Local builder Bruce Hancock has always been interested in using energy-efficient technology in the homes he builds. When he started drawing up plans for his own home, he met with a heating and cooling engineer who mentioned a word he hadn't heard before: geothermal. When the engineer used the phrase "save over 50 percent in electricity costs," Hancock had heard enough. He was in.

After the premier of “McEwen the Movie” on Thursday, Jan. 31, the McEwen development seems to have taken on a life of its own. Poised to be Franklin’s “hippest” town around, McEwen is drawing office and retail businesses like a magnet.

Known for its innovative marketing concepts —human cannonballs, pyrotechnics, and
exploding golf balls — Southern Land decided the film concept could best show what is proposed to happen on the 93-acre tract on Mallory Lane near the new McEwen Drive interchange by taking to the silver screen with some creative license.

On February 4, Southern Exposure Magazine and Franklinis.com held a banquet for all of the 2007 Sizzle Award finalists. Southern Land Company was voted Best Builder/Developer in Williamson County for the second year in a row. With the amount of growth and development in this county, it is a huge honor to be named the best.

When planning for Westhaven was under way, Southern Land Co. spokesman Jim Cheney was tasked with coming up with unique street names for the community. He drew his inspiration from his personal interest: literature. Soon, streets with names such as Kerouac, Tennyson and Yeats will be home to Westhaven residents.

Nearly 600 people packed into a theater at Thoroughbred Cinemas in Cool Springs Thursday, but it wasn't for a showing of just any winter blockbuster.

City leaders, developers, real estate agents and potential residents gathered for the premiere of McEwen: The Movie, a 15-minute documentary about the making of the Southern Land Co. community off McEwen Drive in Cool Springs.

Home sales plummeted throughout 2007, with December sales posting the most severe year-over-year drop in nearly 17 years. That did not translate into falling prices for homebuilders and sellers, according to data released Wednesday by the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

Southern Land Co. is making preparations for 458 units in Cool Springs as part of its McEwen commercial-and-residential development. The project is the first major apartment development in Cool Springs in a decade, developers say.

Franklin, already home to several shopping centers, is set to get another one.

Whole Foods Market will be the first tenant in McEwen, the new 90-acre mixed-use community in Cool Springs, developer Southern Land Co. announced Thursday.