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

[samsonh]

16 minutes ago, markhollin said:

An analysis done for the city, obtained through a public records request, describes an existing CSX rail line as a "choke point within the East Bank" as well as a "barrier to both transportation and investment and the built environment and disruptor to continuity."

If the tracks remain, according to the report, they would force three key proposed roads — including an expansive "spine" boulevard with dedicated bus lanes — to descend below flood elevation, exposing them to likely flooding during heavy rainfall.

Consultants at Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., who prepared the advisory report for Metro, recommended solutions that could cost between roughly $400 million and $500 million. That investment in rail construction and upgrades could enable CSX to shut down the line going through the East Bank and route those trains elsewhere.

The report, written in 2023, predicts that "freight rail presence in the East Bank will eventually become obsolete" as more redevelopment occurs.

The report focuses on CSX's "Nashville Terminal main" line, which bisects the East Bank and averages 19 trains per day, as well as another route called "Radnor Cutoff." CSX's major local hub is named Radnor Yard.

The Radnor route travels on a single track over an elevated trestle in East Nashville at the east edge of Shelby Park, and then a bridge over the Cumberland River. The report proposes adding an additional track, either by building an adjacent single-track bridge or tearing down the current bridge and replacing it with a double-track bridge.

That, plus other upgrades along the route, could allow it to handle the current train traffic on the "main" line and potentially extra capacity.

Leaving the "main" line in operation would cost an estimated $60 million in additional East Bank construction because three north-south roads that Metro wants to create would have to run beneath the tracks at clearances required by CSX. To do that, the roads would need to dip below "base flood elevation."

Metro would build retaining walls and pump stations to protect the roads. "However, such infrastructure is not foolproof," the report reads, "and it is likely [the roads] would become submerged during periods of heavy rainfall."

Removing the CSX rail would eliminate that $60 million expense and improve the resiliency of whatever is built.

Removing the rail also creates the potential for a "rails to trails" style extension of the city's Greenway network. It would improve traffic flow at the five crossings where drivers sometimes wait for trains to go by, and eliminate the noise those trains generate in that area.

However, rerouting those trains to the Radnor Cutoff line would increase delays and noise at the eight places where roads cross that existing track, the report notes.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/02/06/east-bank-csx-freight-rail-development-trains.html

Were these costs included in the Titan's proposal?? lol this is going to be an expensive boondoggle. 

[Luvemtall]

7 minutes ago, samsonh said:

Were these costs included in the Titan's proposal?? lol this is going to be an expensive boondoggle. 

Although I get your point, I feel this situation would not really have been a component of building the new stadium in and of itself. Building the stadium is a separate issue, not really related to the overall plan that unfolded to redevelop the entire East Bank area. It’s very possible that the stadium be built and the remainder of the area stays as is. The desires of Metro and others to build a new neighborhood district, isn’t a Titans problem. And restating the fact that this stadium deal was mostly driven by Metro and the State for purposes other than Football. 

[smeagolsfree]

Nope, because this was an unknown at the time, just like the cost of the new bridge across the Cumberland River. That has not been figured into any cost because it is not a sure thing and I do not think the cost of the James Roberston rebuild has been figured in either.

You can't figure in the cost of something without knowing how larger something is, the engineering, when it will be built, etc. You might get in the ballpark, but that is about it. That ballpark could be quite large.

I posted on another forum that the entire East Bank project is going to outlast 3 or 4 mayors, who knows maybe more than that.

[samsonh]

36 minutes ago, Luvemtall said:

Although I get your point, I feel this situation would not really have been a component of building the new stadium in and of itself. Building the stadium is a separate issue, not really related to the overall plan that unfolded to redevelop the entire East Bank area. It’s very possible that the stadium be built and the remainder of the area stays as is. The desires of Metro and others to build a new neighborhood district, isn’t a Titans problem. And restating the fact that this stadium deal was mostly driven by Metro and the State for purposes other than Football. 

I get your point but one of the main selling points of the stadium was unlocking the value of the land surrounding the stadium to help pay for the stadium. If all these costs were properly studied beforehand the analysis would have looked even worse than it did. 

[Luvemtall]

True, this whole East Bank redevelopment is a lot broader than what’s seen on the surface. Pandora’s box is open and it’s going to be very interesting to this all unfold. Optimism is probably all we can hope for at this point, it would be great if they can at least get to a point that private companies could get to starting with their projects ie Station East , Hotels, GBT etc.

[Sean blackdog]

My brother who work on CSX Transportation and he boss, said nope….. dumba$$. Should have thought ahead. 

