Nashville Bits and Pieces

[smeagolsfree]

I was talking to WW about that Sunday when I saw equipment on site. This is all part of the Northwestern Mutual property in the north Gulch. I still have not found the demo permit but it is easy to miss sometimes. This could be a first step to development or they could be tearing it down for liability purposes as well. We will have to wait and see.

I have found another project that may be in the works but do not want to say exactly where becasue I do not want to spook anyone into silence until we can get some research done. It would involve what appears to be a mixed use project of some sort, involving residential and office.

[NashRugger]

I Noticed this morning on the way to work that the old Hansen Chrysler on Charlotte is being demo'd.. wonder if something's about to happen there?

David

Good ridance to that eye sore. It served its purpose as the tempo Greyhound terminal and now time to go.

[East Side Urbanite]

Demo of various buildings will be taking place the next six months, per NWMutual official.

WW

[ariesjow]

^ Very interesting. Do you know if we should expect an announcement soon?

[arkitekte]

Demo of various buildings will be taking place the next six months, per NWMutual official.

WW

You might not be able to say due to your source not wanting you to spill certain information, but can you give any more information such as the location or what not?

[chelovek]

I Noticed this morning on the way to work that the old Hansen Chrysler on Charlotte is being demo'd.. wonder if something's about to happen there?

David

The structure behind the showroom has already come down. Somebody mangled the beautiful mature prickly pear cactus in front of this property with a weedeater. sad.

Has anybody else noticed the bulldozers pushing dirt around in the parcel adjacent to the new greenway section bounded by KVB, the Trolley barns, Cumberland River and Hermitage Ave? I noticed some workers putting up an erosion control fence the other day and then all of the sudden they were grading. I'll post pictures later. Hopefully it is not going to be another parking lot.

[smeagolsfree]

Welcome to the forum chelovek.

Not sure what they are doing at the site, which is the old thermal site ,other than getting it ready for the fourth of July celbration as the Symphony will be at that location, I think this year.

Mayor Dean does want to put an amphitheater there and there is talk that the House of Blues will go there as well.

[chelovek]

smeagolsfree, hello! I'm actually talking about the other side of KVB; the area highlighted in blue on this map: http://goo.gl/maps/YSTj

Tons of activity there in the last week. Here is a photo:

And here is the beginnings of a switchback that will connect the rolling mill hill greenway section down to the Trolley Barns.

And finally, Emma's two trolley barns are nearly finished. They may begin moving in this month. Here's an interior shot:

[smeagolsfree]

Not sure what they are doing. I saw that last week and just figured a parking area, but with Metro you really never know what they are doing.

I will see what I can find out.

[Guest]

Some additional good Nashville news...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2011/07/06/the-next-big-boom-towns-in-the-u-s/

Perhaps less expected is the No. 3 ranking for Nashville, Tenn. The country music capital, with its low housing prices and pro-business environment, has experienced rapid growth in educated migrants, where it ranks an impressive fourth in terms of percentage growth. New ethnic groups, such as Latinos and Asians, have doubled in size over the past decade.

[e-dub]

this is the third time i've seen this article in the past week... but it's nearly a year old!

eric b

[Guest]

ha, I did not notice that it was dated.

[MTSUBlueraider86]

And of course Forbes in all of it's lack of wisdom shows Lower Broadway for it's photo instead of the skyline. Idiots! Every other city in the list shows the skyline. Forbes idiots!

[Nathan_in_DC]

And of course Forbes in all of it's lack of wisdom shows Lower Broadway for it's photo instead of the skyline. Idiots! Every other city in the list shows the skyline. Forbes idiots!

Except for Raleigh, which just looks desolate, and San Antoino, which you can't really make out what they're trying to take a picture of. At least ours looks bustling... That being said, we do have a much more impressive skyline than a few of the cities mentioned, and it would have been a better shot than the one they chose.

[East Side Urbanite]

You might not be able to say due to your source not wanting you to spill certain information, but can you give any more information such as the location or what not?

I really can't because I don't know. Northwestern Mutual Real Estate Services official is always pleasant when we communicate but she has to be careful as to what she says.

WW

[timmay143]

Cool article in the TN. It's about a book that Nashville Civic Design Center and the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Organization, with contributions from the Regional Transit Authority and the Tennessee Department of Transportation came up with for future panning ideas for Nashville. We may have known or seen some of it, but I really like the land bridge idea!! Dunno if it would ever happen but cool concept.

http://www.tennessea...EWS01/306250010

[Neigeville]

Thanks for this info, timmay143. I've thought a lot about this land bridge idea, I'm glad to know someone else has! I've heard that several interstates in Seattle have been "capped" here and there to create parks, but I've been thinking for a while that the bridges where Division and Demonbreun cross 40 could be greatly widened, lined with buildings, perhaps low ones like the line of restaurants on Demonbreun, with space for a park, wide sidewalks, etc.

(This is where I thought they should have built the convention center, over 40 between Demonbreun and West End, but now that it's built I like it where it is now.)

Since this whole stretch of interstate is already canyonized, it could be extended to West End or farther, with a greenway, bike lanes, etc down the middle. It would turn a scary noisy place into one that invites pedestrians and unifies The Gulch and Music Row. West End/I-40 is probably a lost cause but even there it would make the road seem more navigable for humans. Plus it would traffic-calm the exiting cars, which would be coming out of a tunnel between buildings and naturally tend to go slower.

