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Apple Music to open offices at May Hosiery site in Wedgewood-Houston

Sandy Mazza
The Tennessean
The May Hosiery Co-Op includes six buildings.

Apple Music will open a content creation office in the historic May Hosiery complex in Wedgewood-Houston, officials close to the deal said Wednesday. 

The music and video streaming service will have 30,000 square-foot offices as well as outdoor event space at the historic factory, which is currently being restored.

The move is part of Apple's strategy to expand its country-music brand. Spotify and Pandora have opened Nashville offices in recent years. 

In April, Apple Music announced that company executive Jay Liepis would move to Nashville to lead a team that will cater to country-music fans. The move comes as Apple Inc. embarks on a $1 billion expansion nationwide, with a new campus for up to 15,000 employees in Austin as well as growth at its California and Seattle offices. 

Its new Nashville home will be part of a complex of six brick buildings built at the turn of the 20th century that together have 120,000 square feet of space. 

Developer AJ Capital Partners renovated the mill with modern heating and electric systems while finalizing the new mix of tenants at 429 Chestnut Street. 

A view of the space Tuck-Hinton Architects will occupy at 510 Houston St. at May Hosiery Co-Op.

"We're doing a major adaptive reuse renovation that preserves the historic buildings," said AJ Capital Partners principal Uday Sehgal. "We're restored them close to their original conditions."

Sehgal declined to comment on the deal with Apple. 

Tuck-Hinton Architects and communications and information technology company Dream Technologies recently moved into a portion of the site. 

Apple Music will fill the remaining office space in the project. 

Parson's Chicken & Fish restaurant is slated to open next year along with two other restaurants and five retail shops at the complex of buildings.

A 50-room boutique hotel is set to open in 2020, but the brand has not yet been named. 

"I'm really glad to see creative, proven companies like Apple Music coming to the district and creating a new future in an amazing historic building," said Councilman Colby Sledge. "I have no doubt Apple Music employees will support and enjoy the many great small businesses in Wedgewood-Houston, and I hope many of them will consider making District 17 their home, as well."

May Hosiery was one of Nashville's largest employers in the early 1900s, producing roughly a million socks a week. 

A historic marker commemorating the site is set to be erected early next year.

The factory was used by the May family to house Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s. It also produced socks worn by NASA's Apollo 11 crew, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.