[smeagolsfree]

I think the E Bank is going to evolve and expand. When I say expand, I mean into the Driftwood area and whatever is going to go on the scrapyard as well. That is another unknown. Metro will do this in stages over many years outlasting many of us on this board and as I said outlasting many administrations. There will be surprises along the way and disappointments. No one mayor is going to have his or her say on what will happen over the entirely of the EB. Cooper has left his mark and Freddie will leave his mark, while whatever mayor after Freddie will leave theirs as there will still be tons of work to do.

This is another downtown in a manner of speaking that we are building from scratch, and it is going to take decades. Pandora's Box may even be an understatement. Nashville is doing what few cities have the opportunity to do, so it needs to be done right!

[Luvemtall]

We all know this has a potential to become something big, the total land area is probably larger then most midsized cities whole downtowns. With the right people and resources it can easily become the equivalent to what we see in the CBD now , 20-30 years from today. The task of figuring this out and making a master plan is not going to be easy , considering they are basically laying out a whole new city within a city. If there’s going to be a thorn in the neck, it’s going to likely be with CSX with their absurd authority.

[Bos2Nash]

CSX was always going to be the biggest, uncontrollable hurdle for the East Bank. It has been talked about on the board, at meetups and in other groups ever since the early public workshops. CSX would need a stupid amount of money paid entirely by other parties to abandon this leg of the line. I believe there can be some creative solutions that would allow the north south streets to succeed. We look at road infrastructure projects all over the nation and world and every single one of them have some crazy challenges that get over come. This is no different and will require alot of creativity to solve. My expectation is set pretty high in that we find a way to achieve going under the tracks and securing against flooding.  Unfortunately, those solutions were never going to be part of the Titans discussion because this study wasn't complete prior to the stadium. 

47 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

I think the E Bank is going to evolve and expand. When I say expand, I mean into the Driftwood area and whatever is going to go on the scrapyard as well. That is another unknown. Metro will do this in stages over many years outlasting many of us on this board and as I said outlasting many administrations. There will be surprises along the way and disappointments. No one mayor is going to have his or her say on what will happen over the entirely of the EB. Cooper has left his mark and Freddie will leave his mark, while whatever mayor after Freddie will leave theirs as there will still be tons of work to do.

This is another downtown in a manner of speaking that we are building from scratch, and it is going to take decades. Pandora's Box may even be an understatement. Nashville is doing what few cities have the opportunity to do, so it needs to be done right!

To put things into perspective with how long other cities approach these things. East Boston has released their "PLAN: East Boston" plan after FIVE YEARS of community meetings and working through their entire process. I haven't gone through all 189 pages of the Plan yet, but I am interested in what it will capture. The Imagine East Bank Vision Plan is 82 pages and is fairly robust in terms of planning out what the East Bank should be, but there is a long way to go before we even start to see proposals beyond what we have already seen. 

[bnacincy]

Looking at a map, the southbound CSX line in East Nashville diverges and the southeast line goes over the Cumberland at Shelby Park. The southwest line going over the Cumberland presumably is just for trains headed southwest towards Memphis but that traffic could be rerouted and sent on the southeast line.  Then, around Trevecca U. they could build a little connector line so the southwest bound trains could head back in that direction via downtown past Union Station.

Some property would have to bought and a connector built but it seems doable.

[Bos2Nash]

11 minutes ago, bnacincy said:

Looking at a map, the southbound CSX line in East Nashville diverges and the southeast line goes over the Cumberland at Shelby Park. The southwest line going over the Cumberland presumably is just for trains headed southwest towards Memphis but that traffic could be rerouted and sent on the southeast line.  Then, around Trevecca U. they could build a little connector line so the southwest bound trains could head back in that direction via downtown past Union Station.

Some property would have to bought and a connector built but it seems doable.

I think the routing itself isn't crazy, but specifically widening the trestle across the Cumberland would be VERY costly. Not to mention the added train traffic that we would be putting right through those residential neighborhoods. Presumably the added trains (I believe 19 per day) is too much traffic for the single track trestle. The southeast spur also has 6 grade crossings along the run, the southwest spur only has 3 grade crossings. Included in those 3 crossings is Douglas Ave and the amount of times that trains just stop and completely block that crossing is ridiculous. There is a whole FB group dedicated to "The train is blocking Douglas" haha. 

Between the red lines would need to be re-built as a two track rail bridge. It appears to be approximately 3,500 linear feet of track and above grade structuring.

To me the more cost effective solution is to get creative with the three north south connectors on the EB and limit the interaction with CSX to what is required for those crossings. Presumably the cost of the of three rail underpasses wouldn't cost as much as 3,500 feet of elevated track.

This is even IF CSX is willing to relocate. They would probably have demands of upgrades up and down the routing. We talk about costs of the infrastructure, what motivation does CSX have to pay for any of these reported upgrades? Metro would absolutely be the hook for it. Haven't they been looking to unload Radnor Yard?

