Hankster

Thanks for posting. I listened to the entire podcast, and I must say everything sounds very positive. This project may just happen faster than I though possible. Nashville is poised to become a major player in the Convention business with the Music City Center downtown and the $400 Million Opryland expansion. This will spur significant growth in tourism, in hotel and restaurant business, increases in airport service, etc. WOW!

I'm sorry about sounded too negative about the Metro codes department. What I meant to say is that they have to look into so many things that the whole process must be very difficult and taxing from the developer's perspective. Still, I have no doubt that the Metro is doing their best to lead them through the process the best they can. Metro government is nevertheless a bureaucracy and the many steps and approvals probably take longer than most would like. It's those delays that probably seem "outrageous" to some.

Great post. This clears up many of the issues for me. Hopefully, they have worked through most of the issues by now and groundbreaking is not far off. I can only imagine what it must be like to work with Metro on such a large project. The bureaucracy issues must be outrageous.

I still have every reason to be optimistic. The reserve numbers are rising, and there seems to be lots of behind the scenes work going on. Still, it would be a huge boost to all the supporters of this project (myself included) when the groundbreaking finally takes place.

I lurked myself for several months before posting, but now I've got over 2,600 posts. Welcome to the forum!

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

The excavation will be for underground parking. There will be about a 1,000 parking spaces, I beleive.

I assume you're referring to WES. There are no currents signs of construction on the site, and I don't have any information on when the construction will start. I hop the wait will be short 'cause I can't wait to see this "bad boy" rise.

The big gossip out of the meet was that First Tennessee Bank plans to consolidate all its Nashville area operations in a single downtown building. I think Alex Palmer must be salivating over that one. Unfortunately, there was no new definitive news about Signature Tower. William Williams said he planned to talk to Tony Giarratana very soon.

I just got back from the forum meet and, as usual, had a great time. While on my visit to Nashville today, I took a bunch of construction pics. Man, there's a ton of construction going on. I hope you like them. This first pic was actually taken 4 week ago. The Sun Trust Bank downtown The newly completed Ghost Ballet art near LP Field The Pinnacle construction in front and The Encore condos in background followed by a rendering of the Pinnacle when finished. 29 stories and 435 Ft. I can't wait for this one. The Gulch looks like a "sea of cranes". I was amazed at all the cranes, and it won't be long until we see more in the area. Griffin Plaza in the Gulch looking towards the Icon. This one will be breaking ground real soon. The 22 Story Icon Condos. Work has begun on the tower section and this one should start rising fast! The 14 story Terrazzo Condos in the Gulch. Very nice progress! The 14 story Rhythm Condos on Music Row. I believe there was a ceremonial ground breaking where the dirt is. This one is listed as U/C on Emporis and shortly there will be lots of activity here. The West End Summit excavation and a rendering of this project when completed. This is one huge project! The 18 Story Adelicia Condos nearing completion Construction on the Vandy campus. There always seems to highrises going up there. The 11 Story West End Condos And finally, out in suburbia, the Nissan headquarters....home to 1,300 very high paid jobs.

nashvillecharrette.com. If you get any information Monday, please post. We would definitely like to know as much as is possible. This waiting is difficult.

Sounds good. Anyone else coming?

Are we meeting tomorrow? I'll try to make it if we are.

This sounds intriguing. I'm really looking forward to hearing the details.

I love this picture. Wonderful colors and lighting. Is that the Sun Trust crane in the picture? If so, I guess it was taken at least a year ago.

While there are probably others that share this view, I believe the economy is far stronger than you give it credit, especially in mid-tier cities such as Nashville. I see no blood bath in the Nashville real estate market myself. By the way, look for the markets to go back up next week....That's my prediction.

Wonderful news! This thing is looking more certain all the time.

This is excellent news, and may mean that Giarratana will actually top 100 sales contracts by the time he breaks ground. Thanks for the heads up.

Absolutely. I certainly hope that this Meadowview development is the springboard for more projects and a lasting revitalization. It sounds like they're going about it the right way, and I'll be rooting for them. Maybe they will be developing a blueprint for other towns in the Tri-Cities area.

Those are some big birds! I actually flew on one of those Korean Air 747's when I working overseas in Seoul in the late '80's. Brings back old memories. In my opinion Atlanta has gotten bigger than any airport should ever get. I wish the airlines would spread the wealth a little bit. The airport has gotten so big and is so congested, that delays are commonplace. and jets queue up all over the place. No airport should get so big. Atlanta would be better served if thay had a second airport like Chicago, for example. There's a lot of talk about Atlanta building a second airport, and most people project a second airport North of the city, to better serve Atlanta's huge northern suburbs. More people live North of the city than South of the city. There's has even been a rumor that the second airport could actually be in Chattanooga connected to Atlanta by a high speed maglev train. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Exactly. We may never know what Plan "B" is because there may never be a need to exercise it, but you're right. There is a Plan B.

I would like to say that we had a great forum meet yesterday. There was a lively discussion of development in the Nashville area. This was my first meet in a few months, and I think the group is, if anything, becoming even more passionate. Thanks to all for a great time. We are indeed living in a lanmark era in the development of Nashville. I can't remember when so many mega-projects have ever happened at the same time.....The Pinnacle, the WES, the Icon, the Adelicia, the probable Signature Tower, and the likely expansions of the Nashville Convention Center, and Opryland Hotel to name a few. Wow!

It's only partially surrounded. The lot, owned by Giarratana, is still open. At our forum meet today, William Williams, writer for "The City Paper" announced that he interviewed Tony Giarratana very recently about the Signature Tower project. He revealed important information to the group about the project which will be revealed in his article Monday. We can discuss the project on this forum in a more enlightened basis then.

As Tony Giarratana states in this video from Channel 4 in Nashville, Sig Tower will be built, will open in 2010, and will be 70 stories. Groundbreaking will take place later this month. The $5 Million gap in construction costs has been significantly closed already and financing will be secured by the end of this week. Tony Giarratana has a history of delivering on what he says. If he says this as emphatically as he does in this video for all the world to see, I have to believe him. If you don't believe him, you might as well be calling him a liar. As for the 249 condo unit statement at the end of the piece, I tend to believe that was a mistake made by the news anchor. There are 400 units listed on their website as available, and that does not include floors 40 & 41. There would either be 16 units total on those two floors, making 416 units, or those two floors could possibly be mechanical, meaning that there are only 400 units. Here's the video. http://www.wsmv.com/video/index.html

If you find out anything, please let us know. I'm still expecting a ground breaking soon, and I'm hoping something about that will be said.