Populated with mounds of earth and roving backhoes, the parcel of land behind Heady-Radcliffe on West Jefferson Street currently looks like an excavator’s sandbox.
For developer John Waits, the land will soon represent the culmination of his hometown roots and a multimillion-dollar dream project long in the making.
Waits may live just south of Nashville today, but his life story literally began on the future site of Bishop Place Apartments, a 60-unit, $9 million dollar development expected to be open for occupancy later this year.
Born in the now-demolished Mallory Taylor hospital at that location on 704 W. Jefferson, Waits described the development as a full-circle homecoming of sorts.
“There’s nothing like coming home,” said Waits, adding that the “Bishop” in Bishop Place is a tribute to his maternal grandfather, Leason Bishop.
“He farmed [Belknap Farm] in Goshen for more than 60 years,” Waits said.
The Bishop Place project features other direct family connections. Waits’ daughter, Heather Keeling, is President of Louisville-based homebuilding company Teulu (family) Homes and will lead the development team for the complex.
Bishop Place will be a four-building, two-story complex with 60 units, which are modeled after the buildings at Buckner Pointe. In addition, Teulu Homes will construct two new houses on vacant lots adjacent to the property at the corner of Dawkins and Franklin Avenue.
Waits also utilized local contractors, among them Billy Doelker of Buckner-based Key Homes LLC, who is builder for the project.
John Williams of WPAA out of Bowling Green, Ky. is the project architect. The project engineers are David Garber or Garber Chilton and Land Design and Development, of Louisville.