During his annual State of the City address, Hendersonville Mayor Jamie Clary shared updates on road projects, parks and development. The address was delivered on Friday, April 11.
Clary touched on the Old Shackle Island Road and Walton Ferry Road realignment project, which has an expected completion date of May 2027. Construction on the project began in February.
“This is a project to bring Old Shackle Island Road and Walton Ferry Road from two intersections to one intersection,” Clary said. “It has really been thought about for 50 years. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has been working on it earnestly for about 40 years. The design is about 20 years old.”
According to figures that Clary shared during his address, Hendersonville is currently spending $7.34 million on paving this year, which comes from three sources.
“Part of it is our general fund, which is money that comes from multiple sources, and that’s about $2.9 million,” Clary said. “We also received some money from gasoline taxes from the state that has to be used on roads. That’s about $1 million, but the other $3.4 million comes from our PIPP (Public safety, infrastructure, paving and parks) fund.”
Clary said that the $7.34 million that the city has allocated to paving projects will allow for 49 miles worth of roads this year.
Hendersonville Parks Director Andy Gilley was asked to talk about the upcoming Heritage Park Project. The park will be located at 119 East Drive and will include an event barn, welcome center, pavilion, educational signage, a playground area, loop trail and parking.
“It’s going to be a great project,” Gilley said. “Like the mayor said, the slowest part is getting to the point where you move dirt. So, we’re right now in a five- to six-month design phase, and we hope to start moving dirt late fall, early winter.”
After it became apparent that Music City Studios would not be coming to Hendersonville, Clary said that the city saw an opportunity for that land. Hendersonville Economic Development and Community Planner J. Ritterbeck said that Lincoln Property Company acquired the 45-acre site off of Molly Walton and renamed it Northside Logistics Park.
“What they’re doing is they used the same site plan, but they just modified it a little bit,” Ritterbeck said. “There’s about 500,000 square feet of space. There’s five buildings.”
According to Ritterbeck, the first building is expected to be completed in early 2026.
“This is a speculative development,” Ritterbeck said. “They’re looking for tenants and this is an opportunity for existing businesses in Hendersonville that have outgrown their existing location to have a space to move into.”