The Church Street building home to alcoholic beverage retail power Midtown Corkdorks is slated for a façade update, with the project part of a bigger-picture effort that eventually will include a new structure at the property.
Specifically, the building will have some space added to the areas positioned both to the left and right of its main entrance. The address is 1610 Church St.
Paul Patel, Midtown Corkdorks owner, says the project is being undertaken in relation to a future building to be located to the left of the main structure — a deteriorating building had sat on that lot until it was razed in March. He says the final design of the façade extensions (the existing building will be increased by about 1,800 square feet) will be determined “by what we plan for the adjacent lot.” Both those designs should be finalized within the next few days or so.
The entrance-area extensions will require the elimination of existing landscaping found to the left and right of the main entrance. The project will yield primarily additional storage space.
Nashville-based architect Tim Curtis is handling design. Unique Management Development and Construction, also locally based, will oversee the job via a permit valued at about $226,200.
“It will be a new look altogether,” Patel says of the future main building, adding he is not ready to disclose details about the future structure to rise to the left of the existing building.
In addition to owning the business, Patel owns the property, having acquired it in September 1999 for $500,000, according to Metro records. At the time, the existing building had not been constructed. A year later, Patel garnered headlines when he enlisted local attorney Tom White to challenge the Metro Planning Department’s late-2000 instituted Urban Zoning Overlay, which requires new buildings to be positioned in an urban orientation (i.e., at the sidewalk).
Seeking a setback variance — and the first party to challenge the then-new UZO — Patel and White contended safety concerns sometimes associated with alcoholic beverage businesses dictated that the building be designed with a suburban positioning (i.e., one that allows surface parking to “sever” a building from the sidewalk to fully accommodate motorists).
The Metro Board of Zoning Appeals granted the variance, and the building that now stands was constructed beginning in 2003 (read more here).
Midtown Corkdorks ranks among Davidson County's most significant (in terms of both size and selection) alcoholic beverage retailers. A smaller Corkdorks Wines Sprits Beer also operates in Green Hills.