I don't know what it would cost, but I'm sure it's a lot less than some of the 4 lane limited access boondoggles TDOT is fond of building in rural counties that will never have the traffic to justify them.

[MidTenn1]

I don't know what it would cost, but I'm sure it's a lot less than some of the 4 lane limited access boondoggles TDOT is fond of building in rural counties that will never have the traffic to justify them.

For what its worth, most of the rural four-lanes in Tennessee are Federally priortized projects that provide connectivity to other major, federal routes in neighboring states.

The US 64 project across the southern part of the state, through Fayetteville, Pulaski, etc., was a Governor Don Sundquist pet project.

And most of the others were from a Lamar Alexander effort to give relocating industries more land options. I know this because I was in the room when it was decided. He asked for, and received, one of the largest tax increases in state history to get it done.

[timmay143]

Interesting story about AB trademarking area codes and airport codes, including Nashville's 615 and BNA.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2012/06/25/anheuser-busch-to-trademark-nashville.html

[Nathan_in_DC]

Interesting story about AB trademarking area codes and airport codes, including Nashville's 615 and BNA.

http://www.bizjourna...-nashville.html

Why do I feel like this will fail miserably? If the patent office lets this slip through and sticks a trademark on it, I see it ending up in a lawsuit with a number of airport authorities.

[Hey_Hey]

In regard to the "land bridge" over the interstate between the Gulch and Music Row, it would totally revolutionize that area.

I have it pictured like a Gramercy Park in New York City (minus the exclusivity) or Gratz Park in Lexington (which I currently live very near). Both are small parks in urban settings that have become synonymous with the houses and apartments that line the park. The parks are made attractive by the residences that surround then, and the houses and apartments are made more valuable because they are intimately associated with the park. I'm sure there are dozens of other examples out there, but these are the two I could think of.

Building a nice 5-10 acre park and incorporating surrounding residential could provide a very nice setting and increase property tax returns significantly......maybe it could be partially funded with TIF. For example, around it you might be able to fit 40 upscale residences, there could be a handful of midsized apartment or condo buildings, and there could be an office building or two. Since this would be built by government entities design aesthetics could be closely monitored so that the entire area would have a cohesive design element.

I don't know how much it would cost to create a park like this and then acquire and convert the surrounding property to allow for new buildings, but a big chunk of it could conceivably be paid for with the increased tax revenues that would be collected. Just to throw some numbers out there......let's say that it created the development of $300 million of real estate development, then that would yield around $3 million a year in tax revenue. St Louis is currently proposing something similar near the Arch. They have estimates of $57 million for an area that would be somewhat smaller in area.

[FrankNash]

I love the land bridge idea. That is what is missing in the gulch area, a park for a walk with a dog or a meeting place for folks in midtown. East Nashville has shelby park, sobro has riverfront park, west end has centennial park, and Germantown has bicentennial park. The push should start for this green space by the development team of the gulch.

[Guest]

I love the idea in principle but I notice that no $$$$ has been discussed nor who pays... the Gulch developers, metro, state, feds.... maybe a special taxing district for those living in the gulch and midtown..ha

[BnaBreaker]

http://featuresblogs...y-offers-m.html

The above is a nice article that I bookmarked from the Chicago Tribune that was written last year about various highway cap projects across the country. Chicago is studying a highway cap of the portion of I-94 that passes right by The Loop. Check out the Columbus, OH freeway cap that the article references. It's a simple but fantastic concept, that continues the street wall with buildings on either side (one story buildings, mind you, because of the weight issue) rather than a park. Anyway, I think these projects in general are absolutely phenomenal and vital for rebuilding certain neighborhoods that have had their connectivity and continuity completely destroyed by freeway construction over the years.

This type of project would be huge for The Gulch. I'm just being unfairly cynical when I say this, but I still am used to Nashville not having leaders who have the foresight to actually do something ground-breaking and progressive like this. But, who knows. I honestly have no idea what the price tag on this Gulch proposal would be, and I'm sure the city would find some way to bungle it and make construction costs double or triple beyond the projection, but it really doesn't seem to me like this should cost an exorbitant amount of money by any means. Someone above compared the project to Boston's "Big Dig", but it's nothing like that because the expressway is already below grade, which means there is no digging to speak of going on, beyond digging holes to plant the park tress in. In Boston they were putting an elevated highway that was right smack dab in the middle of a very urban neighborhood, into an underground tunnel. All this Gulch concept would take is really just building a park on top of some reinforced base that covers the freeway. Surely that can't be that costly, can it? The highway cap project in Columbus, which is significantly smaller in area than this project would be but still close enough that it should give us a general idea, only cost $10 million to complete. For a project that would have such a dramatic impact, that is surely doable.

For reference, here is an aerial of the Columbus highway cap project, now complete:

Here is the project at street level. To go from a basic highway overpass with a chain link fence on either side to this is pretty incredible, I think.

Edited June 27, 2012 by BnaBreaker

[Nathan_in_DC]

There has been talk of doing this in Philadelphia for a while now with I-676 that cuts right through Center City. There are already partial covers in some places, but it would be much more appealing to have large stretches covered over with parkland and businesses.

This really wouldn't be that complicated of a project. Certainly less complicated than replacing a bridge. This would just involve adding a structurally sound ceiling that can handle a couple feet of soil over the top. It wouldn't have to be incredibly reinforced due to a lack of buildings or infrastructure passing over it. This would be a great place to see a large public garden or plaza though, and would really help pedestrianize this part of the city.