Signature Tower

[FromParkAveToTN]

I wonder if he has considered keeping the same design, but instead of making those proposed floors office space, make those rental units. Maybe have a separate entrance or elevator for those who own their units and separate amenities for homeowners.

[ariesjow]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Tony said in the Fox 17 video that the hotel portion would no longer be at the base and that he was planning on changing the lower floors to the office portion. This would make more sense to me because the floorplates would be a bit larger.

[FromParkAveToTN]

He should have retail space, then office space, then hotel, then rental units, then homeowner units. Talk about mix use then. That's sure to get financing.

[atlrvr]

Anyone have a rough estimate on the size of floorplates? Based on the fact that this is a residential tower, I would think they would be way too small to be attractive to the typical Class A offce renter.....hotel makes sense, but I just can't see how they could also add office....especially since they would want separation of ueses, which means expanding the core....

^ Edit....sorry, I didn't read enough responses to see others had the same doubts about office as I do, and see that there is a possible remedy.

[barakat]

Here's a clip about Signature on WKRN's website, where Tony says that he has a tentative commitment for a large chunk of the office portion of that tower that would take the space of 150 former condos.

http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?s=8366924

[smeagolsfree]

I think I win the cookie on this one.

"We've been approached by a large company to lease a large block of office space that would eliminate approximately 150 condominium units," Giarratana continued.

All I will say is that he has something up his sleeve. It still remains to be seen if construction starts.

Folks I knew nothing, but figured that someone had approached Tony about office space. This makes the entire project feasible if he has a corporate commitment.

[franktown]

It looks from his gesturing like the middle portion is going to increase in girth to make it more paletable for office tenants... that's just me playing charades though. Could this be another play by him though? Remember when he was close to getting financing? And when he was weeks from a groundbreaking?

[Hankster]

Anyone have a rough estimate on the size of floorplates? Based on the fact that this is a residential tower, I would think they would be way too small to be attractive to the typical Class A offce renter.....hotel makes sense, but I just can't see how they could also add office....especially since they would want separation of ueses, which means expanding the core....

^ Edit....sorry, I didn't read enough responses to see others had the same doubts about office as I do, and see that there is a possible remedy.

About 14,500 Sq Ft.

[Hankster]

If he is able to land that company that would lease 15 floors worth of office space (roughly 60% of the office component) and holds on to the 105 sales contracts he has in hand (about 53% of the 200 condos the new design would have), he just might get financing for this project afterall. Things are sounding better and better. By the way,I verified the 105 sales contract number by counting the number of contracts shown on the Signature Tower chart in the video. Maybe Tony will "pull a rabbit out of his hat".

[smeagolsfree]

An idea of who it could be is this. 1St TN is looking for office space and who better than them to take a large chunk of space and maybe naming rights. I am sure they would want to stay DT with the other banks and they are looking to consolidate space. It would be a premier location right in the heart of the financial area of DT. I would bet there are other companies looking at Nashville as well for office space but this one jumps out as a top contender. Who else better than a bank to be a financial partner.

[nashvylle]

Oh come on Tony, get this tower built!!!! We have faith in you!

[BnaBreaker]

This is something the intelligent folks on this forum likely figured out a long time ago, but it's something that, for whatever reason, I just realized, and I'm posting it just encase there is anyone else who is, like me, a bit slow to the punch.

If the Signature Tower was built today it would be the 25th tallest building in the world.

That's all. This might be small potatoes to some, but to other skyscraper geeks like myself I found it quite impressive and it is something that for whatever reason, I didn't realize.

Now, with all of the highrise construction going on in China, the UAE and other places, Siggy will have likely fallen much further down the list by the time it is built, but still, impressive nonetheless.

[e-dub]

so...

why is the signage down on the surface lot? i rode by today and there was NO signature tower signage. set the stage for the rest of the bad day

eric b

[satalac]

so...

why is the signage down on the surface lot? i rode by today and there was NO signature tower signage. set the stage for the rest of the bad day

eric b

my hope is that maybe he's getting a new sign that says "financing by...". i can always hope!

[Nashville_maestro]

That and he probably realized that 2010 completion is unfeasible. Plus the building had sense been redesigned (crown anyway) from what was on the signage and might have to be redesigned yet again. Also he might want to advertise the office portion now as well. Who knows. The old signs were obsolete though.

[Hankster]

An idea of who it could be is this. 1St TN is looking for office space and who better than them to take a large chunk of space and maybe naming rights. I am sure they would want to stay DT with the other banks and they are looking to consolidate space. It would be a premier location right in the heart of the financial area of DT. I would bet there are other companies looking at Nashville as well for office space but this one jumps out as a top contender. Who else better than a bank to be a financial partner.