[MLBrumby]

I'm just tossing out a "feel" i have from a few years back. I have no idea what the details would be for CSX to reroute their operations around the core of Nashville, but we (posted here about 3 years ago) know the company looked at the feasibility of moving their operations (Radnor Yards) to somewhere south of Davidson County (Williamson/Rutherford/Maury). So is it too late to engage CSX?  Common knowledge has long been to the point that a whole semester project at UTK Architecture school three years ago studied relocating the tracks that run through the core of Nashville. It's a huge operation and one that's enormously beneficial to the region. So I must ask if anyone from the city/state and other municipalities engaged with CSX on this? And were there incentives offered (typical of those offered to corporations who are being recruited to the region)? And was this "obstacle" (IIRC the NP called it) even foreseen by the studies done and the leaders who ushered the latest East Bank redevelopment plans? And then (of course) it must be asked, what if the tracks stay where they are (would that be a disaster)?  Maybe not related (and maybe so)... Hell! Ross Perot Jr. just announced an enormous warehousing/logistics project in Wilson County. Would that have been an option to join that with rail? And TDOT keeps touting some "multi-modal" freight rail alternative to the Interstates through the state. Where's the vision? Maybe they were looked at and dismissed, but I never heard of anything like that? 

Folks, I've never gone wrong by going back to the most basic of questions and accountability.  

Edited February 7 by MLBrumby

[PruneTracy]

I looked at doing this several years ago for a planning project.

The problem with shifting Nashville Terminal Subdivision traffic to the Radnor Cutoff is the interchange lines north of Radnor Yard. Southbound Nashville Terminal traffic can only enter Radnor Yard from the cutoff; any other movement requires reversing on the "J" line to the Bruceton and Chattanooga Subdivisions. This is a very busy area to reverse trains on. Northbound terminal traffic is also forced through the yard instead of using the "B" bypass line that follows I-65. I don't blame CSXT for not wanting to do this, it would mess up their traffic badly.

The other option would be building new interchange lines to the "J" line to allow all movements. Even though this area is mostly light industrial, it's hard to see this going through. The biggest issue on my end is that it takes out Tex's BBQ, this is a non-starter for me.

[MLBrumby]

Interesting!! Thanks for the explanation and graphic. 

[markhollin]

Infrastructure work underway north of existing Nissan Stadium.

Looking NE from intersection of Russell St. and South 1st St:

Looking west from intersection of Russell St. and South 1st St:

Looking NE from intersection of Russell St. and Titans Way:

[markhollin]

New rendering:

[nashville born]

if reality comes even close to that render, so sweet!   Let me do some situps so I can last the 25-30 years it'll take!

[markhollin]

Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced Friday that his administration has finished negotiations with Boston-based The Fallon Co. The talks have culminated in an agreement that sets the framework for the company’s 30-acre development plans.

Details weren't immediately available on Friday; the administration planned to file legislation with Metro Council later in the day.

O’Connell also announced a formal memorandum of understanding with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center — striking a deal to relocate the venue into a glitzy new building on the East Bank, adjacent to Fallon’s development and bordering the pedestrian bridge that spans the Cumberland River.

Both breakthroughs happened within four months of when O’Connell’s administration began tackling them in earnest. That pace signals the new mayor is eager to get moving on what will be a many-years-long timeline of planning and building.

Fallon Co. will pay to lease the land from Metro. The length of that lease triggers a law which places the land on the tax rolls, assessing property taxes that Fallon will owe. The land generates no property tax revenue today.

The first two buildings Fallon plans to develop are a hotel immediately south of the new stadium and a building of 300 affordable housing units.

The legislation with Fallon requires a series of three votes at Metro Council, which typically is a six-week process. Council is set to have its first reading of the bill at its March 7 meeting.

The state has allotted TPAC $200 million so far to fund its relocation from a state-owned downtown office building, with a pledge to commit another $300 million in the state's 2024-25 budget, not yet finalized. TPAC has to raise 20% matching funds to access the state aid.

On Jan. 22, Metro and TPAC reached a tentative agreement for a site at the base of the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, on what is today a parking lot between the bridge and the existing stadium. Metro would provide the site for free, though TPAC has agreed to fund some share of new roads and an extension of the pedestrian bridge deeper into the East Bank.

TPAC also isn't occupying all of that particular parcel, leaving room for Fallon to build another building and allowing Metro to make some money off of that property.

The legislation between Metro and TPAC is a resolution, which requires just one affirmative vote to adopt.

