[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

Looking NW from intersection of Broadway and 2nd Ave:

Looking north from intersection of Church St. and 2nd Ave. North:

It’s interesting how much wider this two-lane road  seems than Church St. 

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

3 hours ago, markhollin said:

The Arcade is adding a third eatery to its line-up, Ugly Bagel.   Design and Engineering Inc. will serve as the architects for Ugly Bagel while Nashville-based Thomas Constructors will handle the $480,000 build out.

The other restaurants lined-up so far are  Urban Cowboy Public House and a bar concept by Café Roze’s Julia Jaksic and Eric Lincoln.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/05/09/the-arcade-lands-ugly-bagel-restaurant-downtown.html
 

Here’s the website:  https://www.uglybagel.com

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

11 hours ago, markhollin said:

Fifth Third Center, the third-largest office building in downtown Nashville, has been listed for sale, according to Cushman & Wakefield marketing materials. 
An asking price has not been disclosed.

New York-based Blackstone Real Estate is the owner of the building. The firm paid $144.8 million for the tower in 2019. Goldman Sachs was the previous owner, having paid $118 million for the building at the end of 2018.

Downtown's Fifth Third Center, located at 424 Church St., opened in 1986 and offers nearly 650,000 square feet of leasable space. The 31-story tower has received $15 million in capital investment in the last decade and $7 million since 2019, according to the listing.

The Nashville office of Cushman & Wakefield is handling marketing for the property which is currently 73% leased to 35 tenants, according to marketing materials. The average rent is between $35.50 to $37.50 per square foot, according to Business Journal research.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/05/07/fifth-third-office-tower-for-sale-downtown.html

 

I wonder if the new owners will actually utilize the plaza. That bar structure and big seating area has been finished for more than a year now and it has yet to actually be open. So weird. 

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

24 minutes ago, BnaBreaker said:

That stretch has the potential to be a really nice urban corridor, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to achieve that, and I fear that that ship may have already sailed in some respects.  I wish we could get a complete re-do on that Fairfield Inn across the street and the way it addresses (or doesn't) the street.  Also, the overall lack of retail along such a major thoroughfare is very surprising, but perhaps that is only because most of these buildings are fairly new and haven't had time to sign retail tenants?  I'm not sure.  And the power line poles?  Ugh... I know we've been over that ad nauseum and I don't want to belabor the point, but man, those are so bad.  I know this street is still fairly early on into it's transformation into a functional urban street, so maybe my critiques are unfair, but we certainly didn't do ourselves any favors with the way things have been done to this point.  I think I'm being kind when I say that it isn't, as it currently stands, an appealing environment for a pedestrian, and it's understandable why, although this street is lined with high density residential buildings, there still is very little in the way of foot traffic.  

I walk along Division every day on my  way to/from work, and this is spot on. It’s consistently shocking how few people are on the sidewalks given the literal thousands of units I’m passing. 
 

One problem, I think, is that the retail variety is really… strange? Almost every building in the Gulch seems to have a fitness place and/or some kind of salon. The new Modera Gulch literally has two fitness places side-by-side. I don’t understand how it makes economic sense to have so many repeated businesses, but I guess the initial projections are making sense for them. 

[East Bank – I-24 to the Cumberland/I-24 Overpass up to Jefferson – 338 Acres, Nissan Stadium, "Imagine East Bank"]

I went to an East Bank walk around with a couple council members and the topic of the placement of the affordable housing near the scrapyard was a major point of concern among many of the constituents there. Also concerns about making sure the pedestrian bridge extension is easily accessible to/from the new boulevard for people on bikes. 

[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

First sections of the new east sidewalk open!

[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

Hopefully the really good pedestrian experience here will encourage similar transformations on other neighboring streets. The core portion of Church St. is already basically like this and it’s the nicest downtown street. Building a mini grid of them would be awesome. 

[Nashville Bits and Pieces]

Interesting chart posted on Reddit today. 
 

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/ITVjxRK3IP

[Nashville Yards, 15 acres/4 million sq. ft./ $1 billion, Phase I: Grand Hyatt Hotel (25 stories), Phase II: Amazon (26 & 22 stories), Phase III: AEG District (4 K theater, 34 & 35 story apts); Phase IV: Pinnacle Tower (35 stories), Amazon 3 (43)]

The sidewalk situation in this area has been incredibly frustrating. You have to cross to one side to get past Prime, then switch over to the other to get past 1010, only to have to walk in the street to avoid NY. This whole situation doesn’t feel like it’s in spirit with the ordinances regarding keeping right of way for pedestrians. 

