Business owners and developers in Nashville are working to establish the city’s first ever Chinatown.
The $27.5 million project, Tennessee Nashville Chinatown, is set to be built in the neighborhood of Antioch, on a pre-existing 4.83-acre plot of land, and features roughly 100,000 square feet.
Tennessee Nashville Chinatown is expected to feature a Pan-Asian supermarket spanning 44,000 square feed, and storing more than 10,000 Asian products, making it the largest Asian market in the city. In addition, Tennessee Nashville Chinatown will also have 10 different restaurants, multiple retail offices, and an event center.
According to the website, Tennessee Nashville Chinatown will be constructed as an attraction for both tourists and locals, as well as “offering the unique and upscale Asian architecture, culture, shopping, restaurant, retail services and experience to Asian and all communities in Nashville and surrounding cities/states.”.
“Not only the Asian community, but the whole city, the whole area, is growing”, said Sheri Ma, one of the project managing partners, in an interview with WKRN. “We do see strong needs, especially with the economic and diversity changes.”.
The other project managing partner, Rita Zheng, pointed out Tennessee Nashville Chinatown’s accessibility.
“It’s convenient, a few minutes off the highway, close to downtown, the airport, and areas like Mt. Juliet, Murfreesboro, and Brentwood”, said Zheng in an interview with NewsChannel5 Nashville.
Joseph Gutierrez, the executive director of API with Middle Tennessee, also told WKRN that “The importance of Chinatowns and cultural conclaves, like in urban development, helps you really think about this as a pathway towards economic prosperity for a lot of our community”.
The project is expected to create approximately 300 new jobs during construction, and up to 500 full and part-time restaurant, retail, management, and other related jobs upon completion. The Pan-Asian supermarket is expected to finish construction in 2025, while the rest of the project is expected to be completed by 2027.
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