As Middle Tennessee has grown, so has the demand for upscale amenities in the outlying cities and communities. That’s because frequent jaunts from Murfreesboro to places like Cool Springs or Downtown Nashville aren’t necessarily conducive to a healthy work-life balance.
Efforts to bring such niceties to Rutherford County have been underway since the early 2000s, but things stepped up in class with the advent of Fountains At Gateway, the 31-acre Class A office, retail, entertainment, and condominium development at 1500 Medical Center Parkway.
Fountains At Gateway came to life when Hearthstone, a company owned by local developer Scott Graby, agreed to purchase city-owned land where the sprawling campus continues to evolve.
The investment in his hometown has proven to be the manifestation of a longtime dream for the lifelong Murfreesboro resident.
“It’s been gratifying because we didn’t always have the capacity to do what we’re doing,” says Graby. “It was a ‘bet-the-farm’ move at first. But we were able to determine what Murfreesboro was lacking and put our brand on it. We weren’t just looking to build another apartment complex. We were looking to introduce an upscale condominium lifestyle.”
Phase I of the three-phase project was an instant hit. Phase II is a five-story structure with more than 200,000 feet of Class A office space plus three floors of luxury condominiums known as Atrium at Fountains. The showroom is open, sales are underway, and the first open house was held in March.
The Hearthstone team is very much a family endeavor as Graby’s four children are instrumental in the operation. Sherri works in sales and administration. Nina handles PR, marketing, and social media. Julia has a background in IT management while Scott, Jr., is the owner of Benchmark Companies, a land-clearing firm.
“Real estate has been my hobby since high school and mixed-use has been my passion for the last eight years,” says Graby, who purchased his first duplex as a college freshman. “I began to realize that, if you’re going to do offices, you need to have a retail and residential component. And that’s a missing piece that Fountains At Gateway brings to Murfreesboro.”
FountainsAtGateway.com
AtriumAtFountains.com
"It was a ‘bet-the-farm’ move at first. But we were able to determine what Murfreesboro was lacking and put our brand on it."