5th & Broadway | 501 Commerce | NMAAM | 34 story apt, 26 story office, + 183,000 sq. ft. of Retail

[BnaBreaker]

How do they figure a 12 story office building would be "skyline altering?"

[nashmoney]

12 floors and skyline altering should not even be in the same sentence...especially talking about downtown. C'mon Emery...really??

 

If that's the case, he can take his skyline altering 12 floor building to CoolSprings. Let it do some altering out there.

 

With that said, I will wait till the rendering and official plans comeout, since this is still in the planning stages.

[nashmoney]

How do they figure a 12 story office building would be "skyline altering?"

 I guess he is comparing it to the historic 3-4 story buildings on Broad. Looking at it from lower broad and Sobro, one could then say it could be "skyline altering", compared to those buildings on Broad. But compared to the whole Nashville DT skyline, Nah. He needs to wake up from his Surburbia dream.

 

That's my guess.

[Guest]

March 2015 is aggressive ..... maybe Bridgestone makes up the potential 18-story gap??

regardless I am glad to see this project moving forward.

 

I was amused by the quote regarding how easily the project was financed.... even without a LOI from a large tenant.... are you listening Alex Palmer.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Guest

[arkitekte]

How do they figure a 12 story office building would be "skyline altering?"

 

Furthermore how do you give a spread of 12 to 30 stories? That's pretty much saying "Yeah, I'm gonna redevelop this site, but I really don't know in which form."

[Nashville Cliff]

I couldn't care less how tall it is as long as it addresses the street and its surroundings well.

[Paramount747]

I couldn't care less how tall it is as long as it addresses the street and its surroundings well.

As much as I would like 30+ stories, a 12 story building that addresses the street, and gets pedestrians on the street is important. As one may remember  the controversy that ensued when people thought the Suntrust Tower would dwarf the Ryman when it was proposed as a 13-19 story building.  (They went 13.) The same concern will be realized again. 

 

Ryman purists like Emmylou Harris will claim the tall tower would block sun from shining through the stained glass windows. Emmylou did not realize when she said that the Suntrust is on the north side, so sun never shone through the north stained glass windows anyway, but her point was well made.

 

Some people see the Ryman like the State Capitol. Views should not be blocked from more than one side. Pat Emery will have quite a debate from preservationists if he goes 30 stories so close to the Ryman.

 

Go 12-15 on this lot. I would rather Tony do a 36-41 story with Sheet Music in Sobro that would not dwarf any historic structures.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Urban Architecture

[BnaBreaker]

Or, hey, here's a crazy idea. How about we go 30+ stories on both towers! We deserve nice things too! :-)

[nashvylle]

The Ryman is a very special building. There are several similar buildings in NYC, which I surrounded by skyscrapers. I personally like the 'hidden gem' aspect of a historic building surrounded by modern buildings. I think it would be extremely cool to have The Ryman surrounded by large towers. 

[Paramount747]

The Ryman is a very special building. There are several similar buildings in NYC, which I surrounded by skyscrapers. I personally like the 'hidden gem' aspect of a historic building surrounded by modern buildings. I think it would be extremely cool to have The Ryman surrounded by large towers. 

I take your point that four tall buildings on a street corner is pretty cool a.k.a 4th and Church.

[titanhog]

The one place where there is something historic that is a little disconcerting when you see it in person is the Alamo in San Antonio.  You see movies with it out in the middle of the desert, basically.  Then...you get to San Antonio and it's in the middle of the city, surrounded by urbanity.

[fieldmarshaldj]

^That's because they filmed that John Wayne movie way out by the border in the "desert."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Village

[titanhog]

^That's because they filmed that John Wayne movie way out by the border in the "desert."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Village

Yes...but it was still a small desert town of about 2500 when the battle occurred.  I'm just talking about how you have a very old piece of history that is totally surrounded by the 21st century city of San Antonio...with little acreage to give you much of a feel what it was like 160 years ago.  Too bad they weren't able to preserve a larger swath of land.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I visited there back in 1990. I don't know how much more they could've preserved to give it a feel of what it was at the time of the battle. The main problem was that it happened to be located smack dab in the middle of a city (or soon to be one) so that preserving the authenticity would've been lost due to urbanization within a matter of a few decades after the battle. Such is the problem with many historic sites located within cities.

[Paramount747]

I am wondering how valid this is. Chad Grout had an interesting comment in the NBJ this week about it. He was not confident about a suburban developer, and a developer out of Orlando trying to do high rise architecture in downtown Nashville.

[UTgrad09]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2014/11/03/million-project-reimagines-lower-broadway/18446115/

 

Some new news from our friend Getahn....

 

Emery is partnering with OliverMcMillan out of San Diego.

