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

[AUNash]

I think Commerce has real potential and is going to change a ton over the next few years. Nashville Yards is talking about activating Commerce down at their end. A block up from that is the project that HRI will do on the Christ Church parking lot between 8th and 9th. Yes the new federal courthouse won’t add street activation, but at least it won’t be worse than the parking lot that was there. The Commerce side of 5th and Broad is going to add to the street. I’m also watching the two small parking lots at Commerce and 5th. I assume those will fill in at some point. All told, I think Commerce is going to evolve.

 

[markhollin]

William Williams of the Nashville Post,  Gary Gaston of Nashville Civic Design Center, and I discuss connectivity between Capitol View, Nashville yards, and The Gulch. 

Gaston says:  “NCDC has done studies that proposed connecting Union Street where it makes a sharp turn and becomes Ninth Avenue North via a pedestrian bridge that serves to connect Tennessee State University’s downtown campus and the YMCA, back to the central business district,” he says. “This would serve as a connection to the new open spaces being built at The Yards, as well as Capitol View. An added benefit would be increased safety and pedestrian access for places that are separated by a particularly awkward and dangerous section of Rosa Parks Boulevard.”

I shared: “The stretch west of the CSX tracks and that includes the greenway seems kind of prime,” says Hollingsworth, who serves as moderator of the Nashville chapter of international message board website urbanplanet.org. “Could somebody develop the back part of ElevenNorth with a parking garage? Certainly to the east of the greenway is a linear stretch of unused land.

“All of that land will be prime once construction of the Asurion headquarters building (by Highwoods Properties) and Nashville Yards are fully underway,” he adds.

Hollingsworth says the two state parking lots are primed for workforce housing.

“Whatever building will be there will need parking for state employees and activated with ground-level retail.”

Hollingsworth says it will be “important” to connect Nashville Yards and Capitol View.

“As the city is drawing westward from the CBD core, people will need to move easily between the western section of downtown, in particular Capitol View, and the entertainment district. You want to give people a pleasant walking experience and not have them reliant on taxis, Uber and Lyft.”

Behind the paywall at The Nashville Post:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/nashville-post-magazine/article/21028896/making-a-connection

[AronG]

Great discussion. That whole block that's basically wasted on the 9th/Union/Rosa Parks/YMCA Way spaghetti bowl has always bugged me. I guess it's a symptom of the decision to run a huge freeway through the core of the city, but it's such a huge and pointless gap in the urban fabric. I know it'll never happen but you could wildly improve that area (and generate a boatload more tax money) if Rosa Parks was rerouted to merge with YMCA Way and T into Church. Then you could connect Union St and have actual city blocks again. The vehicle throughput would go down a little bit, but there are plenty of ways to get to the same places. Decisions like these to build and maintain huge overpasses with interstate-style on-ramps in crowded and valuable urban spaces just to shave a minute or two off of a small subset of commuter times are the types of bad planning choices we need to figure out how to unwind.

[markhollin]

The Bode Nashville hotel, which is the former Howell Park Condos on Rutledge Hill at 401 2nd Ave. South, will be opening in late November.  All of the three 4-story building have been repainted charcoal black, and there will be 70 units in total.  There will be some common areas with a cafe, market, growler refills for those who like beer, workspaces, fire pits, and performance stages. 

Several of us on the board believe this is just a placeholder project, and that eventually the developers, California -based TMC Group, will do something much more substantial with this 1 block property that faces KVB.  They paid $18 million for it in 2017. 

More at the Nashville Post here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21028869/boutique-hotel-to-open-downtown-in-november
 

This rendering shows the new common area buildings in the center of the project:

This screen shot from Smeagolsfree's excellent development map shows the property in red at the center of the frame notated as Howell Park:

[markhollin]

State officials this week approved a Saint Thomas Health-Acadia Healthcare proposal to build a 76-bed behavioral health hospital in MetroCenter.  The $32 million facility will include 40 adult psychiatric beds and 36 geriatric psychiatric beds.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/health-care/hospital-management/article/21029348/state-oks-saint-thomasacadia-project
 

[NashvilleObserver]

23 hours ago, AronG said:

...there are plenty of ways to get to the same places. Decisions like these to build and maintain huge overpasses with interstate-style on-ramps in crowded and valuable urban spaces just to shave a minute or two off of a small subset of commuter times are the types of bad planning choices we need to figure out how to unwind.

Spot on!!!

My mind can't begin to grasp the amount of unwinding we would need to do in Nashville. 

[nashvylle]

23 hours ago, AronG said:

 

I may be in the minority here, but I happen to like the winding intersecting roads here and hope they can lead to interesting developments. The more I see the boxed blocks, the more I envision another boxy suntrust plaza going on top. 

[AronG]

I feel like 10 or 20 years ago they would have monetized that land by razing the buildings, paving it over, and collecting parking $$$. There's plenty bad to say about the hotel/STR boom, but overall this seems like a much more beneficial pattern for the city.

[Bos2Nash]

On 10/26/2018 at 3:13 PM, nashvylle said:

I may be in the minority here, but I happen to like the winding intersecting roads here and hope they can lead to interesting developments. The more I see the boxed blocks, the more I envision another boxy suntrust plaza going on top. 

I tend to agree with these sentiments when it adds to the character of the city. This though is not one of those instances. We are essentially seeing the start of a freeway/expressway/oversized thoroughfare at this point. If the suggested re-routing was ever to be established, you have the potential to have very interesting, urban friendly developments. With its proximity to Nashville Yards (when complete) and the downtown area as a whole, this could be one step closer to unifying different parts of town. 

One suggestion I would make to this would be to run 8th ave (Rosa Parks Ave) north and have it connect to Rosa Parks Blvd through that annoying parking lot at the end of 8th

[markhollin]

Somera Road real estate firm will buy the old Gibson Guitar building at 1121 Church St. in the northern Gulch, and convert the 4 story, 45,000 sq. ft. structure into a mixed-use development.  This is the same  NY-based company that is developing another former Gibson 1-story warehouse within the same block into the Pins Mechanical Company entertainment venue. 

ESa will do the architectural work on the re-imagined space.

Things are really starting to percolate in this area with the Asurion HQ, Flank Hotel, Pins Mechanical, Endeavor's 1200 Broadway, and the recently opened Gossett Apartments.  I'm sure we'll hear some concepts from Highwoods/Tennessean sites soon.

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/21029550/developer-to-acquire-disputed-gibson-property

[PruneTracy]

30 minutes ago, markhollin said:

Somera Road real estate firm will buy the old Gibson Guitar building at 1121 Church St. in the northern Gulch, and convert the 4 story, 45,000 sq. ft. structure into a mixed-use development.  This is the same  NY-based company that is developing another former Gibson 1-story warehouse within the same block into the Pins Mechanical Company entertainment venue. 

I'm surprised they are retaining the elevated parking area over 12th Avenue. Seems like a maintenance headache.

[rjgo]

5 minutes ago, PruneTracy said:

I'm surprised they are retaining the elevated parking area over 12th Avenue. Seems like a maintenance headache.

Yeah and it's really ugly too. I live in the Gossett and am not too convinced this will feel as great as it looks in the renderings. The frontage on 12th avenue feels really dark and dingy under that elevated parking and the other side (where the rendering is showing a biergarten) is in a really dirty alley and doesn't feel as wide open as the rendering suggests. I'm hoping they prove me wrong and are able to clean up the surroundings of this building and make it feel great, but I wish they would just knock it down and build something much nicer.

 

They also have yet to start on the Pins Mechanical Bowling they have going in the warehouse across the alley. How long ago was that announced?

Edited October 29, 2018 by rjgo

[Neigeville2]

2 hours ago, rjgo said:

Yeah and it's really ugly too. I live in the Gossett and am not too convinced this will feel as great as it looks in the renderings. The frontage on 12th avenue feels really dark and dingy under that elevated parking and the other side (where the rendering is showing a biergarten) is in a really dirty alley and doesn't feel as wide open as the rendering suggests. I'm hoping they prove me wrong and are able to clean up the surroundings of this building and make it feel great, but I wish they would just knock it down and build something much nicer.

 

They also have yet to start on the Pins Mechanical Bowling they have going in the warehouse across the alley. How long ago was that announced?

I really like that parking structure and enjoy driving under it so I'm glad they're keeping it.  This area could have a nice gritty feel when all is done, although the 3rd render above looks like a strip mall. 

Parts of Germantown are so sanitized now I'm starting to hate it.

[BnaBreaker]

54 minutes ago, Neigeville2 said:

I really like that parking structure and enjoy driving under it so I'm glad they're keeping it.  This area could have a nice gritty feel when all is done, although the 3rd render above looks like a strip mall. 

Parts of Germantown are so sanitized now I'm starting to hate it.

Agreed completely.  To all of that.  

[urbanplanet17]

6 hours ago, AronG said:

I feel like 10 or 20 years ago they would have monetized that land by razing the buildings, paving it over, and collecting parking $$$. There's plenty bad to say about the hotel/STR boom, but overall this seems like a much more beneficial pattern for the city.

KVB = The Boulevard of Hotels.

[Mr_Bond]

17 hours ago, markhollin said:

Somera Road real estate firm will buy the old Gibson Guitar building at 1121 Church St. in the northern Gulch, and convert the 4 story, 45,000 sq. ft. structure into a mixed-use development.  This is the same  NY-based company that is developing another former Gibson 1-story warehouse within the same block into the Pins Mechanical Company entertainment venue. 

ESa will do the architectural work on the re-imagined space.

 

I'm grateful that this building is being preserved.  There has been angst among this UP crowd and many others in the city that this landmark would succumb to the wrecking ball.

[markhollin]

The Bode Nashville Hotel (see more info three posts above) is marketing itself primarily for bachelorette parties:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/10/31/nashville-bachelorette-parties-hotels-bode-group-travel/1804686002/

[nashvylle]

On 10/26/2018 at 9:43 AM, markhollin said:

The Bode Nashville hotel

 

 

Balconies designed for bachelorettes to easily puke off of. 

[PaulChinetti]

Ha, I've had my fair share of fun there...

I had a buddy that lived back there in late 2009. I can remember that's about as far downtown as I used to go, then it was back to midtown.

[nashvillwill]

Are these the apartments where Steve McNair was killed?

[Pdt2f]

28 minutes ago, nashvillwill said:

Are these the apartments where Steve McNair was killed?

No, those were around Lea and 2nd I believe. 

[markhollin]

William Williams of The Nashville Post has done a new feature on "The Puzzle Pieces of SoBro."  I was one of the folks he interviewed about this quickly transforming parts of Nashville's core.  Here is a portion about one of the four nodes that make up SoBro:

• The “epicenter node” bordered by Broadway on the north, First Avenue on the east, Korean Veterans Boulevard on the south and Fourth Avenue on the west.

In this SoBro segment is found the single-greatest number of large-scale and prominent buildings — including Bridgestone Americas Tower, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, The Pinnacle at Symphony Place, 222 2nd and mixed-use high-rise The SoBro. Add West Cumberland Park, Ascend Amphitheater and the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge to the mix and the epicenter node is not only the most noteworthy of the four distinctly different parts of SoBro but also one of the more important urban pockets in all of Nashville.

Mark Hollingsworth, a citizen observer of Nashville’s built environment, said a key characteristic of the epicenter node is its notable density of large-scale buildings.

“It is becoming one of the densest portions of downtown,” says Hollingsworth, who serves as moderator of the Nashville chapter of international message board website urbanplanet.org.

For instance, Hollingsworth points to the Demonbreun Street and Second Avenue intersection as eventually to be the “tallest” intersection in Nashville in a few years when The Pinnacle at Symphony Place (417 feet), The SoBro apartment tower (345 feet) and 222 2nd (305 feet) are joined by the planned Congress Group tower (540 feet) at the Market Street Apartments site at 151 First Ave. S.

“Besides this node’s serving the city’s corporate sector with over 2 million square feet of office space, nearly 1,700 rooms between seven current and proposed hotels, and over 800 units in four residential developments, the Broadway strip entertainment district is being drawn southward, with over two dozen new eateries/venues coming into play. Hence, it is a heavily trafficked district for pedestrians. As nearly every vacant lot in what was once a wasteland is filled, this will create even more flow southward towards the Trolley Barns complex/Rolling Mill Hill, along with the rest of SoBro past Korean Veterans Boulevard.”

More of the particle is behind the paywall of The Nashville Post Magazine here:
 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/nashville-post-magazine/article/21029694/sobros-puzzle-pieces

[Hey_Hey]

Skyline Medical Center is adding two additional floors of patient care space above their existing facility. They will also expand the ER and will be adding a third helipad (second one that is elevated - the other is on the ground). The framing is moving along fairly nicely. This is the first phase and a second phase will occur shortly after this is complete. 

 

[markhollin]

50 Lindlsey Ave. (3 stories, 6 units) update.  Brickwork complete.

Looking NE from Lindsley Ave., 1/2 block east of Academy Place:

Looking west along Lindsley Ave., 1/2 block west of Hermitage Ave:

[markhollin]

Farmers Market.