Nashville / Retail Store Plant Design in Nashville, TN
Retail planting, by the three formats Nashville actually has
Interior and entry planting for Nashville retail — designed around what your format allows, whether that is a mall concourse, a new mixed-use podium, or a storefront under historic design review.
Weekly
Or biweekly — the two routes we run
Every placement
Light measured at the plant, not at the window
One crew
Design, install, and ongoing care
Named work
The Factory at Franklin — full design and installation of more than four hundred plants across an adaptive-reuse retail and event campus. Ladybird Taco, all three locations. States of Leisure.
Three formats, three problems
The Mall at Green Hills runs 1.17 million square feet and more than 130 stores. Fifth + Broadway holds 250,000 square feet of retail and entertainment. And six Nashville commercial districts sit under Historic Preservation Zoning Overlays where the Metro Historic Zoning Commission reviews alterations, signage and awnings.
The market
Nashville retail vacancy ran 4.6% at the end of 2025 with asking rents at $31.18 a foot. Downtown is tighter still — 3.5 million square feet at 2.9% vacancy.
The format decides the design before you do
Retail planting is one of the few categories where the building type constrains the answer more than the light does.
In an enclosed mall the concourse is not yours and the storefront is — so the planting is inside the lease line, works under uniform artificial light, and has to survive a controlled environment that is stable but bright in the wrong spectrum. The Mall at Green Hills, 1.17 million square feet across more than 130 stores between Abbott Martin Road and Hillsboro Pike, is the format at its most demanding.
New mixed-use podium retail is the easiest case. Fifth + Broadway on Broadway, with its 250,000 square feet of retail alongside 367,000 square feet of office, has generous glazing and modern mechanical systems.
Historic storefront retail is the interesting one. Six commercial districts — Broadway, Downtown, Elliston Place Rock Block, Germantown, Marathon Village and Second Avenue — carry Historic Preservation Zoning Overlays, and the Broadway guidelines describe stock that is "predominantly brick, two- and three-story, late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial structures." The Metro Historic Zoning Commission reviews alterations, signage and awnings there. Interior planting is not reviewed, but anything attached to a façade or projecting from it is worth checking before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
Does anything we put outside the door need approval?
In a historic overlay district, possibly. The commission reviews signage, awnings and alterations, and anything in the public right of way is a separate NDOT question. Freestanding containers on private property are usually straightforward.
Will plants survive under retail lighting?
It depends entirely on the fixture. Retail lighting is designed to make merchandise look right, not to grow anything, and we take a reading at the placement rather than assuming.
We change our merchandising constantly. Can the planting move?
It can if it is designed to. That is a vessel decision — weight, base and whether anything is plumbed — and it is much cheaper made at the start.
What about the window display?
A window is the brightest and the most brutal spot in the store: high light, big temperature swings, and direct sun in the afternoon on a west-facing façade. Specific plants handle it. Most do not.
Do you work with our visual merchandising team?
Routinely. The planting should read as part of the merchandising rather than alongside it.
Start your project
Tell us about the space and we'll set up a time to come see it.
Related pages
Plant design for Nashville retail — mall, mixed-use podium and historic storefront each plant differently. Designed, installed and maintained.