Storyville Gardens

[Baronakim]

Yeah the Disney Bustards stole 80 acre of groves  from my faminly in th e middle of the park.    First though they bought up all the orange processing plants , consolodated them and systematically lowered the price they paid for fruit over about 4 yrears to break the growers and steal the land cheap.

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Baronakim

[FrankNash]

Who owns the old state prison site in the Nations area?  Major highway and river access within 3 miles of the city center would be a good location IMHO.

[Binbin98]

Nashville is looking like it’s gonna turn out to be an interesting hybrid of Las Vegas and Orlando one day 

I am happy this project is going forward though. It’s crazy Nashville is getting a theme park before Miami

[donNdonelson2]

Although some recent news seems encouraging, I remain skeptical. 

[Luvemtall]

1 hour ago, Binbin98 said:

It’s crazy Nashville is getting a theme park before Miami

Miami is a theme park. It’s where the rich people go to play and frolic in Fantasyland, wait in line to ride Space Mountain , hoping Tomorrowland is just as fun. But if they play to hard they get a fastpass to the Magic Kingdom. And if you think phase1 is cool , just wait for phase 2 it’s called Atlantis.

[Pdt2f]

3 hours ago, FrankNash said:

Who owns the old state prison site in the Nations area?  Major highway and river access within 3 miles of the city center would be a good location IMHO.

If that prison is demolished and sold I think it would more likely be for mixed use development, not a theme park. I hope this theme park happens, but what Nashville proper needs more is housing, not amusement parks. 
 

Is that prison in any way historically protected or something? It’s the one they use in movies a lot, right?

[Binbin98]

3 hours ago, Luvemtall said:

Miami is a theme park. It’s where the rich people go to play and frolic in Fantasyland, wait in line to ride Space Mountain , hoping Tomorrowland is just as fun. But if they play to hard they get a fastpass to the Magic Kingdom. And if you think phase1 is cool , just wait for phase 2 it’s called Atlantis.

Haha well the drivers here are certainly ‘exciting’

[Luvemtall]

That is very true , drove trucks from Tampa to Miami for many years . Although I also ran NYC and cross country , there’s many spots that have “ exciting “ drivers. 

[satalac]

On 3/17/2022 at 1:04 PM, Baronakim said:

Still, I think this is very underwhelming.  I was very unimpressed with the  early concept sketches.    I can not imagine how they expect to divide the facility into zones for Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.   Reduced scale, sketchy buildings with bits and pieces of dubious architecture and landscaping seems entirely optomistic.  Our climate here is ttotally unsuited to recreate very much of the fell of these areas.  For instance, I think The "African village" will have to depend on a lot of fake plastic treeslook covincing with a bunch of tiny round huts and a single cental structure.  I think ultimately the Nashville ZOO does a better job... it has sufficient scale.  The palms and vegetation of the "Arabian" area will be hard pressed to stay alive in our winters too.   The European structures and gardens will look too dinky and insufficiently detailed.  The historical granduer of that period of European design relies on large scane and big vista.  I think it will be difficult to produce the tranquility and detail nescessary for Japanese or Chinesse images. As this will be mainly and outdoor experience, I think our wet  and cold Winteres and scorching Summers will limit having enjoyable visitation.  This looks about as appealing as the World of Sid and Marty Craft was in Atlanta or as successful ast he Speedway was nearby.

 

I think you're underestimating what theme parks are able to do with their theming. There are tons of theme parks that are outside of Florida and California where it's not warm 100% of the year, yet they manage to keep the theme up. The European parks are excellent with this and have a cooler climate than we do. Will it be more challenging? Of course, but it's definitely not unheard of for a theme park designer to make it work. There are many tricks to make what you're walking into appear real, even using fake plants and smaller buildings with forced perspective. I mean if the Nashville Zoo can pull it off, as you said, then I have little doubt a theme park with the backing of some of the new companies involved can't. We're talking about sketches too. Those just convey what the general idea is, and hardly have all the fine details that we want to see. I think this park will be a great addition to Middle Tennessee and am looking forward to it. 

[Baronakim]

3 hours ago, satalac said:

I think you're underestimating what theme parks are able to do with their theming. There are tons of theme parks that are outside of Florida and California where it's not warm 100% of the year, yet they manage to keep the theme up. The European parks are excellent with this and have a cooler climate than we do. Will it be more challenging? Of course, but it's definitely not unheard of for a theme park designer to make it work. There are many tricks to make what you're walking into appear real, even using fake plants and smaller buildings with forced perspective. I mean if the Nashville Zoo can pull it off, as you said, then I have little doubt a theme park with the backing of some of the new companies involved can't. We're talking about sketches too. Those just convey what the general idea is, and hardly have all the fine details that we want to see. I think this park will be a great addition to Middle Tennessee and am looking forward to it. 

I am trained in botony and landscape as well as historical world architecture.  While my comments on the zoo do suggest some areas of  tropical jungle in Africa may be recreated here, the African area that previous Stroryville sketches seems to want to create is savvanah.  A dense equitorial jungle is MUCH easier to fake.  The vast vistas and tree species involved with savvanah are really not going to work in our climeate.  They depicted baobob trees, which even in plastic  would be unconvencing IMO.  The scale factor works gainst them.  Baobobs are massive, fat and tall; the sketched huts in reduced scale are ludicrously dinky.  The Arabian area is worse.  The only way I could see this work marginally is for them to have Disney scale budgets.  The most successful and recent theme parks in Florida, the Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Star WarsIt areas  are quite successful, but they did not attempt to receate a landscape setting.  The buildinga are full scalle and very compactly sited.  With the StarWars set,  they had the advabntage of an alien ecosystem of which basically anything goes .   Storyville may open, but it will IMO be an abandoned ruin much like the overgrown  Land of Oz park in  Carolina within two years.  If you caught my recent rencering of the Eurosphere  I designed 40 years ago (Stadium thread), you can see I did not attempt landcape accuracy, nor were my buildings mere snippets of architecture but fullly functional buildings.  Go ahead and believe Storyville will be a great success, but I remain highly skeptical until I see otherwise.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Baronakim
spelling

[satalac]

19 hours ago, Baronakim said:

I am trained in botony and landscape as well as historical world architecture.  While my comments on the zoo do suggest some areas of  tropical jungle in Africa may be recreated here, the African area that previous Stroryville sketches seems to want to create is savvanah.  A dense equitorial jungle is MUCH easier to fake.  The vast vistas and tree species involved with savvanah are really not going to work in our climeate.  They depicted baobob trees, which even in plastic  would be unconvencing IMO.  The scale factor works gainst them.  Baobobs are massive, fat and tall; the sketched huts in reduced scale are ludicrously dinky.  The Arabian area is worse.  The only way I could see this work marginally is for them to have Disney scale budgets.  The most successful and recent theme parks in Florida, the Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and Star WarsIt areas  are quite successful, but they did not attempt to receate a landscape setting.  The buildinga are full scalle and very compactly sited.  With the StarWars set,  they had the advabntage of an alien ecosystem of which basically anything goes .   Storyville may open, but it will IMO be an abandoned ruin much like the overgrown  Land of Oz park in  Carolina within two years.  If you caught my recent rencering of the Eurosphere  I designed 40 years ago (Stadium thread), you can see I did not attempt landcape accuracy, nor were my buildings mere snippets of architecture but fullly functional buildings.  Go ahead and believe Storyville will be a great success, but I remain highly skeptical until I see otherwise.

I don't believe the average park goer is going to to be going into the park with the same historical and botany training as you. They're looking for something fun to do or looking for an escape from reality. As far as comparisons to Oz, that park had one ride and was built in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of North Carolina. I still remain fairly optimistic that should this get built, it will be successful. 

[smeagolsfree]

On 3/19/2022 at 4:05 PM, FrankNash said:

Who owns the old state prison site in the Nations area?  Major highway and river access within 3 miles of the city center would be a good location IMHO.

The State of TN owns that site. I think I know the plans for that, but it may have to go through a bidding process. The plans I saw sort of put a hole in that theory though. 

All I am saying with regard to a project being undetected now is that it is a lot more difficult for a project to slide through without notice these days because there are a lot more eyes out there and records are much more available to the public than they were in Walts Disney's time. It's a little harder to hide a 350-million-dollar project that everybody and their brother is looking for.  

[Baronakim]

1 hour ago, satalac said:

I don't believe the average park goer is going to to be going into the park with the same historical and botany training as you. They're looking for something fun to do or looking for an escape from reality. As far as comparisons to Oz, that park had one ride and was built in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of North Carolina. I still remain fairly optimistic that should this get built, it will be successful. 

It matters little to not at all about the training of the visitors.  They are not going to be cognizant of species.  However they ARE familiar with lots and lots of films and videos, nature and entertaiment featuring these areas.  Even relatively untrained  visitors will be able to spot fakey and fragmentary stage prop buildings and sets.  My point is that it will be very difficult and expensive to create the illusions they propose given the size of the land.  My reference to Land of Oz has nothing to do with lack of rides or its poor location.    I just stated I thought the abandoned project might LOOK as ruined in a few years, not that I was comparing the scope of the parks.  You read into my comment a bit more than I meant.  Perhaps it will be built and be relegated to  a second teir or struggling park like the pathetic Santa ClausLand  in the Smokies or the long abandoned "Ghost Towns in the Sky" also up there.    HOWEVER, the visitors to the park WILL be very much aware of the stories that are the principal literary basis for the individual areas that this park proposes.  Even four year old are much mor sophisticated  today than 10 years ago due to access to media at a very young age.  There would have been little success in the Hogwarts and Diagon Alley parks if their physical areas were as sketchily  suggested or of a reduced scale.  Readers today are very quick to be very vocal about inadequate or incorrect detail from the books or movies based on them.  IMO, I think this is going to be a factor that will eventually be a fatal flaw.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Baronakim

[lmc123]

2 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

The State of TN owns that site. I think I know the plans for that, but it may have to go through a bidding process. The plans I saw sort of put a hole in that theory though. 

All I am saying with regard to a project being undetected now is that it is a lot more difficult for a project to slide through without notice these days because there are a lot more eyes out there and records are much more available to the public than they were in Walts Disney's time. It's a little harder to hide a 350-million-dollar project that everybody and their brother is looking for.  

The old State prison was proposed a few years ago as a site to move PSC under Gov. Haslam and Mayor Barry. 

[go_outside]

Storyville Gardens developers are targeting a property between Interstate 40 and U.S. highways 231 and 70 in Lebanon. From the Nashville Business Journal:

G.C. Hixson, executive director of the Joint Economic & Community Development Board of Wilson County, said Monday it's his understanding that developers are targeting a property dubbed "Cumberland Center" between Interstate 40 and U.S. highways 231 and 70.

LoopNet lists the land as being under contract. It's unclear if other sites or locations are also under consideration for the park.

The Cumberland Center land spans 132 acres and fronts I-40 for nearly a mile, according to the LoopNet listing. Steve Moor and Danny Hale, brokers at Hendersonville-based Halo Realty, are handling marketing efforts. Moor declined to comment for the story, and an attempt to reach Hale on Monday afternoon was not immediately successful. The site is listed for $12 million.

[colemangaines]

3 minutes ago, go_outside said:

Storyville Gardens developers are targeting a property between Interstate 40 and U.S. highways 231 and 70 in Lebanon. From the Nashville Business Journal:

G.C. Hixson, executive director of the Joint Economic & Community Development Board of Wilson County, said Monday it's his understanding that developers are targeting a property dubbed "Cumberland Center" between Interstate 40 and U.S. highways 231 and 70.

LoopNet lists the land as being under contract. It's unclear if other sites or locations are also under consideration for the park.

The Cumberland Center land spans 132 acres and fronts I-40 for nearly a mile, according to the LoopNet listing. Steve Moor and Danny Hale, brokers at Hendersonville-based Halo Realty, are handling marketing efforts. Moor declined to comment for the story, and an attempt to reach Hale on Monday afternoon was not immediately successful. The site is listed for $12 million.

Wow that's like IN Lebanon, not just near it. My rough Google Maps-estimate says that's around 100 acres, about the same size as Disneyland. 

[markhollin]

Cumberland Center land is listed as 132 acres.  The Storyville Gardens concept was shown as 170 acres in previous press releases, so they would need to buy another 38 adjacent acres.

Here are some maps from the Loopnet listing:
 

[MLBrumby]

Still skeptical of this whole idea, but I wish them every bit of success they get.  Nashville has really needed a theme park for 20 years now.  And at $12 million for a mile of I-40 frontage!?!?!?!  That sounds like a steal to me. IDK if the land rush has extended that far east, but looks like it's moving there now.

Edited March 28, 2022 by MLBrumby

[bnacincy]

Not good. This  is the type of development that needs to be around other attractions-if this were Disney or something like that it could stand on its own but it is not so it will need some help.

People aren't going to go out of their way for this as it has no name recognition. It isn't based on a book or a movie franchise or anything like that.

Music Valley is still the best option.

Edited March 28, 2022 by bnacincy

[MLBrumby]

I just can't believe that site (a whole mile of I-40 frontage) is "only" $12 million!!

[Luvemtall]

This site is within walking distance to the Wilson County/State fairgrounds. They are planning to develop a train station right in between these two sites, making for easy excess from Nashville via the WEGO STAR to both venues. Also the State along With TDOT have mentioned that this section of I-40 should be going into bid and construction to widen with plans on a new interchange somewhere near the fairgrounds within the next year or so. When it was announced that the State fair was moving out to Lebanon, it was mentioned that part of that deal was infrastructure improvement around this area. 

[Luvemtall]

If they can handle 500,000 to 600,000 attendance yearly at the fairgrounds ( which they do every year except though Covid) then I’m thinking this isn’t to “far out” for this theme park either. Especially if there’s a train station to get tourists from Nashville out to park

[bnacincy]

The Fair happens only once a year-Music Valley is constantly busy with the Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills, etc.

Again, Storyville Gardens has no name recognition-it will need help.

[donNdonelson2]

Doesn’t seem logical to announce a location that is SMALLER than previous indications. (Guest and employee parking will take up a big chunk of the property.) This means the park is less than earlier expectations AND there’s no room for future expansion.

I remain skeptical.

[gannman]

24 minutes ago, bnacincy said:

The Fair happens only once a year-Music Valley is constantly busy with the Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills, etc.

Again, Storyville Gardens has no name recognition-it will need help.

 

Briley Pkwy interchange traffic already backs-up on weekends or during special events, creating  unsafe driving conditions.