Paramount Tower, 65-68 stories, approx. 750', 200 units, $240 million, Church Street Park

[MLBrumby]

Must have missed something. The article that first broke on this building stated that Giarratana would control the pocket park, the building adjacent, and the parking lot behind that, which I believe used to be where a theater stood. Also, I have not seen or heard of anything related to parking for this building. So where do you get this idea that residents will only have Lyft/Uber options with no parking? 

[Guest]

^ it is mostly speculation. I was told the deal only involves the park. If this is accurate, we are surmising there will not be a traditional pedestal (or even underground) garage due to small sq ft.  Taking the next logical step we are discussing how would the building handle vehicles/transportation. Speculation is the 505 garage, the City Center garage or Uber/Lyft.

 

i would think similar to this building....maybe smaller

 

https://brooklynpointnyc.com/

Edited May 4, 2018 by Guest

[ZestyEd]

The St James in Philly has the exact same foot print as the Church st Park.  I have been in the St James and parking is not an issue unless you have a Suburban then it gets difficult to park in there.  I had a Buick Enclave and I felt I was going to scrape the sides when making the turns. The St James is the tallest Residential Building in Philly.    
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_St._James

[PaulChinetti]

1 hour ago, nashville_bound said:

^ it is mostly speculation. I was told the deal only involves the park. If this is accurate, we are surmising there will not be a traditional pedestal (or even underground) garage due to small sq ft.  Taking the next logical step we are discussing how would the building handle vehicles/transportation. Speculation is the 505 garage, the City Center garage or Uber/Lyft.

 

i would think similar to this building....maybe smaller

 

https://brooklynpointnyc.com/

Talk about a tall skinny!

I like it though, very cool looking for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on.

[volsfanwill]

Omg, I love that, is the brick at the front an original older building or did they just make I took that way? 

[MagicPotato]

Could we not build high rises behind Broadway? 

[e-dub]

^^ Like set back from Broadway? That makes me think of the original Westin proposal.

[MagicPotato]

1 hour ago, e-dub said:

^^ Like set back from Broadway? That makes me think of the original Westin proposal.

Yeah, like near Mcgavock street, behind acme,  and areas near 2nd avenue.  Then again they are building 5th+broad so that might help with infill.

[ZestyEd]

3 hours ago, volsfanwill said:

Omg, I love that, is the brick at the front an original older building or did they just make I took that way? 

The York Row building interiors had been stripped of everything except for one fireplace mantle and could not be restored. P&A Associates would instead preserve the front facade of the houses, back to the roof ridge line

Preservationists were critical of how the York Row houses were preserved. Calling them "facadectomies", vice president of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia J. Randall Cotton felt that saving the facades did not preserve the essence of the buildings, but that it was better than nothing.

[CenterHill]

30 minutes ago, ZestyEd said:

The York Row building interiors had been stripped of everything except for one fireplace mantle and could not be restored. P&A Associates would instead preserve the front facade of the houses, back to the roof ridge line

Preservationists were critical of how the York Row houses were preserved. Calling them "facadectomies", vice president of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia J. Randall Cotton felt that saving the facades did not preserve the essence of the buildings, but that it was better than nothing.

Sometimes it is better than nothing, sadly.      Preservationists fight these battles everywhere (the term I hear locally is "facade-omy").    A few local examples are the Washington Square block of buildings on 2nd Ave (exterior facades of 19th century buildings retained, but interiors demolished and replaced with new structure), the lower Broad building now home to Jimmy Buffett's Maragaritaville restaurant (prior owner demo'd interior and replaced with 2nd and 3rd floors that don't align with the building's exterior), and the former Climax Hotel  (front facade removed, historic structure razed and the old facade to be adhered to the replacement building (the u/c Dream Hotel)).   

BUT, we've digressed from the Tony G topic.     

[markhollin]

Mayor Briley, in an interview with NBJ today, regarding the recent announcement of a proposed land swap with developer Tony Giarratana, which would exchange a Metro-owned green space on Church Street for an affordable housing development blocks away. The deal is facing increasing public pushback, but Briley called it a game changer.

