Street View is a monthly column taking a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.
In Old Hickory, nine townhomes stand on a new lot off Pitts Avenue. The new-build homes feature white paneling and designs that follow the lake house aesthetic of the surrounding neighborhood. They’ve also been sitting vacant and half-finished for about two years, with tall grass sometimes growing in front of their doorsteps.
When it comes to Nashville housing, stories about neighborhood opposition to development, procedural delays and aesthetic bickering often dominate the local landscape. But the Lakewood Crossing homes tell a different story, and raise some questions. Why would a development that’s already approved and designed stop dead in its tracks, midway through construction?
Lakewood Crossing was originally designed by Southern Athena, a Nashville-based real estate, architecture and interior design firm. In 2021, it was sold as a package deal of land and design plans to a group called Lakewood Crossing LLC. There is little information about this LLC available online, but Elizabeth Gatlin, the Architect of Record for the Lakewood Crossing project, says it was owned by Siddharth Amin, who also owns another LLC called Eagle Homes. After the project hit a snag at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gatlin was excited to see it have a new life with another owner. “To find out it’s been totally mismanaged has been disheartening,” she says.
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Southern Athena had worked with Amin before, on some speculative developments. “I was always kind of curious about what was going on with the money and who’s actually doing the work,” Gatlin says.
Gatlin says Amin delayed the project for a while, though it did eventually break ground. But the relationship with Southern Athena wasn’t working out. “Let’s just say, over time it didn’t look like we were going to be able to service his needs in a way that aligned with our business model, and so we stepped back and let him do his own thing,” Gatlin says.
When asked for more specifics, Gatlin explains that Amin wouldn’t pay Southern Athena.
The Scene called Amin multiple times, but he did not answer the phone and his voicemail was full. He did not respond to a text asking to comment about the Lakewood Crossing homes.
Digging further into his history reveals other controversies. In 2018, Amin and a local draftsman, Mitch Nunley, were sued by Drees Construction for copyright infringement. When the Scene asked Nunley about working with Amin, his response was quick and to the point. “That’s a really bad name here,” he says. “He hurts everyone he touches, he knows he’s doing it, and then he accuses you of doing what he did.”
Amin approached Nunley’s architectural drafting firm with plans for a house he’d like to build. “It looked as though he had purchased them,” Nunley says. According to Nunley, the firm later found out that Amin had actually walked into an active construction site and stolen the plans from another contractor.
“He really drove us through the gutter,” Nunley says. “He told Drees that I printed those plans and gave them to him.” Nunley eventually convinced Drees to take his name out of the lawsuit. “They dropped me out of it totally once they got the facts,” he says. “It was just a long and painful road to get there.”
Amin also owned other townhomes in Old Hickory, which have recently been sold in a foreclosure sale.
Councilmember Jeff Eslick represents District 11, which includes the Lakewood Crossing townhomes. He was initially frustrated with the lack of movement with the project, despite interventions by Nashville’s Metro Codes department.
But now, Eslick says the development has a potential new owner, and he’s feeling hopeful. In an email to the Scene, he shares that the townhomes have an upcoming inspection by Metro Codes, necessary “because the original permits had expired and/or the extended time of inactivity.”
The contractor for the new owner has also sent Eslick videos of the townhome interiors. “There isn’t anything obviously wrong,” he says, though Codes will do a more thorough inspection before issuing new permits.
“The new owner says the materials are here and they are ready to go,” he tells the Scene.
For now, Gatlin echoes the feelings of the Old Hickory community, who have called the project a “huge eyesore,” a “safety hazard” and an abandoned site. She just wants to see the plans she’s carefully designed and managed actually be completed. “This was supposed to be something of value, designed for the community — to be wonderful for the area, and also be what people need,” she says. “It’s just been one bad thing after another with everything he did.”
