Bridgestone HQ 30 stories - 460' | Retail.U/C

[Guest]

I love how people plead and beg for college money but then they turn-up their nose .... typical .... no one should be 'given' anything - there is no free money - .... 

 

At least the state/local/ incentive package is paid for my newly created tax revenue...

 

Community College? Please! How about more student loan money for real colleges like MTSU and UT. It has been shown time and time again, the dropout rate at Community Colleges is higher, and persons holding Associate Degrees are less accepted than persons with 4 year Bachelor Degrees. No disrespect to those holding a Community College Degree, but those wanting 4 year degrees from Universities should be given more money, especially for Masters and Doctoral Degrees.

Done!

Edited November 12, 2014 by Guest

[Paramount747]

I love how people plead and beg for college money but then they turn-up their nose .... typical .... no one should be 'given' anything - there is no free money - .... 

 

At least the state/local/ incentive package is paid for my newly created tax revenue...

Todd, my brother we will agree to disagree. I don't mind the tower, but with all of those incentives, we could have least gotten something a tad bit more impressive than a glass box which we already have a plethora of.

[arkitekte]

Community College? Please! How about more student loan money for real colleges like MTSU and UT. It has been shown time and time again, the dropout rate at Community Colleges is higher, and persons holding Associate Degrees are less accepted than persons with 4 year Bachelor Degrees. No disrespect to those holding a Community College Degree, but those wanting 4 year degrees from Universities should be given more money, especially for Masters and Doctoral Degrees.

Done!

 

I never went to a community college, but your comments are borderline ignorant. "Less accepted" smh.  

Edited November 12, 2014 by arkitekte

[grilled_cheese]

Community College? Please! How about more student loan money for real colleges like MTSU and UT. It has been shown time and time again, the dropout rate at Community Colleges is higher, and persons holding Associate Degrees are less accepted than persons with 4 year Bachelor Degrees. No disrespect to those holding a Community College Degree, but those wanting 4 year degrees from Universities should be given more money, especially for Masters and Doctoral Degrees.

Done!

 

Wow.  AAs can be more lucrative since they are more specialized and lead to faster/easier employment.  If someone chooses to parlay that into a BA then it makes it that much easier.  They are also more well equipped to graduate and enter the workforce.

[troyboytn]

While I will have to say that even 10 stories is better than a surface lot, this building is nothing to write home about. It makes for nice large imposing infill but it is still just another unimaginative rectangle box with some offsets.....a 30 story open cereal box with the flaps sticking up. Perkins & Will could have done much better than this..... I can also say that making it taller wouldn't have changed my opinion of the design. The real good news here is the continued prestige of the headquarters, keeping 1100 high paying jobs in Nashville and bringing 600 more which will contribute much more to Nashville than the building itself ever will.

[mirydi]

 

Done!

^Haha! 

 

Man, when did we become so spoiled? UA, you said it yourself that Nashville isn't, and never will be a skyscrapercity. man, I wish I knew where that long post was...

 

I guess it's a good thing that we can complain about only getting a 460' tower. There are tons of cities where if this was announced, the forumers would probably have to go change their underwear. 

[Jamie Hall]

With all due respect, they did not choose downtown Nashville. The state paid them $50,000,000.00 to locate here. FieldmarshalDJ should be furious! Tax payers of the state of Tennessee paid for this.

I'm not in love with the design, but I assume that the state probably lured the Titans, Preds and other "private" enterprises with TIF money to some extent. If the end result is more tax revenue and a boost for the city, then it's a win-win.

 

Also, consider that more than 1,000 additional people will be downtown 5 days a week to work at Bridgestone. That means more money being spent on food and liquor downtown and potentially more need for downtown housing and retail -- and those things alone have unlimited impacts.

[smeagolsfree]

John, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If Tennessee had not coughed up the $$$$, then another state would have. This is the normal way of doing business these days. If we did not do it, then a lot of companies would just bypass Nashville and Tennessee. An example is Volkswagen. The tax benefits greatly outweigh the cost of bringing those companies here in the long run. How much money would the state have to pay out in food stamps, unemployment benefits for out of people out of work, increased charity care for those without benefits, etc. these jobs are staying here along with those paychecks. Take every dollar spent locally and multiply by ten and you have the value of that one dollar.

I am sure we can debate this, but there is logic. The parking lot only brings in 100,000 a year in property taxes per news reports. The tax abatement is for 20 years. That's only 2 to 3 million in taxes over a 20 year period. I hope you are getting the picture here. There is a lot more involved in the big picture that the normal tax payer does not have the ability to comprehend.

[bigeasy]

I wonder what Bridgestone employees are thinking about this? I would think a few people would not be happy about having to commute downtown. 

 

Can't wait to see this finished!

