Oracle, 60 acres at River North, 1,200,000 sq. ft. of space, $1.2B Investment, 8,500 jobs

[rolly]

It's not anti, it's pro.  Designed to prevent people with boy parts from using the girls locker room.

Fact is that more companies are fleeing CA and NY than going to those places because of 'woke' politics.  For example, a lot of the Nashville Yards growth is from this hyper-progressive attacks on Amazon when trying to setup HQ2 in NYC.  Thus a sane Red State signed up another massive relocation project.  The eminent start of Amazon tower 2 is further confirmation that TN is doing the right thing.  It appears that Oracle is on track as well.

[UTgrad09]

I think there are threads where we could discuss the impact of state and local politics, and the impacts that they have on current and future development....

...but this really isn't one of them. Let's move on for the moment, and save the political talk to news or speculation about other projects. 

[Armacing]

1 hour ago, UTgrad09 said:

I think there are threads where we could discuss the impact of state and local politics, and the impacts that they have on current and future development....

...but this really isn't one of them. Let's move on for the moment, and save the political talk to news or speculation about other projects. 

There is a 2020 Politics thread in the Coffee House but people seem to forget about it.  Get in here keyboard warriors!

[samsonh]

2 hours ago, rolly said:

It's not anti, it's pro.  Designed to prevent people with boy parts from using the girls locker room.

Fact is that more companies are fleeing CA and NY than going to those places because of 'woke' politics.  For example, a lot of the Nashville Yards growth is from this hyper-progressive attacks on Amazon when trying to setup HQ2 in NYC.  Thus a sane Red State signed up another massive relocation project.  The eminent start of Amazon tower 2 is further confirmation that TN is doing the right thing.  It appears that Oracle is on track as well.

The C suite stays in California, they move back office and jobs that require less talent and less pay to Tennessee.  California is doing just fine. Tennessee would be well served trying to incubate our own talent to be able to create our own Fortune 500 companies, it requires substantial investments in education to do so. 

[Craiger]

 

[downtownresident]

Breaking!!! Email to council states no final decision has been made yet, but let’s get this done! 

Some details below: 

Among the highlights of Oracle's proposed Southeast hub:

• Oracle has a deal in place to buy a large swath of the River North site on the East Bank of the Cumberland River, signaling its intent to build a long-term presence.
• Oracle expects to invest up to $1.2 billion and build 1.2 million square feet of office space.
• Oracle aims to employ 2,500 people at the campus by the end of 2027 — growing to 8,500 jobs by the end of 2031.
• The full-time jobs would pay an average of $110,000 a year, and include software engineering, sales and consulting roles.
• When fully developed, the campus would generate $18 million of property taxes under current tax rates. Oracle projects another $8.8 million in annual local sales and use taxes.

Mayor John Cooper also has negotiated a financing plan for infrastructure on the site separate from funds that Metro Council approved in February.

Under the plan, Oracle would pay up-front for $175 million of infrastructure including roads, utilities, parks and Greenways, and a pedestrian bridge across the river to Germantown. The work also could include environmental cleanup, as part of the property was formerly a Metro landfill.

Oracle's development would generate additional tax revenue from the property. Each year, Metro would receive half of that new revenue and Oracle would receive the other half to recoup some of the infrastructure costs. The split would continue for up to 25 years, at which point Metro would keep every dollar of tax revenue.

Edited April 14, 2021 by downtownresident

[andywildman]

Love everything I'm reading up until the tax revenue split... Feels like there's some risk in the "build now, pay later" mindset.

On the other hand, if that rendering is what we end up with on the East Bank, then we wasted some prime real estate for an office park that should've landed in Brentwood.

[downtownresident]

31 minutes ago, andywildman said:

Love everything I'm reading up until the tax revenue split... Feels like there's some risk in the "build now, pay later" mindset.

On the other hand, if that rendering is what we end up with on the East Bank, then we wasted some prime real estate for an office park that should've landed in Brentwood.

Oracle is building and paying for the infrastructure upfront. The way it’s set up, Oracle is incentivized to develop their land quickly, so that their portion of the shared property tax increases quickly to pay off their initial investment as fast as possible. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by downtownresident
Typo

[henburg]

Yeah it looks like it would be a beautiful place with all of the greenspace and waterscaping, but it's also such a prime example of wasteful land management that makes little-to-no effort to engage with its surroundings (the rest of River North). I know that's sort of how it goes with tech campuses, but I wish it were denser and less self-contained. 

[Hey_Hey]

There has to be more density than what is shown in those pictures. There’s no way they are going to be able to fit 8500 people in those buildings is there?

[downtownresident]

3 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

There has to be more density than what is shown in those pictures. There’s no way they are going to be able to fit 8500 people in those buildings is there?

If I had to guess, this is likely for the first phase of the development. This doesn’t look like 65 acres either. 

[Sean blackdog]

From Tennessean. 

[nashvylle]

43 minutes ago, andywildman said:

Love everything I'm reading up until the tax revenue split... Feels like there's some risk in the "build now, pay later" mindset.

It's a risk to Oracle, not metro... 

[titanhog]

I think you have to look at it as here’s a HUGE company that wants a “campus” instead of a skyscraper, and Nashville is fortunate enough to have a plot of land near downtown available that keeps the company in Nashville instead of Cool Springs.  So…Nashville gets a “suburban-style” campus…BUT…gets the 8500 jobs.  Seems like a great trade-off.

[PillowTalk4]

Exciting news for Nashville to say the least.  From a development stand point, it is disappointing.  Granted it is 100% better than what was there.  But, clearly most of us here expected more in terms of towers because of its proximity to downtown.  The conceptual design reminds me more of a suburban office park than a development inside the urban core.  I just find it difficult to believe, considering the investment, that an office park environment like Metro Center is what they are proposing.  Hopefully, this is just a concept to tickle our fancy and that we will at least see a plan that better suits an urban core.

C'mon Oracle give us a live, work, stay and play concept.

Live = Multiple high rise residential buildings starting at 20 stories. 

Work = Multiple office towers starting at 25 stories.

Stay = Multiple hotels starting at 15 stories.

Play = The green spaces and water ways you've provided, plus restaurants, bars, retail, outdoor entertainment areas. 

[nashvylle]

Just now, titanhog said:

I think you have to look at it as here’s a HUGE company that wants a “campus” instead of a skyscraper, and Nashville is fortunate enough to have a plot of land near downtown available that keeps the company in Nashville instead of Cool Springs.  So…Nashville gets a “suburban-style” campus…BUT…gets the 8500 jobs.  Seems like a great trade-off.

and it's activating a desolate industrial wasteland/eye sore next to downtown, and Monroe Investment's development plus TA trucking site plus Nissan stadium will hide the corporate campus section of it... plus the 8,500 jobs will lead to more resi towers in the CBD... 

Did I mention the pedestrian bridge connecting to germantown? And no metro investment?

[titanhog]

What does their campus in Austin look like?

[smeagolsfree]

29 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

There has to be more density than what is shown in those pictures. There’s no way they are going to be able to fit 8500 people in those buildings is there?

1.2 million sq ft will be able to handle that number of folks I think.

[downtownresident]

1 minute ago, titanhog said:

What does their campus in Austin look like?

It’s similar in terms of building height, and along their riverfront as well. 

[titanhog]

What if…a BIG if…they plop down a few buildings…but the rest of the land is almost parkland…available to the public to use?  That would actually be pretty cool.

Edited April 14, 2021 by titanhog

[BnaBreaker]

46 minutes ago, Hey_Hey said:

There has to be more density than what is shown in those pictures. There’s no way they are going to be able to fit 8500 people in those buildings is there?

That was my thought as well.  There's no way they are going to be able to fit $1.2 billion in those buildings either!  There has got to be more to it than the rendering, surely.

[markhollin]

A little brighter version of the rendering, and a diagram of the site parameters:
 

[Sean blackdog]

21 minutes ago, titanhog said:

What does their campus in Austin look like?

 

[PillowTalk4]

4 minutes ago, Sean blackdog said:

 

I'm already bored. 

[downtownresident]

Love that they are connecting Cleveland Park with new streets across the interstates. This will only drive denser development along the eastern side of Cowan/west side of Dickerson, and possibly at Trinity/65. I’d imagine this fast tracks the rest of River North north of the Oracle site, as well as development to the south. 
 

Oracle’s thing are these spread out campuses, I’m grateful it’s next to downtown, and that it will drive dense development of the East Bank, instead of driving more sprawl in Williamson Co.