Christian Paro will unveil the east wing of his newest project, Center 615, on April 1.

The 43,000-square-foot project is essentially an expansion of Paro South Creative Suites, Paro’s creative-class-inspired business center located at 625 Main St. in East Nashville.

Center 615, named after its address at 615 Main St., has 34 offices available ranging in size from 115 to 2,000 square feet and starting at $225 a month. The new project also includes co-working desk space and workstations available for daily, weekly or monthly rental. Pricing for these options haven’t been determined yet, Paro said.

Paro purchased the building in December for $2.7 million.

The Creative Suites office environments are designed to appeal to solopreneurs, start-ups and small businesses that can benefit from shared services such as parking, conference rooms and office equipment, among other things. Additional amenities at Center 615 include break rooms and lounge areas, a fitness room, roof deck, reception area and videoconferencing and film screening capabilities. 

The east wing is 70 percent preleased, Paro said. He called the April 1 unveiling a “soft opening” and added that a grand opening will be held in June.

Confirmed tenants of Center 615 include Content that Connects, Make it Pop Video, LiveSchool, MedLink, The Turnip Truck, Plato’s Closet, Earth Channel, CHC Mechanical and Kirkwood Property Group. Hardaway Construction Corp. is leasing 21,000 square feet, the entire west wing of the building.

A panel of judges convened by the Nashville Civic Design Center has chosen conceptual drawings by Michael Albert and Victor Perez Amado as the winner of its East Bank visioning competition. Albert and Amado emphasized a relatively simple design for much of the 75 acres south of LP Field, which they labeled The Bend. Their concept places commercial development on the northern third of the property and centers the sports-oriented development closer to the river on an 8,000-seat circular arena, an amphitheater and a boathouse. See more of their ideas here and other finalists' concepts here.

This week's City Paper showcases a number of the ideas that have been submitted to the Nashville Civic Design Center's competition to envision an overhauled East Bank downtown. Designers were asked to incorporate outdoor exercise elements and sports venues into a mixed-use environment.

Seventeen submissions were picked as finalists, from which three winners will be chosen. They will be made public later this week. In the meantime, here are some of the concepts that caught our eye.

Metro Planning officials late last week released a draft of their community plan — composed with much public input — for the Antioch-Priest Lake area of Davidson County. The draft and related documents, available here, talk among other things about the large tracts of still-available land for residential development and the desire by residents for denser development.

A ‘Lenox Village’ type of residential development is, according to participants in the Antioch-Priest Lake Community Plan update, the desired form and mixture of housing. This type of development is also a more competitive product in today’s housing market because it appeals to a variety of buyers. Baby boomers, young professionals, and families are all looking for a similar housing product; mixed-housing with less maintenance and access to parks and retail. This product could be included in Antioch-Priest Lake putting the community’s housing product on a more competitive edge within the county and region.

Not surprisingly, another key to the community plan is building on the area's natural centers of development, including Hickory Hollow Mall and the nearby Crossings area. Below are outlines of two of the options, one of which envisions a circle road around a much more mixed-use mall site devoid of many of its large surface parking lots. Click here and here for larger versions of the images.

The State Building Commission on Monday voted to spend $800,000 to update the master plan for the former Tennessee State Prison on Cockrill Bend. Officials say the historic property, which was used a few years ago as the set for The Green Mile, could be abandoned.