urbanplanet17

If I recall correctily, The Joseph was proposed before the Holiday Inn and Marriott Tri-Brand, so those hotels weren't included in their previous renderings.

Volkswagen says "hi!" It was down to Michigan and Tennessee, and Michigan's incentive package was described by VW as only slightly more generous than Tennessee's.

He does raise some good points in the article though, as far as the selection criteria.

IMO, a number of factors: *Ideal location in Sunbelt region (Nashville is one of the most "central" cities in the country). *Landing several major corporate expansions / relocations (Bridgestone, Nissan, Alliant Bernstein, etc.). *No income taxes. *Business friendliness. *Much need investment in expanding infrastructure (I.E. Music City Center). I also think some of it is spinoff growth from Atlanta. A lot of developers / investors think Nashville will be the next boom town and want to get in early via real estate speculation, while land is still plentiful and cheap.

Do you mean The Joseph? According to the update from the other day, that will break ground as soon as construction for this and the Marriott are done.

Oh yes, you're absolutely correct. And don't get me wrong, MARTA does a very efficient job serving the locations it does. But my point was relative to the sheee size of "Atlanta," it's not nearly extensive enough to combat the sprawl and increasingly horrible traffic the region faces. The rapid growth continues, but it's getting to the point now in large parts of the metro area that traffic jams are happening on late weekend nights and "rush hours" lasts several hours in the morning and afternoon. My hope is that Nashville doesn't end up like Atlanta and embrace infrastructure such as an extensive transit system sooner than later. Right now Nashville's about where Atlanta was in the late 1970s.

Atlanta's limited transit scope hasn't stopped its growth since MARTA was built in the 1970s, 5 million more people later and another 2.5 million expected over the next 2 decades (*without* Amazon HQ2).

Actually, the main reason Detroit was cut was because of the lack of tech talent they would need (most of the talent in Detroit is Auto Engineering-centric), plus the hard time they would have attracting outside talent to Detroit (due to its perceived negative reputation). In fact, transit in Detroit is no worse or better than transit in Indianapolis, Raleigh, Columbus and Nashville (all 4 of which also made the shortlist). A huge part of the reason Nashville made the shortlist is because it's an easy city to sell to outside talent, given how much millennials adore the party-like culture there.

Amazon wants a purple unicorn. The reality is, they're not going to find one. No one city will be this utopia that meets all of their (IMO, increasingly ridiculous) requirements.

Woo hoo! I guess I was right about them waiting for the other 2 hotels to finish.

Very well put. To add with respect to Austin, they're not much better off in terms of transit. They have a grand total of 1 light rail line. Plus, they will always live in the shadow of Dallas and Houston. Nashville, meanwhile, has a ton more upside potential (with or without transit) given its more ideal geographic location and the fact that it's THE big city in Tennessee.

It's also going to add nicely to KVB's streetwall (along with The Joseph).

Yeah, that was my thought as well reading through the posts. As credit lines were still extremely tight and there was a ton of uncertainty surrounding future demand with how slowly things were recovering, developers were hesitant to go too boldly with projects.

And that doesn't even include: *The several boutique hotels (Bobby, Dream, Graduate, Holston House, etc.) *The proposed Endeavor (3-tower) hotel *The propsed Towneplace Suites *The proposed SoBro Hyatt House *The other proposed SoBro Hyatt (Ragland) *The proposed House of Blues hotel *The new hotels in Midtown (Hyatt Place, Virgin, etc.). *The proposed W Hotel in The Gulch

Nothing chillin' at the Holiday Inn.

I will admit, the Hampton Inn now seems somewhat less horrible with the addition.

Actually, Delta's been a relatively good corporate steward for Atlanta and Georgia (they're not like Amazon in Seattle). I think the impact any move would have on their hometown would go under some consideration.

In theory, Delta could maintain their hub operations at ATL while just moving the HQ, on paper, to some place like Minneapolis or Detroit. But it's unlikely. Plus, it would be devastating for the southern Atlanta suburbs that are Delta commuter towns.

It doesn't help, but I'm not sure it will be a deal breaker. Another way to look at this is Bezos could be targeting a place like Atlanta specifically because of BS like that, in order to tip the political scale with more transplants. Besides, I'm sure they already know what they'll be getting with a blue city in a red state (thus, these antics don't surprise them).

Just MHO, but I prefer it that way. Maximize the scale.

And with more to come.

Right. It's similar to Atlanta, where most of the metro area lives outside the city proper.

Fair enough. Besides, ultimately, there isn't much of a difference between a 25 story and 26 story building as far as the eye can see.

In all fairness, didn't Alex Palmer really have a tenant lined up who backed out in the 11th hour?

This site posted last May says 26 stories. But it could have been wrong (or there was a reduction).Insert other media https://www.cpexecutive.com/post/aht-plans-400m-revamp-of-nashville-convention-center/