Redevelopment Featuring Homes, Restaurant and Retail Breaks Ground at CoolSprings Galleria

Franklin’s CoolSprings Galleria will soon see a major facelift with the addition of a mixed-use redevelopment featuring 361 “very upscale” multi-family apartments.

City and county leaders joined members of South Carolina-based Greystar and Chattanooga-based CBL Properties to break ground on the project, one month after Greystar purchased 5.35 acres of land owned by CBL in the northeast corner of the mall property near JCPenney. The department store is closing its mall location this fall. 

“CoolSprings Galleria has long been one of the region's premier shopping destinations, and reaching this point required vision, collaboration, and a willingness to plan for the future,” said Jon Meshel, CBL senior vice president of redevelopment. “The journey to today began more than four years ago, when we challenged ourselves to further activate the campus and thoughtfully support the growth of the community. While mixed-use development is not a new concept, successfully executing a project of this scale at a thriving enclosed mall is far from common.”

Earlier this month, CBL Properties announced the addition of DICK’S House of Sport, a 100,000-square-foot concept from DICK’S Sporting Goods, which will feature a climbing wall, golf simulators, multi-sport cages and more. 

Tennessee’s first L.L.Bean store also opened in the mall on July 17.

“Today starts the reinventing and the growing of the Galleria into what we call a new era,” Ward 1 Franklin Alderman Bev Burger said. “Redevelopment and thinking outside the box gives people what they need and what they want, and it's so important to our community.”

The multi-story project will include 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, including space for two restaurants. 

“These are jobs. These are construction jobs, these are long-term jobs for our residents, our friends, families, neighbors, and then it's opportunities for our small business community to have retail space connected close to the mall that ensures the mall's long-term vitality by having people who are potential and actually customers being proximate to the mall to eat, shop, live, work, and play,” Williamson Inc. president and CEO Matt Largen said.