More at NBJ. here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/02/23/fallon-metro-east-bank-stadium-development.html


And behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/east-bank-legislation-heads-to-metro-council/article_37117f8a-d286-11ee-9b82-6b5b722a8370.html


And at TheTennessean here:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/davidson/2024/02/23/nashville-council-to-consider-deal-to-develop-30-acres-on-east-bank/72705737007/

[markhollin]

The legislation that cements Metro's development agreement with its chosen East Bank developer clocks in at 438 pages, nearly the size of a full 20-pound ream of printer paper. It will take days to unpack the details of the finalized agreement between Fallon and Mayor Freddie O'Connell's administration, which also includes three-party agreements with the Tennessee Titans ownership. Much of that action will happen at two key public meetings: A Feb. 29 community meeting at Fifthteenth Avenue Baptist Church, and Metro Council's East Bank committee meeting on March 4. A public hearing at Metro Council is set for March 19.

The Business Journal took a first-pass through the legislation (available here) and a related non-binding agreement with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, which has to find a new home and wants to build a venue on the East Bank. The TPAC legislation sets the stage for the organization and Metro to finalize "definitive agreements" that would require Metro Council approval.

Here's some of what stood out:

- Metro plans to rezone the heart of the East Bank and apply the downtown code to that land. If that doesn't happen by Dec. 31, Fallon is able to cancel the deal.

- That rezoning must include Metro Planning Department approval of a "public space framework plan that provides details regarding the scale, proportionality, character and design intent of the pubic realm aspects of the project."

- TPAC is on the clock too: Metro can terminate its "definitive agreements" on Sept. 30, 2025, if all these milestones haven't happened: the state approves its planned $500 million grant toward the project; TPAC submits a preliminary budget to Metro and receives approval of concept designs; TPAC corrals at least $100 million of donor funds, plus a commitment of additional construction financing.

- A preliminary development schedule plots Fallon's first two buildings: a hotel close to the new stadium, and a building of 300 affordable housing units. Construction on both would begin in summer 2026, according to the tentative timeline, following needed zoning changes, Metro approval of plans and building permits and construction financing.

- The affordable housing building will include a space reserved for a child care facility. Additionally, Fallon "shall diligently investigate and explore opportunities" to include grocery stores, cultural facilities, and "local retail, restaurant and other businesses oriented toward neighborhood appeal."

- Fallon can build a maximum of three hotels (with a couple of caveats that would not kick in for potentially a decade).

- Fallon will build no fewer than five residential buildings, totaling a minimum of 1,550 units. At least 45% of those units will be reserved for incomes at 80% or less of the area median income.

- The deal says Fallon and its Nashville-based development partners, Holladay Ventures and Pillars Development, "are committed to a robust diversity and inclusion program that sets a new market standard." The trio set two targets for small, minority and/or women-owned businesses: 25% of design consultants and 30% of construction contracts. The deal includes four pages of Fallon's diversity plans, including that it "shall participate with training, apprenticeship and placement programs" and will "make a good-faith commitment" to pay all construction workers an hourly wage at least equal to the living wage in Nashville.

Fallon will be leasing Metro's parcels of land for 99 years, and agreed to keep all affordable housing units in those price ranges for that entire time.

The rent Fallon will pay Metro is not yet known, though it's likely the two parties have roughed out a ballpark estimate. A baseline will be established likely later this year, when a mutually-agreed-upon appraiser calculates the "fair market value" of at least seven kinds of potential development (the dollar amount would be set per hotel room, or per square foot of commercial space).

A bonus for Metro: If Fallon sells or refinances a finished building, Metro receives 0.75% to 1% of the proceeds from those events.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2024/02/26/east-bank-metro-development-deal-fallon.html


All the legislation related to theEast Bank and Stadium:

https://www.nashville.gov/departments/council/resources/east-bank-committees/legislation

Some new renderings:

[smeagolsfree]

Just remember renderings are all subject to change. Nothing in that category is set in stone except the stadium.

[nashville born]

I just want them to build those two hotels south of the stadium...and hopefully both at at least 30 stories each.

[markhollin]

8 minutes ago, nashville born said:

I just want them to build those two hotels south of the stadium...and hopefully both at at least 30 stories each.

In these latest renderings, one appears to be 41 stories, and the other 29 stories.  Original notes from last fall stated 40 and 16.

[nashville born]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

In these latest renderings, one appears to be 41 stories, and the other 29 stories.  Original notes from last fall stated 40 and 16.

Sweet!  Thanks, Mark.

[markhollin]

More updated renderings:
 

[Bos2Nash]

One pre-cursor I will say with these renderings is they have the Perkins-Eastman watermark on them, they are the design/planning team who developed the Imagine East Bank Vision Plan. Idk if they are still involved with items such as the East bank Boulevard (Kimley Horn is doing that engineering) or parcels outside of the 30-acre IDA.