 

Some notes from the article:

 

-Price tag expected to be in the $400 million range

-OliverMcMillan apparently known to attract upscale retail tenants

-The plan has been redesigned/tweaked

-Work could start next summer

-Apartments have been added to the plans

 

 

The numbers are pretty staggering. 

-215,000 sq ft of retail, entertainment, and dining space

-350 apartments (I don't know if this would be all one tower, or in several pieces)

-300,000 sq ft office tower (up to 18 stories...I'm thinking roughly the same scale as Eakin's building)

-60,000 sq ft of "creative offices" above the retail space

-140,000 sq ft conference center

-40,000 sq ft National Museum of African American Music (anyone else think that's a bit small for something like that?)

-2,500 parking spaces

 

This may not have a whole lot of height, but it would have a huge amount of activity. 1.9 million square feet is in the neighborhood of the Music City Center.

[wbrewer3]

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2014/11/03/million-project-reimagines-lower-broadway/18446115/

 

Some new news from our friend Getahn....

 

Emery is partnering with OliverMcMillan out of San Diego.

 

Some notes from the article:

 

-Price tag expected to be in the $400 million range

-OliverMcMillan apparently known to attract upscale retail tenants

-The plan has been redesigned/tweaked

-Work could start next summer

-Apartments have been added to the plans

 

 

The numbers are pretty staggering. 

-215,000 sq ft of retail, entertainment, and dining space

-350 apartments (I don't know if this would be all one tower, or in several pieces)

-300,000 sq ft office tower (up to 18 stories...I'm thinking roughly the same scale as Eakin's building)

-60,000 sq ft of "creative offices" above the retail space

-140,000 sq ft conference center

-40,000 sq ft National Museum of African American Music (anyone else think that's a bit small for something like that?)

-2,500 parking spaces

 

This may not have a whole lot of height, but it would have a huge amount of activity. 1.9 million square feet is in the neighborhood of the Music City Center.

I won't lie, this far exceeds anything I expected. 

[BnaBreaker]

It does sound like this will be another shorty, but after reading that article, I'm not sure I really even care.  This has all the makings of an absolute game changer for the city of Nashville.  This project sounds incredible!

[nashvillwill]

This has the potential to be a huge catalyst for retail in the core. When I bartended downtown, the #1 complaint I heard from tourists was "where is all of the shopping?". Tourists don't want to go to Green Hills, they want shopping within walking distance. A retail hub like this could spur other redevelopment up 5th, down SoBro, and beyond. I imagine some high end retailers would make tourists (and FromParkAvetoTN) very happy. While I have no use for Gucci, Armani, and the like, I think the time has come for that in Nashville.

I really look forward to a downtown retail district and I think this could be the start of that.

Having said that, I wonder who will be the first to get up in arms when Hugo Boss tries to replace a cowboy boot store on Lower Broadway.

I only wish they could incorporate an underground LRT stop into this building.

[mirydi]

Also of note, the rendering in the Tennessean has Gensler's name on it. 

 

Another thing that caught my atttention was the amount of office space. They said 300K square feet. That doesn't seem to be enough space for Bridgestone as they were reportedly looking for 400K+. Don't know if that means anything or not but thought it could be an indication that Bridgestone might indeed be leaning more towards Sheet Music (or whatever that project is now) because there just isn't enough space with this project. 

 

 

[nashmoney]

Emery siging on OliverMcMillian is HUGE. I agree with the previous post that this project has the potential to be a game changer for downtown. I think with OliverMcMillian, we would definitely see some upscale retailers and restaurants with this project...all of their projects have them.

 

From the partial render, it looks like they are activating Broadway more...yay!!

 

I can't wait to see more renders

[MLBrumby]

I think you are keeeeee-rect about the office not going to Bridgestone.  The details released thus far indicate that the company will NOT be going into Emery's project here.  Of course, they may remain in the suburbs, but still seeing hopeful signs that they will go with Highwoods in a new Sobro tower.  That site is far more ready to go that Emery would be a year from now.  Plus, it's my sense that the focus of Emery's project is shifting considerably toward residential/retail... over office.  Another positive about bringing OliverMcMillan into the project (besides their urban experience) is that they would not put up an eyesore like Emery had in his early renderings of this project.  And even if Emery insists on it, it would "only be" eighteen stories tall. 

Edited November 4, 2014 by MLBrumby

[MidTenn1]

An image from the subscription site of the Tennessean;

 

[mirydi]

I'm still disappointed that they are going with an office tower only up to 18 stories. (will probably end up being 10-12 stories) Just seems like a huge missed opportunity with how tight office space is right now. Oh well...

[nashmoney]

Here's the render from the Post:

 

You can definitely see the OliverMcMillian influence...Buckhead Atlanta anyone??

 

 

 

Here's Buckhead Atlanta: