BROADWEST (former West End Summit), 36 story Conrad Hilton Hotel/condo tower, 22 story/510,000 sq. ft. office tower, 4 story/125,000 sq. ft. retail/office, 1 acre plaza, 2,500 car garage, $490 million

[MidTenn1]

3 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

What is neat is it shows Nashville Yards plus the Endeavor project. Maybe some of these folks know something we don't with all the new office buildings.

Just saying and I don't think it would happen, but Amazon needs about 5 million sq. ft. This building is 500 K, Nashville Yards is about 2 million, and they could easily put another 2 million on the TN site and it looks as if Highwoods is going to start to tear the TN building down sooner rather than later.

I worked up this card a few weeks ago...

This would be a good start. It was reported much earlier that the Trolley campus (my name) would have a trolley line to connect the various buildings along the shown route roughly.

EDIT; This is based of the previously mentioned reports that this option was presented by the Chamber of Commerce to initially include 5th and Broad, Nashville Yards and the Tennessean site. I personally have extrapolated the data to include Broadwest and Gulch Union. I don't have any inside information on any current proposal. Just amazing extrapolation powers!!!

[henburg]

14 minutes ago, PruneTracy said:

We went from "Anything to fill up that hole" to "This half-billion-dollar development isn't exactly what I wanted to see" in a hurry.

I was just thinking about the long, disappointing history of this site. I remember how frustrating it was watching Palmer blow it time and time again, and how uniquely devestating it was even when Parrallon/Sarah Cannon were committed as tenants. I remember thinking that if signed tenants aren't enough to get this project going, than surely nothing ever will be. 

Now, these new developers come in and design a project that is basically West End Summit 2.0 and are going to finance it themselves. Not to jinx it, but I guess that it goes to show that sometimes failure can lead to a better outcome in the end. 

Edited August 20, 2018 by henburg

[FromParkAveToTN]

They are copying off of West End Summit with the two towers. I really wish they would be original and do something different,  like a one story warehouse style office complex where tenants can drive up to their front door. 

[Buildtall]

3 hours ago, Nathan_in_the_UK said:

Hopefully this gets out of the ground quickly. I wonder how much remedial site work needs to be done to get it going. There's probably some erosion, stability, and sediment concerns if I had to guess, considering that the lake has basically been left to nature for so long now.

Here's to hoping this spurs on a continuous developed strip all the way to the CBD!

I noticed a couple weeks ago that there was only about 5 feet or less of water left in lake Palmer. 

[MLBrumby]

1 hour ago, PHofKS said:

I worked up this card a few weeks ago...

This would be a good start. It was reported much earlier that the Trolley campus (my name) would have a trolley line to connect the various buildings along the shown route roughly.

EDIT; This is based of the previously mentioned reports that this option was presented by the Chamber of Commerce to initially include 5th and Broad, Nashville Yards and the Tennessean site. I personally have extrapolated the data to include Broadwest and Gulch Union. I don't have any inside information on any current proposal. Just amazing extrapolation powers!!!

Excellent! I was the first one on these boards to mention a line down Hayes Street with a rail/walk bridge over I-40 back when we were exploring (early) possible routes for LRT (before it became AMP). Had the added advantage of not interfering with West End/Broadway auto trafic but serving the same nodes. Still think it's a fantastic route, with potential to go up Commerce all the way to Second. 

[Binbin98]

I like this diagram however i still feel river north would be a great fit for amazon, and could provide a form of transit to downtown nashville and germantown residential areas by water taxi (and maybe a bridge over the river). They could have their entire campus near the city center alltogether, and that would be a prime site for them assuming they came to nashville (which isnt likely).

[Rockatansky]

Is it too early to say RIP Lake Palmer (2005-2018)?

[Nathan_in_DC]

1 hour ago, Rockatansky said:

Is it too early to say RIP Lake Palmer (2005-2018)?

If this doesn't happen now, I'm totally blaming you! 

[markhollin]

18 hours ago, CenterHill said:

Great to finally have a project going on that site.    Not to rain on the parade, but I’m a little disappointed with what I’m seeing in the renderings in terms of how it addresses both 16th and 17th Avenues.    17th gets a parking pedestal blank wall and 16th gets what looks like a block long concrete wall.   And these are 3-4 story walls.    Yikes.     Surely the architects can do better than that.    

There two challenges with street activation along 16th and 17th Avenues:

1) It is at least a 15' grade slope from West End to down to Hayes Street.

2) There isn't currently any foot traffic on those streets due to basically vacant lots covering about 5 square blocks on each side, and north of Hayes.

However, it does appear that the 3-4 story, 125,000 sq. ft. building that will connect the two towers along Hayes St. WILL have street activation, as retail is a major part of the descriptor on that structure. Once those slots fill-in, and other development starts to happen along 16th and 17th, hopefully there will be the ability to create some activation along those slopes.  In the meantime, I would hope they would AT LEAST put stairways up to the plaza from each of those avenues. 