"It’s time for us all to acknowledge that it is not a park in any true sense of the word. And we can’t be afraid to call it like it is," he said. "It’s time for us to stop talking about homelessness and act, and this is a good plan for Nashville."

[Dale]

29 minutes ago, markhollin said:

Mayor Briley, in an interview with NBJ today, regarding the recent announcement of a proposed land swap with developer Tony Giarratana, which would exchange a Metro-owned green space on Church Street for an affordable housing development blocks away. The deal is facing increasing public pushback, but Briley called it a game changer.

"It’s time for us all to acknowledge that it is not a park in any true sense of the word. And we can’t be afraid to call it like it is," he said. "It’s time for us to stop talking about homelessness and act, and this is a good plan for Nashville."

Wow! are you even allowed to say things like that ? Who does Briley think he is, Kanye ?

[Mr_Bond]

On 4/26/2018 at 8:01 AM, wreynol4 said:

Does anyone else think that announcing a tower when 505 is going so so sales wise is a smart move? To me, this is a tower that if built wouldn't be around until 2025 or so, and imo draws slight attention away from 505.   

Tony G's recent announcement of how well 505 sales have been in the past 3 months explains why he's eyeing his next project.  AB's announced move of their corporate HQ to Nashvegas from Manhattan could help prolong the growth trend in Nashville.  1,050 employees are coming with an average salary of $150K to $200K plus bonuses.  To bring some perspective to the size of this, those employees would be happy to live in condos close to work.  They could buy out The Gulch - all the units in 1212, Icon and Terrazzo.

[Pdt2f]

20 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

Tony G's recent announcement of how well 505 sales have been in the past 3 months explains why he's eyeing his next project.  AB's announced move of their corporate HQ to Nashvegas from Manhattan could help prolong the growth trend in Nashville.  1,050 employees are coming with an average salary of $150K to $200K plus bonuses.  To bring some perspective to the size of this, those employees would be happy to live in condos close to work.  They could buy out The Gulch - all the units in 1212, Icon and Terrazzo.

It’s also useful to remember that those employees are moving from New York City, where urban living is normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them didn’t even have drivers licenses. 

By the way, do we know how many of their 1,050 will be transplanted and how many will be locally hired? 

[smeagolsfree]

Ir the swap falls through then turn the park into a fenced dog park and you can only get in if you have a dog, and that does not mean having your spouse on a leash.

[Mr_Bond]

26 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

It’s also useful to remember that those employees are moving from New York City, where urban living is normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them didn’t even have drivers licenses. 

By the way, do we know how many of their 1,050 will be transplanted and how many will be locally hired? 

What I've heard is that most/all will be transplanted.  They will be interviewing the ones who want to move here to be sure they have a long-term commitment to the firm and are not just looking for an AB-financed move to Music City.  The portfolio management, sell side analysts, and trading jobs will remain in NYC.

[LA_TN]

55 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

It’s also useful to remember that those employees are moving from New York City, where urban living is normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them didn’t even have drivers licenses. 

By the way, do we know how many of their 1,050 will be transplanted and how many will be locally hired? 

Typically, that number is just above 40% because many people just can't move due to spouse/kids/family/etc. 

[Hey_Hey]

4 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

It’s also useful to remember that those employees are moving from New York City, where urban living is normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them didn’t even have drivers licenses. 

By the way, do we know how many of their 1,050 will be transplanted and how many will be locally hired? 

Just to play devil's advocate for a bit, I would add that many of the people relocating may not be looking for another urban residence.  I would suspect that the people who choose to move to Nashville from NYC may be the very people who aren't looking for an urban residence. They may view this as their time to get a house with a yard. Anecdotally, I am friends with an executive at UBS. He was located in their Manhattan office but chose to move here as a way to get out of the city and live a more "traditional" life. 

