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

[smeagolsfree]

BWSC building image released.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/01/19/first-look-125000-square-foot-sobro-office-tower/79006884/

[Vrtigo]

50 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

BWSC building image released.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/01/19/first-look-125000-square-foot-sobro-office-tower/79006884/

Quite obviously 50% parking garage, but makes up for it well enough with wraparound retail. Let's hope it at least keeps that element.

[dmillsphoto]

Nifty. I'm pretty okay with that for where's located.

[MLBrumby]

Historic building on 2nd Avenue North (just south of the Stahlman Building) has been bought by Scott Chambers, a developer who plans to convert it to apartments. This is next door to the 21c Hotel. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2016/01/apartments-coming-next-to-downtown-boutique-hotel.html?ana=twt

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

BWSC building image released.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/01/19/first-look-125000-square-foot-sobro-office-tower/79006884/

 

I'm assuming they could only go 8 floors in that area? (which is still crazy, IMO)  I guess this is what you get when you tell someone they can only go 8 floors on expensive land.  4 floors of parking...and 4 floors of office space.

For what it is...it's nice.  I give them props for about the best you can do for a half and half structure.

[donNdonelson2]

Somehow I completely missed the sale of Metro Manor apartments and their rebranding as The 500 5th. When did this happen?

[nashwatcher]

16 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

BWSC building image released.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/01/19/first-look-125000-square-foot-sobro-office-tower/79006884/

Glad they're not putting the parking lot on the ground floor! The option for retail will be a great long term option for this building to have. Also, I agree with Titanhog that the floor restriction in this area is a bit crazy considering the cost of land. I was reading about a developer on 4th ave s wanting to go 18 stories high (which would allow for more affordable housing) but the floor limit doesnt allow for such a option. As Nashville has evolved and people want to live downtown, we need to revisit some of our height restrictions to encourage developer investment.

[smeagolsfree]

I mentioned this to someone the other day about the way Metro is trying to force developers to do affordable housing instead of offering incentives such as bonus height. Metro Planning wisely realized this would kill development. It seems Government always what's to things backwards instead of the more intelligent way. 

We have discussed the fear factor of tall buildings by so many groups, i.e.,neighbors Metro Planning, historical Commision, and I am baffled by it.

[Nashville Cliff]

24 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

I mentioned this to someone the other day about the way Metro is trying to force developers to do affordable housing instead of offering incentives such as bonus height. Metro Planning wisely realized this would kill development. It seems Government always what's to things backwards instead of the more intelligent way. 

We have discussed the fear factor of tall buildings by so many groups, i.e.,neighbors Metro Planning, historical Commision, and I am baffled by it.

To be accurate, part of the government (Metro Council) passed a resolution requiring planning to consider a mandatory affordable housing inclusion policy; another part of the government (Metro Planning) recommended incentives instead, and another (the Planning Commission) voted to not recommend those incentives because of various concerns.  When we speak of "the government" in naive ways, we cheapen the debate and reduce our chances for good policy.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Nashville Cliff
typo

[Vrtigo]

8 hours ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Somehow I completely missed the sale of Metro Manor apartments and their rebranding as The 500 5th. When did this happen?

I recall the signage going up about two weeks before Christmas. Just happened to see it as I was walking by.

[titanhog]

1 hour ago, Nashville Cliff said:

To be accurate, part of the government (Metro Council) passed a resolution requiring planning to consider a mandatory affordable housing inclusion policy; another part of the government (Metro Planning) recommended incentives instead, and another (the Planning Commission) voted to not recommend those incentives because of various concerns.  When we speak of "the government" in naive ways, we cheapen the debate and reduce our chances for good policy.

What's naive about recognizing that government can't get their act together and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing...and vice versa?

[Nashville Cliff]

49 minutes ago, titanhog said:

What's naive about recognizing that government can't get their act together and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing...and vice versa?

The whole failure to comprehend that, by design, government is constructed to represent multiple, often conflicting interests.  And the failure to recognize that there is no monolithic "the government" but rather various governments and government bodies.  And the failure to recognize the role of separation of power and checks and balances among those bodies, again by design.  And the failure to recognize that the reason that "they can't get their act together" is that we, the people who elect them, don't always agree on what that act should be.  You can have ruthlessly efficient government, but not if it is a democracy.  Just that.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Nashville Cliff

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, Nashville Cliff said:

The whole failure to comprehend that, by design, government is constructed to represent multiple, often conflicting interests.  And the failure to recognize that there is no monolithic "the government" but rather various governments and government bodies.  And the failure to recognize the role of separation of power and checks and balances among those bodies, again by design.  And the failure to recognize that the reason that "they can't get their act together" is that we, the people who elect them, don't always agree on what that act should be.  You can have ruthlessly efficient government, but not if it is a democracy.  Just that.

Touche'

[FromParkAveToTN]

I'm curious; who sits on the board of MDHA and how are they replaced? Nashville definitely needs some younger less-restricted  members on that board.