[satalac]

 

I agree, does not make me happy with it. The State reduces tuition incentives for people to go to college here, but they will finance a private enterprise to build a tower who could easily finance themselves.

 

A successful business is successful because it makes profit. To make profit, you want to find places that help spend less money. It's business. If you want to land the big businesses, you have to offer incentives. That's just how this works. 

 

Community College? Please! How about more student loan money for real colleges like MTSU and UT. It has been shown time and time again, the dropout rate at Community Colleges is higher, and persons holding Associate Degrees are less accepted than persons with 4 year Bachelor Degrees. No disrespect to those holding a Community College Degree, but those wanting 4 year degrees from Universities should be given more money, especially for Masters and Doctoral Degrees.

 

You do realize that this gives students wanting their BA two free years of college if they choose to take their general classes in a community college? Sometimes your pessimism makes me scratch my head. 

[CenterHill]

Every major US city was courting Bridgestone for this HQ and pitching city/state incentives. Including Illinois and Indiana where Bridgestone's other divisions are located (the 3 that are moving here). It could have just as easily been the case that the Americas HQ moved to another city who offered more.

Bridgestone is a major corporate citizen here, employing 1100 peolple and giving milliions to community causes, including stepping up to provide the financial package that kept the NHL in Nashville. The city and the state were not going to let them be lured away.

The decision to be downtown was Bridgestone's. They wanted to be in the Emery development in the old CC, but it wasn't going to meet their timeline with their current lease expiring in 2017.

[NikOnder]

According to William, the height will be 460'. At least I think that is what he said which should be 25' taller than the Pinnacle.

 

Here are all of the renderings that ran in the NBJ and the Post.

 

 

I'm a bit confused about that video, as well. The height that the video seems to imply is more in line with what I would expect from SoBro, yet in the renderings above it looks quite formidable. If these renderings are accurate, this thing will look downright intimidating from the 40 south loop, especially coming in from the east. Also, the little notch for the restaraunt/lounge/whatever overlooking the convention center is a nice touch and thoughtful.

 

Also, who else sees this?

Edited November 12, 2014 by NikOnder

[TheRaglander]

With all the resources in this group that are connected or "in the know", can't someone just reach out to the developers and ask what the expected official height is of the building?  There are articles in every local media outlet yet no one says anything about the height and clearly we have mixed representations based on the video and the stills.  

[Hey_Hey]

WW stated the building would be 460 ft in his article in the Post. https://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2014/11/11/bridgestone_headed_downtown_opts_for_sobro_skycraper

Regardless of what the building looks like this announcement means a great deal for Nashville. 1700 jobs in the core which will activate the streets, provide more demand for hotels, restaurants, and housing, and will draw in additional support businesses like marketers, attorneys, and accountants.

I am curious to see how this affects Music City Star ridership as well. Given that Bridgestone is located near the airport I would assume a large number of their employees live in the surrounding area or eastern suburbs along the Star route. If that's the case then the a Star would be a perfect way for those employees to get to and from work.

[farm_boy]

Yes.   Not a speaking part, but recognized from the stage.  

 

 

Nice touch. Might not have happened without him.

 

^^ Agreed. Thx. guys. Yes, Tony did the leg work to get this site put together, therefore some recognition is deserved. But no tears for Tony, he will still walk away with something for his work - and well earned.

[BnaBreaker]

Detailed article about the project from the Biz Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2014/11/why-bridgestone-doubled-down-on-nashville-with.html?page=4

 

A couple interesting notes from the article:

- Among the cities Nashville beat out for the headquarters was Chicago.

 

- Bridgestone chose Nashville in the hopes that they would be able to attract new international flights (i.e. Tokyo Narita)

 

- There is only going to be 8,000 square feet of ground level retail, which is only big enough for probably a coffee shop.

 

- Only a third of the parking will be underground, which begs the question, where is the other parking?

[smeagolsfree]

I wonder what Bridgestone employees are thinking about this? I would think a few people would not be happy about having to commute downtown.

Can't wait to see this finished!

Better than having to pull up roots, sell your house, and move out of state. The ones that may not be happy are the people that have to move here.

[MLBrumby]

The more I read about this building, the more "ill conceived" it appears to be.  Why so little parking?  Why no spec space?  What are they getting for $230M?  

 

Okay... so at least I understand better the distinction made in the article.  1100 parking spaces should be enough... just some of it will be u/g... the rest apparently will be in the tower itself.

Edited November 12, 2014 by MLBrumby

[BnaBreaker]

The more I read about this building, the more "ill conceived" it appears to be.  Why so little parking?  Why no spec space?  What are they getting for $230M?  

 

Weird, isn't it?  It's like they don't anticipate any company growth. 

[nashmoney]

Even though they are the lone tenant, I think the building includes spec space for growth.

