Sports Illustrated steps into the 'Nashville's in the lead coming down the stretch' meme..

I don't know if there is a pattern of leaks from the MLS to spur other applicants to step up their game, or if these are just idle ruminations on SI's part. Nevertheless, the recent reports are encouraging.


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The Hyatt Regency proposed for Broadway across from Union Station has barricaded their property and will soon begin demolition of existing buildings.

Pleasant surprise as to the timing. It wasn't expected to start until sometime next year. It will be the third largest hotel in the city.

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:thrasher:

20 Story Academic Tower being considered by Vanderbilt University at prominent location.

Vanderbilt University has revealed a 'fluid' plan to replace the longtime, eyesores known as Carmichael Towers on West End Avenue in Midtown with several six story academic buildings crowned by a 20 story Building which would serve as a landmark on the campus. The four existing, 14 story dorms were built in a style which can only described as '1970's East German Commie Block'.

The current working rendering...

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There was a not long ago time when you could drive down West End and not know Vanderbilt was there. But with recent addition of a couple of prominent, Ivy League looking buildings on the Avenue and possibly this beauty in the near future, you will have no doubt there is a world class school there.

Coming up next!!!

Anticipated announcements with renderings to be revealed in the next days, weeks.....A Ten story hotel, a twenty+ story office building and a thirty story office building.....

That is all I know right now.. :cool:

:skyhighmind:

You tease! :)

NASHVILLE"S GOLD COAST

Not what I was teasing about in my previous post, but jaw dropping regardless. Didn't see this coming...from the Tennessean...

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The investors (Ewing family from Dallas) are willing to invest $200 million on this project. They bought the 30 acres off West Trinity Lane in 2015. This development will require significant zoning changes which the developer plans to pursue immediately. They will ask the city to build a vehicular bridge...$$$$.

Nashville is getting building proposals in bunches now.

:thrasher:

Edit: I'm thinking this is Amazon HQ2 bait. It seems hurried.

The proposed Nashville Gold Coast is what Metro Center was supposed to have been. It was envisioned to be a city within the city. Unfortunately, it never happened. Metro Center is okay. But if the vision had been fulfilled it would have been so much more. I've yet to find a rendering of what the skyline of Metro Center was envisioned to be, but I remember it rivaling downtown in terms of high rise buildings and so much more. It didn't even reach half the vision.

I certainly would like to see Bordeaux included in the growth of Nashville. It is such an underutilized area of town that should be treated as a gateway for those living in and beyond northwest Nashville. The concept is very ambitious and clearly is a long term plan. But, without any city support to change the infrastructure of both West Trinity Lane and Clarksville Pike, I don't see it happening even on a small scale. Both streets will need to be reworked and West Trinity Lane to some extent shifted. The good thing is there is very little development in that area to get in the way of doing just that.

I'll be surprised if the people living in that area oppose this type of opportunity. However, I do believe the developer will need to announce some type of retail and restaurant component to sweeten the pot for locals in the area. That is something that is desperately needed in the area.

The glass office tower on the right looks like Cira Centre in Philadelphia.

It's an amalgam of existing buildings. The one behind that is CityPlace in Hartford, CT.

Yeah, this is clearly just a vision of what might be, not an actual rendering... I'd say this one has next to zero chance of actually happening, given the fact that it's pretty isolated from the rest of urban Nashville and the fact that the massive River North development, which has a slightly greater than zero chance of happening, has already been proposed just down the river. I think it's an incredibly positive sign for the city that a metro area of two million is drawing this kind of interest from developers, but I think we are still a ways off yet from being able to support a development of this magnitude, much less two of them....

.... unless we get the Amazon HQ... ;)

Yes, I would say this is the longest of long shots. The negatives far out weigh the positives as far as making something of this scope happen. The size of the project is the major problem in that it is too small, not too large. At only 30 acres, that's not nearly enough to convince the city to invest in the building of two major bridges over this large river.

