Given this writer’s family history involving North Nashville (my late grandmother Cora Harper lived in Cheatham Place and in the late 1960s, the old man often dragged me to the then-nasty Farmers’ Market), it’s encouraging to see develop what should rank as one of the city’s single-most important residential buildings.

To be called Station Lofts and located on the west side of Eighth Avenue North near the Jefferson Street Kroger, the project is the brainchild of Core Development’s Aaron White and Mark Deutschmann.

It is significant on two levels.

First, Station Lofts’ 64 units will be entirely rental. Good. With all the for-purchase multi-unit residential buildings now on line or under construction — and the many that have been converted from apartment to condo — developers are ignoring regular working folks who want a decent place to rent in the urban core.

Second, the design of S-Lofts will see the building sit on a "squared-C" footprint. In contrast, most of the city’s multi-unit residential buildings — now rising with the fury of a Roger Federer serve — offer conventional rectangular or L-shaped footprints. The C-shape site plan will allow the building to do what is a rarity for Nashville buildings: address three streets (in this case, Eighth, Cheatham Place and Hume Street).

On the design theme, check the corrugated metal and aluminum-framed windows. Very cool.

"The building takes its cue from The Lofts at Werthan Mills," says David Powell, a Gresham Smith & Partners architect and lead man for the Station Lofts project. Core’s White says the development company often receives inquiries from prospective Werthan Lofts buyers interested in renting in the area before buying.

"The reality is a lot of the services in the urban core are used by people who are renters and they want to live close to things," White says. "And there is not a lot of product available."

And even less livable product.

Groundbreaking is slated for early 2007.