Arts-Focused Development In North Nashville Opens More Units

An affordable housing development in North Nashville opened more units, with a focus on the arts.

The development at 26th Avenue North and Clarksville Highway includes 43 apartments set aside for working artists. They’re among 168 apartments that are eventually planned for what’s envisioned as a multi-generational, arts-inspired community.

“We really had never had an opportunity to develop a property of this scale,” says Brent Elrod, with Urban Housing Solutions, the non-profit affordable housing developer behind the project. Elrod says the complex had been owned by a prominent slumlord prior to UHS purchasing it.

“We wanted to change the atmosphere and dynamic without changing the demographics.”

Nashville muralist Omari Booker was commissioned to paint a large mural on the new building. It depicts a photo album displaying multiple generations of one African American family.

Booker says it was inspired by the fast-changing neighborhood that’s seen several longtime residents pushed out by eager developers.

“The title of the mural is “I LIVE HERE”,” Booker says. “It’s a reminder that the people that make up these communities that are often looked at from more of an economic standpoint, or business standpoint, or development, without really taking into consideration that people live there. Like it’s really people’s lives that are most important.”

The building was developed with money from the Barnes Housing Trust Fund. Another batch of units will open next year.

The fourth and final phase of the building is still under development.