Bob Love, left, talks to one of his landlords, Tom Poole, about the business he has opened on the square: Love Art and Antiques Gallery. About one-third to half of the items in the new gallery are ones that Love has created. Poole, an attorney by trade, also is a painter. (Robyn L. Minor/rminor@bgdailynews.com)

A development company with plans for a downtown mixed-use project is working on designs for a residential project on Nashville Road.

New Millennium Real Estate recently purchased about 4 acres from Leichhardt Nursery Supply LLC for $640,000, according to Warren County property deeds.

The purchase included land where plants currently live, a storage shed and warehouse. The remainder of the property stayed with the nursery.

The sale was a result of settling the estate of longtime nurseryman, artist and art curator Mitchell Leichhardt, who died in September.

“We plan to develop whatever best fits the area. Once we do a market survey, we will know more what it will look like,” said Cassi Nushart, manager for SKY Property Management, which oversees New Millennium developments. “We are looking at two different concepts – one has townhouses and the other has more apartment-style living.”

As for when construction will begin on the project, investors want to first see another project get further along, according to Mike Vitale, one of the investors.

New Millennium is developing The Vue adjacent to the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce. Construction had stalled since ground was broken.

“We ended up getting a couple more retail tenants and because of the change, planning and zoning requested that we resubmit our plans, and we are waiting for their approval for the plans,” Vitale said. “The footprint didn’t change.”

The new plans are expected to be up for approval next week at a meeting of the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County.

Those new retail tenants are existing women’s clothing stores that are not yet ready to make public their planned moves, Vitale said.

The retail space will mean less ground floor residential space.

“We still will have 55 apartments,” he said.

Vitale said the project will not use any tax resources from the Tax Increment Financing district, but architects still are consulting with the TIF about the project’s design.

“We are hoping to have it complete in a little under a year, but that is subject to weather,” he said. “We hope to start in earnest coming out of the ground in the middle of the month.”

Elsewhere in downtown, an art studio is setting up shop in what most people will know as formerly Dollar Brothers Shoes. The space was most recently occupied by a now-closed women’s clothing store.

Love Art and Antiques Gallery is being opened by Bob and Ronna Love, who have been art teachers for 30 years, mostly in the Lexington area.

Bob is a Western Kentucky University and Bowling Green High School graduate and Kentucky Crafted Artist who has exhibited around the state.

“We opened for the Gallery Hop last week and then this week,” Bob said. “Right now we are going to have hours Tuesday through Saturday and play it by ear.”

Hours will be from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bob Love said they planned to move back to Bowling Green after retirement.

“We saw this space open and had been planning on doing some adventure like this … ,” he said.

The store has quirky clocks and some of the art works that Bob Love has created from repurposed materials such as aluminum cans. While the gallery doesn’t have an official website, you can see some of Bob’s works at robertloveart.com. There also is glass art and other sculptures. They also will be adding a line of jewelry.

Ronna Love is quick to point out that her husband is quite an accomplished artist.

“He has had exhibits in many places,” she said, taking a break from painting the bathroom.

Bob Love said he may consider consigning more artists with a 60-40 split and is still looking for consignors of antiques. He hasn’t decided on that split, yet.

Elsewhere in town, expect to see fireworks stands starting to pop up. Multiple permits have been approved by the city so that people can have the stands, typically tents. Fireworks can be sold ahead of the holiday but Bowling Green has enacted an ordinance that stipulates when they may be used in the city limits.

Fireworks may only be used between noon and 10 p.m. June 27 to July 3 and July 5 and until 11 p.m. July 4. Special discharge permits can be obtained for other days from the fire department, according to the city’s website.

— Follow City Editor Robyn L. Minor on Twitter at @bowserminor or visit bgdailynews.com.