Elmington Capital Group has paid $2 million for a fast food building in West Nashville – the second and final piece of the puzzle needed by the local development company to eventually reinvent the site best known for venerable retail The Great Escape .
The 0.88 acre property offers an address of 5320 Charlotte Ave. and houses a Burger King. ECG already owned 5330 Charlotte Ave. adjacent, for which he paid $17 million in December 2021 (read here). This 8.3-acre property offers a suburban shopping center once anchored by Goodwill and still home to The Great Escape, which sells used CDs, vinyl albums, DVDs and books.
5320 Charlotte Ave.
The vendor at 5320 Charlotte Ave. was apparently an individual, details of who the Stage could not determine. The person’s apparently deceased relatives purchased the Sylvan Park property in 1941 for $1,200, according to Metro records.
Cary Rosenblum, general manager of ECG, declined to disclose rental terms for current tenants at 5330 Charlotte Ave. – which include Pep Boys, Melissa’s Sir Pizza and China Buffet, among others. Nor did he note when (or if) ECG might raze the site’s existing buildings in order to reinvent surface parking ownership with urban development. The company is known for its multiple real estate properties in Nashville and has undertaken the development of a handful of sites with mixed-use buildings providing urban form and function.
“We are still evaluating the best way to move forward with repositioning or redevelopment of the property,” Rosenblum said in an email to Stage.
The Great Escape began operations on Broadway in 1977. The Midtown location closed in 2010 (read more here) after opening in its current Charlotte Avenue space in 2009. The Great Escape also operates locations in Bowling Green, Louisville, Madison and Murfreesboro. Founder Gary Walker died in 2020 at the age of 87.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