[CenterHill]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

There two challenges with street activation along 16th and 17th Avenues:

1) It is at least a 15' grade slope from West End to down to Hayes Street.

2) There isn't currently any foot traffic on those streets due to basically vacant lots covering about 5 square blocks on each side, and north of Hayes.

However, it does appear that the 3-4 story, 125,000 sq. ft. building that will connect the two towers along Hayes St. WILL have street activation, as retail is a major part of the descriptor on that structure. Once those slots fill-in, and other development starts to happen along 16th and 17th, hopefully there will be the ability to create some activation along those slopes.  In the meantime, I would hope they would AT LEAST put stairways up to the plaza from each of those avenues. 

Nashville is full of buildings built on sloping sites.     Sidewalk level activation can be built on a grade.      

And lack of foot traffic today is a short-sighted excuse and should NEVER be a reason to design street-hostile architecture.     That kind of thinking is what got us the old convention center, TPAC, Snodgrass and Deaderick St.       In fact, it kind of becomes self-fulfilling and perpetuates the dearth of foot traffic and discourages future development.     Studies have shown that pedestrians will actually cross the street to avoid walking  next to large blank walls.    They don't feel safe.     

We built stuff like this in the 70's.    In 2018, we are a lot smarter about good urban design than we were then and there is simply no excuse for building a block-long blank wall along any city street other than a service alley. 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2018 by CenterHill

[markhollin]

^ ^ ^ The challenge is getting retailers to take space that faces empty lots.  My guess is they would not be terribly excited about paying high rents when they are facing a gas station on one side, and a car dealership lot on the other. 

[Guest]

Plus, not every building can have retail...there is just not enough demand. With the state office buildings there is a security issue. I know when I go to the Chick-fil-a in the TN Tower it is an ordeal....

 

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

^ ^ ^ The challenge is getting retailers to take space that faces empty lots.  My guess is they would not be terribly excited about paying high rents when they are facing a gas station on one side, and a car dealership lot on the other. 

 

[CenterHill]

Retail would be nice, sure, but I'm not saying  those street fronts have to be used for retail.     There are ways to design a facade that has no commercial activity as something other than a slab.  

 

 

[CenterHill]

9 minutes ago, nashville_bound said:

With the state office buildings there is a security issue. I know when I go to the Chick-fil-a in the TN Tower it is an ordeal....

 

 

Well, except the TN Tower was built as a private company HQ (Nat'l Life Insurance).     The isolated elevated plaza, cut off from the sidewalks, was a design decision made during a different era (1970) when downtown was a 9-5 environment and office workers didn't necessarily want to interact with people on the surrounding streets.   

[Guest]

I agree it is very unfriendly, but the setup I am speaking about is actually entering the building. It is security line, Q and A, present ID, wait for ID to be scanned, wait for guest pass to print, put guest pass on chest and proceed to get chicken! ha

[CenterHill]

10 minutes ago, nashville_bound said:

I agree it is very unfriendly, but the setup I am speaking about is actually entering the building. It is security line, Q and A, present ID, wait for ID to be scanned, wait for guest pass to print, put guest pass on chest and proceed to get chicken! ha

I think you could add "and walk barefoot through glass" to that and Chick-fil-A fans would still line up.    LOL  

[Tennessine]

6 hours ago, Rockatansky said:

Is it too early to say RIP Lake Palmer (2005-2018)?

Not yet; Lake Palmer is going through teen angst. Probably just a phase.

[smeagolsfree]

A few permits are starting to show up for this project. All the preliminary stuff they have to do before work can start. I look to see workers on site pretty soon I would speculate.

 

There will have to be some excavation done and a lot of site clean up, but the cranes should rise on this one a lot quicker than most because most of the digging is done.

[Guest]

Alex Palmer was a visionary   ...   

2 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

the cranes should rise on this one a lot quicker than most because most of the digging is done.

[titanhog]

I'm assuming the new design will not require excavation. 

[TNinVB]

So where are the downtown residents supposed to go for a lake now??? 

[Pdt2f]

20 hours ago, TNinVB said:

So where are the downtown residents supposed to go for a lake now??? 

They’ll have to settle for the massive puddles of stale beer that accumulate near lower Broad every time one of the beer-bottle collecting garbage trucks stop for more than 15 seconds  

[donNdonelson2]

20 hours ago, TNinVB said:

So where are the downtown residents supposed to go for a lake now??? 

Maybe they can sneak in at one of those fancy CEment ponds at the shiny new HOtel that Mr. J. W. Marriott put up down there or the swimming hole of death high up on the sorry looking neighbor next door! 

[NashRugger]

That thread title though...holy s**t it's too busy.

[Guest]

Industry article 

 

http://lodgingmagazine.com/propst-development-plans-luxury-hotel-broadwest-nashville/