Nashville Developer Commits To Supporting Low-Income Tenants In Relocation To Madison

Residents of an East Nashville apartment complex will be moved to Madison as the owner prepares to tear it down and rebuild.

First Cumberland Properties, the company that owns the building, says it’s hoping that residents will consider this compromise a “win-win.” Tenants of the Berkshire Place Apartments in Inglewood met with First Cumberland over the weekend, after an initial meeting yielded concerns among residents.

First Cumberland is applying to renew its Section 8 contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development but attach the new contract to a building that would be built on a 12-acre site in Madison.  If federal housing authorities approve, current residents will have a place in the new low-income development. First Cumberland is also offering to pay for moving expenses.

The new suburban apartments should be more spacious and have more modern conveniences. But Berkshire tenant Wilmon Demonbreun says he can already see commuting will be more complicated, since the site is not directly on the main bus line headed into town.

“Me having my back condition and all that, I’d have to walk so far from the apartments to Gallatin Road to the bus stop,” he says. “I would have to have some kind of car.”

Many tenants are elderly or disabled, allowing them to qualify under Section 8 subsidized housing. 

It will likely be a year before the owners learn if HUD approves the proposal. But one way or another, First Cumberland plans to tear down Berkshire Place, which they say is beyond the point of renovating.

In its place, they want to build a much larger complex that would also include commercial space. Developers say they’ll include affordable units and would welcome back any current tenants at that time, though it would be five to seven years away.

“If you would like to come back at that time, you are more than welcome,” First Cumberland’s Mckenzie Trent told residents at a community meeting on Saturday. “We are very committed to adding a level of affordability to the new development that will go in place of Berkshire Place.”