 

Bridgestone currently has about 1100 people in their current headquarters of 282,000 square feet, which is 90% occupied. They are adding 600 jobs and the new building is 500,000 square feet, I would say they have room for growth.

 

From the Tennessean:

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2014/11/11/bridgestone-headquarters-nashville-announcement/18865039/

 

More details:

 

RESTAURANT COMING? The building will include up to 7,700 square feet of retail space to which Highwoods intends to attract a high-end restaurant.

 

FLIGHT PLANS: Several other major Metro cities with direct flights to Japan competed for Bridgestone America's headquarters. "Nashville really was head and shoulders above them when you look at things like cost of living, quality of life, taxation," said Christine Karbowiak, executive vice president of Bridgestone Americas, adding the company also looked at other sites around Middle Tennessee.

Still, Rob Wigington, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, said the announcement adds more momentum for eventually attracting direct overseas flights. "The more they grow here, the more it's going to build the case for nonstop service to Tokyo," he said.

 

MORE THAN TIRES: The retail, roofing and industrial products business units that Bridgestone is relocating to Nashville generate $6 billion in annual revenue. It also includes the leadership of the retail group, which includes 2,200 company-owned stores.

 

UPGRADES: Restriping and other improvements are planned to streets such as Fourth Avenue South and Molloy Street, based on recommendations of a traffic study. "The great thing is we've got a lot of people who live in Lebanon, who live in Mt. Juliet, and so the Music City Star is right there," Karbowiak said, referring to the train's downtown stop.

 

MUSIC NOTE: During the event, Mayor Karl Dean revealed that Bridgestone Americas has committed to donating $150,000 a year for five years, or $750,000 overall, to Metro School's Music Makes Us program.

[mirydi]

There more I look at the renders, and the more I watch this video, the more I like this building. Could it have been better? Sure...But I think this building will look pretty damn sexy with it's sleek glass facade. It will be taller than the Pinnacle, and wider, and will absolutely make quite an impression on the skyline given it's location. With all that shiny reflective glass I think it will look much better than what the renderings portray, and will help big time in making the skyline look more modern and fresh. I'm really digging the fins too. They give it that extra pop that the tower needs, cause without them, it would definitely be just a glass box. In the video, there's a large red structure on the roof. I'm not sure what it is but that could be interesting. 

 

 

 

One last thing...Has anybody given any thought that this might be a preliminary design, and there could be some tweaks like we've seen so many times with other buildings like the SoBro, Buckingham, Eakin etc? I mean think about it. Highwoods only came into the picture within the past few weeks, so obviously this design had to come in that time frame, right? Maybe even sooner...They didn't have that last piece of property till last week, and without it, this design would have never worked. I'm thinking there will be some tweaks before everything is said and done. If this design was done that quick just to get something out there, that's a very good possibility. Who knows, maybe it is final, but I wouldn't bet my money on it. It's just hard to comprehend how fast everything moved on this, and something isn't adding up. 

 

Thoughts?

[Paramount747]

I never went to a community college, but your comments are borderline ignorant. "Less accepted" smh.  

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2012/04/21/report-community-college-attendance-up-but-graduation-rates-remain-low

 

Ignorant is not the proper word my friend. Here is the evidence. I'll accept your apology now.

 

Granted, you could find an article that has the opposite findings, but the point was not one of ignorance but pointing out that the ROI for non- 4 year colleges is rather low, and unfortunately it can sometimes not be much better at the university level. In any case, I do not like incentives for private corporations. That is something we cannot agree on which is fine.

[Hey_Hey]

- There is only going to be 8,000 square feet of ground level retail, which is only big enough for probably a coffee shop

A large coffee shop is on the order of 2000 sq feet, and walk in coffee shops can operate on less than 1000. 8000 should be big enough for a nice sized full service restaurant. They could probably do a coffee shop plus a restaurant as well. Edited November 12, 2014 by Hey_Hey

[japan]

Community College? Please! How about more student loan money for real colleges like MTSU and UT. It has been shown time and time again, the dropout rate at Community Colleges is higher, and persons holding Associate Degrees are less accepted than persons with 4 year Bachelor Degrees. No disrespect to those holding a Community College Degree, but those wanting 4 year degrees from Universities should be given more money, especially for Masters and Doctoral Degrees.

Done!

I don't believe this thinking holds up anymore.  There are tons of studies that question if you get your money's worth from a 4 year college anymore.  Plus, with the automation revolution coming, we need people with the technical skills to work at the Bridgestone and Nissan plants that are locating here.

[volsfanwill]

just wanted to point out, the fins on this building going up the north side and continuing above the roof line remind me of sheets of paper, sheet music perhaps.  ie, this building looks more like actual sheet music than sheet music did.