And the re-zoning is probably a non-starter. The area would be well suited for some density, but more like mid to low-rise mixed use with a heavy emphasis on affordable housing.

I'm sure these people are well meaning and should be taken more seriously than some recent pie-in-the-sky presenters (Polar coaster, World One Hotel, etc.), I think this is a 'bridge too far' in this case.

And as far as the Amazon HQ2 recruitment is concerned, I know Nashville is a long shot. But then, every city in the USA and Canada is a long shot due to the sheer number of Cities eligible to compete. It's not a lock to even be on a short list for any city as they all have serious negatives regarding their ability to accommodate that size of an investment.

So I can only wonder about the format of a proposal that Nashville might submit. I would suspect that the following points would be emphasized...

1. Nashville's arrow is pointing up. It is growing at a rate that puts it in the top five of just about any ranking of growing cities in America. There is no reason to believe it will slow down, barring a national economic downturn.
2. Nashville is developing a culture that belies it's country and western image. It was called a 'cosmopolitan metropolis on a small scale' by the New York Times. The food, fashion, and yes, the music scenes are receiving national recognition as tops in their category.
3. Nashville has a shovel ready location 1/2 mile from downtown that is a short walk or bike ride from 10's of thousands of 20th century built bungalows, condos, apartments and houses in rapidly gentrifying area. No mass transit needed here.
4. And, importantly, the airport is undergoing a billion dollar, seven year plan to upgrade it to a top level airport with all service and amenities that status requires.
5. Six billion dollars worth of mass transit upgrades will be subject to a public referendum next May and should pass. The plan includes light rail, trolley, more commuter rail and improved bus service.

Nashville doesn't check all the boxes just yet, but nobody does. There are some evaluations that show the city as a top 5 candidate and some that don't put it in the top 20. The only list that matters is in Jeff Bezo's head and it would be worth every penny for the city to invest in a first class presentation and behalf of America's Music City.

:thrasher:

Your enthusiasm is great but there are several cities that already check all of the boxes on Amazon's list. We'll see ...

While that is true, I wouldn't doubt them giving 2nd-tier cities a strong look. I've said it on another site that my dark horse candidates are Detroit and Saint Louis. The latter being centrally located, very affordable, and lots of room to grow in the city.

I'm not optimistic about our chances, but the fact that we are even in the conversation is big for us. A decade ago we would have had no chance.

I think if Nashville already had a rail system in place its chances would be much higher but it is exciting to hear about the proposal and upcoming referendum. If it passes I could see Nashville becoming hotter than Austin, another progressive city in a red (purple?) state that can't seem to get its butt in gear on rail.

The renderings for the ONE KVB CIRCLE office building have been released.

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:thrasher:

I love that design! In all honesty, if Nashville keeps its boom in Downtown and surrounding areas, I have no doubt that it will become the South's New York City. There is just so much growth and development going on here that it will become an economic powerhouse and a skyline unlike any other.

The city's built environment is growing at an incredible rate as you can see on the previous pages. We are adding many 10 to 20 story buildings which will serve as dense infill, not only downtown, but in all urban neighborhoods and districts like SoBro, the Gulch and Mid-Town. There are a few 30 to 40 story buildings going up also, but not the 50 or 60 story monsters. At least, not yet!

And this afternoon there's published news that the developers of the 33 story JW Marriott want to build an identically sized hotel in the lot next to it. No other details have been released.

It's an amazing time to be a Nashvillian.

My mashup of current projects over 10 stories under construction in Nashville. The diagram is loosely to scale and not chronologically arranged. It's just put together for impact.

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And here are proposed projects, most of which seem very likely to start this year and some that are questionable.

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And then there are multiple building projects such as Nashville Yards, River North and 12th and Demonbruen set to begin. There is a 20 story SoBro Building possibly in the works and the 34 story JW Marriott developers want to build another hotel with the same number of rooms on a smaller footprint (40+ stories?).

:thrasher: