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

[Bos2Nash]

New signage went up for the new Downtown Sporting Club. This will have a small amount of hotel rooms, bar/restaurant and axe throwing in it. 

[titanhog]

^^So...is that blue aluminum-looking siding the old or new siding?

[CityHeart]

12 minutes ago, titanhog said:

^^So...is that blue aluminum-looking siding the old or new siding?

Old. 

 

[titanhog]

Just now, CityHeart said:

Old. 

 

So...that's coming down, right?  (I hope)

[CityHeart]

5 minutes ago, titanhog said:

So...that's coming down, right?  (I hope)

I would Imagine they will do something with it. I posted this a couple of weeks ago but you can keep up with the project on their site

https://www.broadvarieties.com/the-broadway-project 

[e-dub]

Will there still be a Crema outpost here?

[FrankNash]

^^^Yes

[titanhog]

Looking around at all of these construction cameras....I was wondering about the strip of land between Church and MLK just west of the RR tracks.  I realize that right along 11th, there are apartments...but there's a rather large swath of land along the tracks (even though they obviously put up a berm to shield the apartments from the tracks...and the tracks are maybe up an incline from the parking lot behind the apartments?

Just wondering if this is developable land?  You could conceivably build right up to the back of the apartments if they just added parking into the new development for the apartment tenants.

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by titanhog

[thenorthchannel]

That is the Gulch Greenway.  A greenway that is slated to expand this spring. 

 

Gulch Greenway – North Gulch
An extension of the Gulch Greenway in the heart of downtown will connect the existing greenway with a new park at Capitol View. We’re grateful to Boyle Nashville, LLC for partnering with Metro to make this connection happen.

 

https://greenwaysfornashville.org/master-plan/

[CenterHill]

14 minutes ago, thenorthchannel said:

That is the Gulch Greenway.  A greenway that is slated to expand this spring. 

 

Gulch Greenway – North Gulch
An extension of the Gulch Greenway in the heart of downtown will connect the existing greenway with a new park at Capitol View. We’re grateful to Boyle Nashville, LLC for partnering with Metro to make this connection happen.

 

https://greenwaysfornashville.org/master-plan/

Right.   It’s a nice strip of greenway that formerly connected with the Gulch greenway where the Assurion HQ is under construction.    I’m assuming/hoping the Assurion plan will relocate the greenway closer to the tracks and reconnect it with the Gulch, but I don’t think I’ve seen that in any renderings.        

[Baronakim]

Unless my recollection is incorrect, the area between the Greenway and the apartment strip on 11th, was supposed to be a phase 2 for the apartments.  Whether or not the Grainger building is part of that, I am not sure.  10 years or so ago, that whole slope was a network of homeless tents.   I assume that the existing part of the Greenway where the dog yard is now will be redone to reconnect with the relocation of the Greenway caused by the Highwoods construction on the other side of the viaduct.  I assume that the new path will be on the other side of the berms shielding the railyard because of a substantial elevation difference currently handled by a ramp .  It was not too long ago that the path of the Greenway  at the foot of the (now demolished) limestone wall was a tangle of small trees, poison ivy and discarded stolen property.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Baronakim
Grainger, not Grange

[Baronakim]

20 minutes ago, CenterHill said:

Right.   It’s a nice strip of greenway that formerly connected with the Gulch greenway where the Assurion HQ is under construction.    I’m assuming/hoping the Assurion plan will relocate the greenway closer to the tracks and reconnect it with the Gulch, but I don’t think I’ve seen that in any renderings.        

I have seen the relocation in renderings and it is to be relocated along that new property line.  That is why I think the area behind the berm at the Greenway dog park may be a reconnect possibility, but I have seen no indication of  the property ownership  currently.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Baronakim
misspellings

[Baronakim]

I wonder.   Will the large berms be removed when the Greenway is relocated?  They do take up a deal of valuable  real estate and only have served to shield the apartments from the unpleasant view and noise of the rail yard.  None of the other developments on the Gulch have berms to mitigate sound, so i believe the primary purpose was view shielding.  That is soon to change with Nashville Yards now becoming a completely desirable view.   The railroad area will be cleaned up substantially.   I wonder if it would be possible to get CSX to allow something like artificial turf or an industrial equivalent between the remaining tracks rather than the bare gravel and earth there now.  That would be a significant change of view for all the properties adjacent considering the huge investments to develop them.  I think doing that would also be a great improvement at the new pedestrian bridge too.