[Printer & Bank (16 & 6 stories, 193'; 265 residential units; 33,637 sq. ft. retail; 3 level underground garage)]

Every time I walk through Bankers Alley from 2nd Ave, I hope that this project is still moving forward. Continuing to extend the span of connected, pedestrian-first spaces downtown will be great. 

[Canopy/Homewood Suites, 11 stories, 334 rooms, 5,000 sq. ft. meeting space, rooftop bar, 2,500 sq. ft. retail, 910 Division St (Yazoo Brewing site in Gulch)]

I walk by this building frequently and I think it does a nice job of feeling like two buildings from the sidewalk. The connection between them is set back quite far, the stick out into the sidewalk in different ways, etc. 

[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

Walked by today and they were actively working on the blocks closer to Broadway. 

[1711 Broadway (20 stories, 245', 396 units, 5,900 sq. ft. retail, 396 capacity internal garage)]

I can’t tell from the renderings—is the bank a separate building in front, or are they going to build the bank part first and then build the rest of the structure around it?

[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

Some of the final brickwork going in on the northern blocks. Love the width of the sidewalk, but the offset planters and trees seem to result in no real expansion of space for walking. 

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

18 minutes ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Like Bicentennial Mall State Park, perhaps? It’s on the downtown side of the river, with lots of green space, trees & flowers, and next door there’s a nice museum and a farmers market.

It’s 31 minutes walking from Ascend to the farmer’s market., according to Apple Maps. That’s a more than reasonable distance between major parks. Lots of residential is being added to downtown, and we should definitely be aiming for close access to real green space (everywhere in Nashville, not just downtown). 

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I think Ascend Amphitheater is a real waste of valuable space. Downtown badly needs a big urban park, with actual trees, grass, etc. on the downtown side of the river. 
 

The space where Ascend is, plus the surrounding “park” (mostly concrete and a flat green square) could be that space. The maps around the area show a walking loop running through the amphitheater that “may be closed for concerts,” but I’ve basically never seen the gates actually open. It sucks that such a huge piece of irreplaceable, city-owned real estate sits locked up most of the year. I hope that once some of the residential projects fill in to the south over the next 5-10 years,  there’s a conversation about creating more of a real park in that area. 

[Rebuilding Second Avenue]

They certainly don’t seem to be in a hurry to complete the road work and reopen the road. That’s got to be about the best argument for pedestrianizing 2nd Ave you could make. 

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

Looks like they are getting ready to hang a light on 8th near the Paseo development. There’s not a cross-street right there, so I wonder if it will just be a flasher. It’s a much-needed spot for a cross-walk. 

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

It’s almost everyday walking downtown that I see someone ride a scooter the wrong way down a bike lane.  Incredibly dangerous. I basically never see cyclists going the wrong way. The only way I can think to solve that (other than ticketing everyone who does it wrong), is through two-way cycle tracks like the one on Commerce.  

[Gulch Union (Endeavor Demonbreun): 3 towers (20 story/329,000 s.f. office, twin 28 story residential buildings)]

I spoke with one of their agents as a prospective buyer a few weeks ago. Asked this specific question since it pertains to the view from many units. He seemed confident that it would move forward following phase 2, but certainly wasn’t specific about timing. 

[Nashville Yards, 15 acres/4 million sq. ft./ $1 billion, Phase I: Grand Hyatt Hotel (25 stories), Phase II: Amazon (26 & 22 stories), Phase III: AEG District (4 K theater, 34 & 35 story apts); Phase IV: Pinnacle Tower (35 stories), Amazon 3 (43)]

I’m curious why this building is being built so differently than most others of its size, which seem to be made floor by floor of concrete. Is it because there need to be big open spaces for the theaters?

[Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge]

Geotechnic drilling tonight in the Arnold’s parking lot. 

[Nashville Bits and Pieces]

This article suggests the sale of the Arnold’s property may have fallen through… 

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/arnolds-country-kitchen-makes-a-comeback-just-in-time-for-thanksgiving

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

This Connect Downtown report is out: 

A good collection of ideas here, but a lot of the more impactful ones are pushed out past 2030. 

[Inside 440 - Berry Hill, Midtown, Vanderbilt, 12S, WeHo, Fairgrounds, etc.]

Minneapolis has taken a hard stance on projects like this: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/08/09/minneapolis-bans-new-drivethrus