OK, now this bit of news feels intensely personal.

In what ranks as one of the more significant recent real estate transactions in Green Hills, five parcels of property containing numerous retail buildings have sold for about $20 million.

The bulk of the buildings is collectively known as Hillsboro Plaza, with the buyership group an entity derived from Nashville-based Brookside Properties Inc.

The deal, finalized in late May, comprises more than three acres located near the northeast intersection of Hillsboro and Richard Jones roads. It includes five buildings housing 22 retail tenants, among them Chinatown, Value Vision and Levy’s. A Brookside entity already owns the property and the building home to Men’s Warehouse.

It also houses Ginza, probably the best and baddest sushi bar in Green Hills. (Sumimasen, Shintomi! すみません!) And it also houses All-Seasons Gardening, which is about the only place in town you can go if you're a homebrewer and need those special Saaz hops or Belgian candi sugar or ready-to-pitch hefeweizen yeast. And it also houses one of the only independent donut bakeries in Green Hills -- heck, in Nashville. And it also houses Ten Thousand Villages, a fun and kitschy store with genuine fair trade goods from all over the world. And it also houses a Great Harvest Bakery, which is really the only place in Green Hills where you can go to get hearty breads fresh from the oven. There's also a good cigar store there, Uptown's Smoke Shop, if you're into that kind of thing.

Independent businesses comprise at least 80% of the trade there. Read more after the jump.

Out of all of the properties on that lot, I can only think of a couple which are national chains. One's a paint store and the other is a Wolf Camera. This is a thriving corner of successful independent businesses.

Here's what has me really, really worried.

When a development group buys up a parcel of land for that price, and they start talking about "improvements," that means seriously jacked-up lease and rental. That will absolutely drive out the indies if it cuts too much into their margins of profit.

Green Hills is already seeing a revolution in real estate. An entire block of stores was recently bought up and ripped out, including an HG Hill grocery store (a local chain who has fallen out of favor since Kroger and Publix have been dicing up the market), a really great fabric and drapery store, and the last non-big-box hardware store in that end of Nashville. The venerable Davis-Kidd Bookstore was dislocated from an adjacent property to the Green Hills Mall last year.

I can't think of a single independent new restaurant starting up in the area in the last three years, but Green Hills is now home to Cheesecake Factory, Baja Fresh, Carraba's, Panera, two Starbucks...

It's best to avoid panic until one knows all the facts, but to see the corner of Abbott-Martin and Hillsboro Roads "developing out" all of its independent businesses would be a genuine loss to that area.

Anyone here think that the developers have a commitment to maintaining the character there? On its face -- obviously not.

Huddleston said the property and location of the retail shopping center, located across Hillsboro Road from the Mall at Green Hills, is “bullet proof” real estate for high-end tenants.

They've spent a lot of money to take ownership of that area, and they're talking about "high end tenants" and "improvements." They've apparently not had the "earth window" or "mango California" maki rolls at Ginza, which CANNOT POSSIBLY BE IMPROVED UPON! Not for any sum of money!

(Can you tell that I feel a sense of proprietorship here? I've probably invested a few thousand dollars in those businesses myself over the years. I would be devastated if these businesses were driven out.)