That sounds like a very realistic prediction. I've love to see an area corporation help Tony pull this thing off.

[jice]

my hope is that maybe he's getting a new sign that says "financing by...". i can always hope!

i'm hoping they were taken down to make way for construction equipment to move in... with new fencing and signage surrounding the under construction tower...

think its possible?

[smeagolsfree]

Here is part of a larger article from the NBJ concerning the Signature:

Basically the article says that Tony is adding to the hotel space, making 10 to 12 stories of office space and the undisclosed company would take 8.5 floors and reduce the number of condos by making the remaining units larger.

http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville.../02/story1.html

I will try and read the entire article this weekend and give you the rest unless someone has a subscription and can enlighten us.

[Hankster]

Based on this information, I come to the following conclusions:

1. The hotel portion will probably increase from 13 to 16 floors.

2. The new office portion will occupy approximately floors 17 thru 28.

3. If he leases 8.5 of these floors to the company looking for office space in Signature, he will have 71% of his office space pre-leased.

4. The tower footprint for floors 1 thru 28 will be enlarged to accommodate a larger floorplate for the office space. This conclusion is based on the fact that the article say the company will lease 150,000 Sq Ft or 8.5 floors. That works out to over 17,600 Sq Ft for floor. The current design has only 14,500 Sq Ft per floor in the tower. I beleive the larger floorplate is the same for the old 55 story design. Tony reduced the floorplate size when he went to the 70 story design.

5. The final number of floors in the new design will probably be 67, not 70. This is based on the fact that office floors are taller than the condo floors they replace. Tony said the height of the tower will not change. The taller office floors mean fewer floors in all.

6. Floors 29 thru 67 (39 floors in all) will be condos. In the current design there are exactly 250 condo units. Tony has said he plans to increase the floor space on many of the units, and has also stated earlier that new design will have 200 units. I will take his word and go along with the new design having 200 units.

7. I expect there to be a transition in floor plate size to the smaller floor plate at floor 29 where the condo units start.

8. Tony currently has 105 contracts in hand. Yes, I said currently the number is 105. That is the number I counted on his sales chart seen in a video not more than one week ago. I believe he has that many because he took the trouble to update the condo reservations on his website earlier on a very conscientious basis. He updated frequently both up when reservations were added and down when reservations were lost. For that reason, I have every reason to believe the 105 number is an updated number reflecting both contracts added and lost. If the final design has 200 units and Tony keeps his 105 contracts, that means he has 52.5% of the condos sold.

All in all, everything seems pretty positive for the project right now.

[franktown]

Wow.... that's incredibly positive! I'll be honest... I was pretty down on this project and was just counting the weeks until they declared it wasn't happening, but this is quite a change. The only thing I'm not sure about is how it'll look; if it gets fatter at the lower levels and gets a fair bit thinner higher up it'll look weird. I thought I remembered him saying in that video that the lower part was staying the same though... anyone else?

[smeagolsfree]

Hankster, thanks for the numbers calculation.

Now, what if he has 20 floors of office space? That may be a real possibility?

[Hankster]

Hankster, thanks for the numbers calculation.

Now, what if he has 20 floors of office space? That may be a real possibility?

Something like that would allow Tony to reduce the number of condos even more, and pretty much make this project a slam dunk.....that is, assuming he can line up even more office space for lease. If I were Tony, I'd be trying to recruit another office client just as hard as I'm trying to sell more condos.

[titanhog]

Anyone have an update on Tony's search for an office tenant? Is there a chance he has one wrapped up and that's one of the reasons he's decided to go the route of hotel/office/condos?

[timmay143]

Haven't heard anything yet, but a company has approached him about leasing.

Channel 2 News Story Financing forces plan change for Signature Tower

TN articles

Signature Tower headed back to drawing board

Signature Tower goes back to square one

NBJ

Firm looking at Signature space

edit: These are a few weeks old and may have been posted already, sorry.

[titanhog]

Haven't heard anything yet, but a company has approached him about leasing.

Channel 2 News Story Financing forces plan change for Signature Tower

TN articles

Signature Tower headed back to drawing board

Signature Tower goes back to square one

NBJ

Firm looking at Signature space

edit: These are a few weeks old and may have been posted already, sorry.

Ya know...if he increases the size of the hotel, leases 10-12 floors to the office tenant that the NBJ talks about, and keeps his upper floor condo buyers he already has, I would think he would be really close to securing financing from someone. Fingers crossed.