Silverstein said. One resident wrote to Ward 5 Councilwoman Jennifer Andress that he was concerned about the landscaping, though, and Silverstein responded that it is in the developer’s interests to preserve the landscaping the best they can.

The rezoning request was approved 11-0.