Nashville Business Journal - by Jenny Burns Nashville Business Journal

A new retirement community aimed at the music industry is planned for Westhaven Town Center in Franklin to provide a community for musicians and entertainers in their senior years.

Blakeford Development Services Inc. will build and manage the community, which will have independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing beds.

"We are in the process of completing our market feasibility. We will take it to market in the fall," says Van Cluck, chief operating officer for The Blakeford Inc.

He says the retirement center will operate as a nonprofit and will be supported by the music industry through a partnership.

Katie Gillon, executive director for the Country Music Retirement Community, a nonprofit organization formed to develop the community, says the idea has been talked about since the mid-1990s. The project would be modeled after a facility operated by the Motion Picture Television Fund in Los Angeles.

"Some people in the music industry came to us and said we need to take care of our own," says Gillon, who has worked on the marketing side of the music business for more than 30 years. "We are finally poised to make this thing become a reality."

The community will be open to anyone, not just music industry professionals, and the hope is that music residents might want to perform for other residents.

"The idea is that people in the music industry will live amongst those they've worked with. There will be some music-related amenities," she says.

For instance, one idea calls for the community to include a performance hall.

Several music industry groups will sponsor the community through a funding partnership with the developer, Gillon says. The non-profit organization, affiliated with the Country Music Association, is funded through gifts and grants, bringing in nearly $250,000 between 2002 and 2006, according to tax records.