One Hundred Oaks Transformation To Include LEED Components
By Amy Griffith, Nashville City Paper

Hundreds of community leaders, area business representatives and Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees turned out Monday to get a detailed look at renovation plans for 100 Oaks Mall.

VUMC is preparing to occupy more than half the mall, leasing about 440,000 square feet of space to create a facility dubbed Vanderbilt Health at One Hundred Oaks.

The slated changes have the potential to dramatically affect the surrounding neighborhood.

“Our intention here is to make this a significant part of the community. Maybe even a hub of the community,” said Tony Ruggeri, who with Frank Mihalopoulos is a partner in 100 Oaks Plaza LLC and M & R Investors, LLC, of Dallas.

Though plans have not been finalized, images shown at Monday’s event
indicated at least preliminary ideas for a pedestrian bridge over Thompson
Lane to a merchant-rich area of Berry Hill, which officials said could
have a positive impact both on Berry Hill and on Thompson Lane traffic.

Other images indicated a possible reworking of the mall’s entrance from
Powell, where traffic is currently channeled by one-lane, one-way entrance
and exit ramps. In their place may be a single entrance, with a traffic
light, directly across from an entrance to Home Depot.

Vanderbilt Health is slated to open in the summer of 2008, though the
first clinic to move to the mall — a children’s rehabilitation facility —
is expected to open by the end of this year.

For VUMC, the investment is a large one. C. Wright Pinson, associate vice
chancellor for clinical affairs at VUMC, said Monday that officials expect
to invest $64 million in coming years — that includes $28 million for
build-out and renovations, in addition to the $36 million net present
value of the lease.

“One Hundred Oaks will be our largest clinic away from our 21st Avenue
location,” Pinson said in a statement. “Large enough that it will be
considered a second major campus for the Medical Center.”

Ruggeri declined to say how much mall management is investing in the
project, saying only that it is “a significant amount.”

The initial lease is for 12 years, with five renewal periods of 10 years,
Pinson told The City Paper when the lease was signed in July. The deal
includes a right of first refusal for VUMC to purchase the entire mall if
Mihalopoulos and Ruggeri attempt to sell it, and for VUMC to have options
to lease more space if existing tenants leave.

Mall management intends to announce plans for leasing retailers, including
restaurants, early in the first quarter of 2008, Ruggeri said.
Approximately “90 percent” of planning for changes to mall access has been
determined. 100 Oaks owners are currently working with Metro as well as
the City of Berry Hill to finance the proposed changes.

As for Vanderbilt Health itself, amenities announced Monday include
beepers patients can carry, allowing them to shop at nearby stores while
waiting to see a physician, as well as base-level LEED certification for
the area’s interior.