[TNinVB]

Perhaps I misread something, but can someone please explain to me WHY there are opponents for the 8 story building for the homeless?? These homeless people are currently living in a park!! So basically these people don't want the homeless displaced from the park which ins't theres to begin with, and put into a new building that provides them shelter? 

[MLBrumby]

It appears that the opposition is coming from other developers who feel like they should have had a shot at it. One even made a proposal to Metro but it was rejected b/c wasn't perceived to be a fair trade.

[bmkTN]

I have to think that the additional lots behind the park back to the building with Caesar's Restaurant are going to be purchased by Tony and redeveloped as well.  Maybe they won't be a parking garage, but Tony made it sound like he really wants to work with the Sheraton and others to make Capitol Blvd a beautiful pedestrian destination, which would obviously help his Church St developments be ever more sought-after.  There's got to be something in the works there.

[fishsticks176]

An ever-growing number of my peers (25-35 crowd) have been framing it as a corporate giveaway and decrying Metro for donating assets to wealthy developers while schools are underfunded and homeless is a growing problem. Metro is giving away more land to some rich private developer! They're taking our park! That 25 million is being pocketed by some multimillionaire developer who's only going to build 100 units! 

This is their rhetoric, not mine.

They seem to (willfully) misunderstand this project, the transit proposal, the MLS stadium, and many many other developments. Honestly, I think most of it isn't really about the details of the developments/deals themselves, but just stems from their frustration of being on the short end of the growing economic divide in Nashville. It's become an "us vs them" mentality for a lot of people. And they don't understand that they're shooting themselves in the foot when they oppose public transit or transitional housing or more residential construction.  

 

EDIT: This is in response to TNinVB's comment a few posts up, asking why there seems to be such opposition to Tony's homeless shelter being built. 

Edited May 5, 2018 by fishsticks176

[Dale]

14 minutes ago, fishsticks176 said:

An ever-growing number of my peers (25-35 crowd) have been framing it as a corporate giveaway and decrying Metro for donating assets to wealthy developers while schools are underfunded and homeless is a growing problem. Metro is giving away more land to some rich private developer! They're taking our park! That 25 million is being pocketed by some multimillionaire developer who's only going to build 100 units! 

This is their rhetoric, not mine.

They seem to (willfully) misunderstand this project, the transit proposal, the MLS stadium, and many many other developments. Honestly, I think most of it isn't really about the details of the developments/deals themselves, but just stems from their frustration of being on the short end of the growing economic divide in Nashville. It's become an "us vs them" mentality for a lot of people. And they don't understand that they're shooting themselves in the foot when they oppose public transit or transitional housing or more residential construction.  

Doesn't take very long for the youngins to become their grandparents.

[TNinVB]

Thanks for the insight. Yes a park is being lost, but it's not like it's a gem or something. When I come home I usually visit the downtown library and always think how this park is such an eyesore and how the library bathrooms are full of homeless people. Sorry if I sound like I have something against homeless people, because I don't. I hope some sort of facility is built for them regardless of who builds it. 

[fishsticks176]

It ceased to be a "park" a long time ago. It's really just a homeless encampment in the middle of the city. My mother worked in the downtown library for a decade and would frequently be harassed by some of the homeless there as she walked in or out of the building. The library staff routinely has to deal with the homeless/mentally ill defecating in the halls, pleasuring themselves in the aisles, and getting into fights in the lobby. We absolutely need a dedicated facility that can provide services (including mental health services), basic necessities, and transitional housing for the growing homeless population downtown. The encampment beneath the Ellington/James Robertson bridge has begun being cleared out now too, and those people are just being bounced around with no real place to go. 

As for my peers I was talking about, I can guarantee you that none of them have ever set foot in that park. They just reflexively raise their pitchforks whenever they hear anything regarding a developer. It's dialogue right out of Atlas Shrugged. 

I think, too, that there's a belief that if they can halt as much development as possible, Nashville will go back to the way it was ten years ago and that their rents will go down. Someone said in earnest that "now that we've voted down transit, transplants will get fed up and leave and we can finally get back to the old Nashville".

 

Edited May 5, 2018 by fishsticks176