NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Many longtime residents will remember Donelson Plaza in its heyday. It opened in 1961 with Nashville-based Castner Knott as the anchor department store. It was also home to Woolworth’s and several local retailers.
“This plaza, when it came out of the ground, was one of the first commercial strip centers in all of Nashville before Metro government was even formed,” said Jeff Syracuse, former Metro Council Member for District 15. “This was a beloved place for many people for many years, spending holidays, lots of memories. As the decades went on, then it started just to decline as far as the kinds of businesses that went in, the ownership changed to out-of-state owners and whatnot. It just didn’t have that vibrancy that it once did.”
Syracuse had a mission to bring that vibrant community gathering place back to Donelson. Things really got rolling when Holladay Properties shared his vision and purchased the property in 2016 to redevelop it, and Metro committed to a new Donelson library branch at the center of the plaza…