[titanhog]

But now that the area is so much more valuable than it was when the apartments were built...would it not make sense to maybe look at using that parking area, Grainger and berm area to build something substantial...even it was by the developer of the apartments?  That's a lot of land between the tracks and the backside of the apartments.  Enough for at least a couple high rises.

Edited April 7, 2019 by titanhog

[Baronakim]

Speaking of valuable property,  what about the wedge of property next to the rail yard at the south end of the Gulch behind Pine Street Flats?  I am surprised that someone has not proposed something there similar to the Bento Box over on 4th or even a tall project along the lines of Stanza.  The elevated limestone wall above the restaurants and bars would be an outstanding location.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Baronakim
Capitalize key accidentlay on

[smeagolsfree]

I think this was sort of eluded to at the meet Saturday as CSX has agreed to sell  several of the tracks and land to a developer for a project. My guess is that it would be Marketstreet but not sure.

CSX is going to move that part of the operation to Radnor Yards.

Also, the Pedestrian Bridge will be shorter because of this and that seems to be moving forward as well.

[Baronakim]

So pretty much, the switching function of the rail yards is going to be reduced to 2 main tracks straight though?  Very canny of CSX to cash in on the immensity of value of their property if that is the case.  Implicitly, this would seem to also open up possibilities for the other CSX slices to be utilized for major development .  I specifically refer to the arc of vacant land by the tracks directly in front of the central area of the Nashville Yards boundry.  That would be such an improvement with the widening of the park strip.  Also the land across the tracks hopefully will be better utilized as we have been discussing per se  regarding the Greenway relocation.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Baronakim
terrible typist

[smeagolsfree]

That is sort of my understanding, however it may be three tracks, as I am unsure of the number it will be reduced to. The area behind Velocity is wider than the rest of the Gulch due to the switch yard there.

[Baronakim]

I suppose the tiny switchyard office by the Demonbreum Viaduct might possibly go away too?  That would be welcome news for the proposed hotel there.

[archilove]

I like looking at trains. Is the stone retaining wall going to be put back?

[Baronakim]

Not very likely as the Greenway relocation would be at the grade level that was at the top of the stone wall.  

[volsfanwill]

im glad they refurbished the sign.  

[Baronakim]

Bear with me guys, I'm in architectural daydream mode and can be rather outrageous sometimes.  I wasn't sure if the CBD thread was the right place to bring this up as my idea is half on the east bank.  This was a concept I had many years ago, but I think it is maybe possible now with the vitality of our city.    The Metro government, as we grow rapidly, will need more and more space.   I think a broad stepped civic plaza filling the space over the river between the 2 existing bridges with a new midrise civic center built above bridge levels on the east bank would be awesome.  It would even be possible to connect an occupied level below the plaza to the current courthouse plaza.   IMO it would unify the two banks in a way a bridge could not.  Consider the huge improvement for pedestrians crossing the river and the amount of parking that could replace the surface lots.  I think such a plaza across the Cumberland would be architecturally  bold enough to distinguish our city among the older metropolitan regions of the east coast.    Hope I haven't spread this too deep.

[nashvylle]

I was at Hudson Yards today in nyc and noticed a very subtle stone step up for people to sit on, and got me wondering... instead of the $125MM flood protection wall, couldn’t we implement these stone steps to divert the rising waters to higher grounds? I imagine this shot could be don’t at the top of riverfront park and along Ascend Amphitheater.

56 minutes ago, Baronakim said:

Bear with me guys, I'm in architectural daydream mode and can be rather outrageous sometimes.  I wasn't sure if the CBD thread was the right place to bring this up as my idea is half on the east bank.  This was a concept I had many years ago, but I think it is maybe possible now with the vitality of our city.    The Metro government, as we grow rapidly, will need more and more space.   I think a broad stepped civic plaza filling the space over the river between the 2 existing bridges with a new midrise civic center built above bridge levels on the east bank would be awesome.  It would even be possible to connect an occupied level below the plaza to the current courthouse plaza.   IMO it would unify the two banks in a way a bridge could not.  Consider the huge improvement for pedestrians crossing the river and the amount of parking that could replace the surface lots.  I think such a plaza across the Cumberland would be architecturally  bold enough to distinguish our city among the older metropolitan regions of the east coast.    Hope I haven't spread this too deep.

Anything that is done on the surface lots by Nissan stadium, I pray it’s done in coordination with the private sector for renovations to Nissan, as opposed to issuing city bonds. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by nashvylle

[titanhog]

For those of you excited about Axe Throwing at a local "sporting club" in LoBro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzHZAWC48CM