Steakhouse Lands at Cool Springs Development as Boyle touts Momentum

A Houston-based steakhouse chain is expanding into Middle Tennessee, arriving first at a mixed-use development in Williamson County’s Cool Springs commercial hub.

Plans filed with the city of Franklin reveal that Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille will occupy about 11,000 square feet of space at the McEwen Drive entrance of the McEwen Northside development, across from the Whole Foods Market and BrickTop’s.

That’s not the only tenant committed to the $270 million project that Boyle Investment Co. and Northwood Ravin are creating. Williamson Inc., the county’s combined chamber and economic development agency, will occupy 6,500 square feet of office space, according to top officials Matt Largen and Elizabeth McCreary. They announced that lease at the organization’s annual Outlook Williamson event, which occurred this week in Franklin.

The 45-acre development, on the west side of Interstate 65, is among the largest and most expensive commercial projects poised to inject a more urban flair into the region’s established suburban corporate office hub.

Thomas McDaniel, who oversees Boyle’s office portfolio in the region, said on a panel during the Outlook Williamson event that Boyle is negotiating with a prospective tenant that would occupy all of a 100,000-square-foot office building within the project.

The location of that office building is sandwiched by active construction — a 150-room SpringHill Suites, a 188,000-square-foot office building and 340 apartments. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. is financing that first round of construction.

On the panel, McDaniel said Boyle is drawing interest from local chef-driven restaurants and national players, too. “We have signed numerous leases and have a lot of others being negotiated for users you guys are really going to be excited about — some of which are household national names that aren’t in Nashville yet and are bypassing urban Nashville and coming to this project.”

Another of the project’s signed leases involves an ice cream brand, McDaniel said, though he declined to disclose the identity of that company.

The Perry’s Steakhouse story begins with a Houston butcher shop that opened 40 years ago. There are now nearly 20 such restaurants throughout Texas and in Denver, Chicago, Miami, Raleigh and Birmingham.

The restaurant will open in summer 2020, said Lesa Sorrentino, the company’s chief strategy officer. The restaurant will seat about 350 patrons in a main dining room and four private dining spaces.

“We’ve been looking at the Nashville area for quite awhile. We’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity,” Sorrentino said. “This one seemed like the perfect fit for us, ideally suited for what we do.”

Williamson Inc. is an existing tenant of Boyle’s at the company’s Meridian development, on the other side of I-65. The office building where Williamson Inc. will take space is scheduled to open this fall.

Read the Nashville Business Journal Article here.