[Pyramid Scheme]

5 hours ago, titanhog said:

Touche'

Yea, I don't really want the government to be efficient. That's probably only good for the government.

[fieldmarshaldj]

14 hours ago, Nashville Cliff said:

To be accurate, part of the government (Metro Council) passed a resolution requiring planning to consider a mandatory affordable housing inclusion policy; another part of the government (Metro Planning) recommended incentives instead, and another (the Planning Commission) voted to not recommend those incentives because of various concerns.  When we speak of "the government" in naive ways, we cheapen the debate and reduce our chances for good policy.

Because good policy and government are two mutually exclusive concepts.

[markhollin]

Since the majority of these renderings refer to structures in this particular thread, I thought I would post them here. They are from Centric Architecture.

 

[markhollin]

Nice piece looking back at the impact of Bridgestone Arena and how it set the tone for all the new development in downtown since it's inception. Features a video interview with Phil Bredesen and some nice pics of it's construction 20 years ago:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/01/22/phil-bredesens-arena-idea-forever-changed-nashville/78844908/
 

[smeagolsfree]

Too bad they did not include a rendering of what midtown would look like.

 

As far as the Arena  article, it was a good read. Bredison really was the key person that is responsible for what Nashville is today. If he had not bee not mayor, then Nashville would be years behind , maybe decades, where it is now.  

[BnaBreaker]

I love those 3d renderings.  I'm in awe when I think about the fact that after so many years of seeing relatively little change in our skyline, in just the past few years alone the city has essentially developed an entirely new and separate skyline south of broadway between Sobro and The Gulch that, when completed, could probably pass as a skyline for a city of Nashville's size all on it's own. 

[fieldmarshaldj]

7 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Too bad they did not include a rendering of what midtown would look like.

 

As far as the Arena  article, it was a good read. Bredison really was the key person that is responsible for what Nashville is today. If he had not bee not mayor, then Nashville would be years behind , maybe decades, where it is now.  

What really kicked off the revitalization was the construction of what was then then South Central Bell HQ (AKA Batman Bldg). The man largely responsible (and virtually forgotten now) was then-TN Public Service Commission Chairman Steve Hewlett. Hewlett, with an eye towards higher office in 1994 (Governor), wanted to have a "big" accomplishment under his belt and was the one who applied pressure to SCB to commit to building a signature tower HQ under one roof downtown. Without that, which triggered the Lower Broadway revitalization (and hence, the Arena), it's hard to say where development would be at downtown. So, I give credit to Hewlett more than Bredesen, who merely capitalized on what was already rolling.

As for Hewlett, he got a paltry 8% in the ten-candidate 1994 Dem primary for Governor (a very distant 3rd behind then-Mayor Bredesen, who got a whopping 53%, and 2nd-place finisher, Shelby County Mayor Bill Morris, with 19%) and served until the dissolution of the PSC in 1996.

[smeagolsfree]

I am going to have to disagree with you on this one Davey. Anoffice tower  does not bring tourist into town by way of concerts, hockey games, sporting tournaments, etc. 

The office building will boost your 9 to 5 downtown population but does nothing for after hours or weekends. It was also built in the CBD and not a blighted area like the arena. There are many cities with nothing but office buildings downtown with no after hours or recreational uses and the downtown areas are dead as a door nail.

 

I welcome your counter view on this.

[fieldmarshaldj]

^I'm saying that if you remember what that period was like, things were almost dead downtown. The last office tower had gone up right about the time of the real estate crash (Nashville City Center I) several years earlier, and nothing else appeared on the horizon. Boner had the downtown mall built, which was a speedy fiasco and did nothing to curtail the decline. When Hewlett put pressure on South Central Bell, which yielded fruit, it was that tower which kickstarted the entire redevelopment of the area at Lower Broad. Without it, the likelihood of the arena going up diminished considerably. Up to that point, you'd had sleazy porno shops and that embarrassing old broad, Inez Silverfield, who refused to clean up her properties down there.

You're forgetting, too, that the distance from the building to the arena is less than 2 whole blocks (a block and a half coming out of 3rd). Everything flowed from after its construction, not from the arena's. That one building and its construction did have that major impact.

You may have mentioned it before, but were you here at the time (1989-1996) period ?

[UTgrad09]

I don't think Batman kickstarted the redevelopment of Lower Broad nearly as much as the arena. As smeagols said, Batman primarily functions from 9-5...whereas the arena brought people to events at nights and on the weekends, dumping 10-15,000 people in Lower Broad on nights and weekends. I remember growing up in the 90s....downtown was simply a place you did not go after dark. That perception wasn't going to change with an office tower. The Preds, concerts, and anyone remember the Nashville Kats? That made a difference.

Go downtown after a Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber concert. Thousands of preteens everywhere at 10-11pm. That would be unheard of in downtown Nash in 1996.

 

I won't doubt that landing Batman helped boost the confidence of downtown, but it's certainly not anywhere near the catalyst that the arena was.

[smeagolsfree]

Sorry, not going to find me downtown after a Bieber or Swift concert.