Nashville Bits and Pieces

[Canuck87]

59 minutes ago, Nashtitans said:

The whole Sounds stadium area is a fail when it comes to this...Imagine the type of business that could be happening when baseball fans leave the stadium and are looking to buy or eat something.

I remember listening to an interview with Karl Dean on Nashville Public Radio several years ago when the plan to build the stadium at the old Sulphur Dell site was initially being discussed. As I'm sure most of you recall, prior to that, most bets were on a new Sounds stadium being built south of Broadway.

The justification given by then-Mayor Dean for building the stadium on the north side of the Capitol was that this area offered more potential for development, as compared to the already highly saturated SoBo area. The idea was that the stadium would serve as a catalyst for bars, restaurants, retail, etc. to move into the area, creating something akin to Wrigleyville.

I say all this in support of your statement that, as of now, the stadium has been far from successful, especially considering that the main goal in choosing the location was to spark the this particular type of development. 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Canuck87

[Canuck87]

Mayor Berry has hired Brian Kelsey to serve as the city's first-ever "Chief Strategy Officer."

The position was recommended as part of the Strategic Budgeting and Innovation Project Public Investment Plan, and its purpose is to "promote collaboration and align the Metro budget with the needs and priorities of Nashville's residents."

Kelsey is the Principal and Founder of Civic Analytics, an economic development research and consulting firm based in Austin, Texas. He also served as an adjunct lecturer in economic development at The University of Texas at Austin.

He will work with Metro department heads and staff, as well as citizens, to design and implement changes to government functions. Additionally, he will work with the city's chief data officer to better collect and publish data.

Hopefully, he can bring some of that Austin-growth with him to Nashville.

Coverage:

Press Release: http://www.nashville.gov/News-Media/News-Article/ID/5964/Mayor-Barry-Names-Brian-Kelsey-to-Serve-as-Chief-Strategy-Officer-for-Metro.aspx

Tennessean Article: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/12/13/mayor-barry-appoints-first-chief-strategy-officer-bring-business-tools-nashville/95384374/

Nashville Post Article: http://www.nashvillepost.com/politics/metro-government/article/20846643/barry-fills-new-chief-strategy-officer-position

Full biography: http://civicanalytics.com/brian-kelsey/

Edited December 13, 2016 by Canuck87

[UTgrad09]

I don't really want the Austin-level growth right now. We're getting a taste right now, and it's insane.

However, strategy (and planning) is definitely something this city could use more of...so I like this idea.

[Nashtitans]

I feel like Nashville and Austin are like twin cities. They're always interacting with each other.

 

But this is great news!

[markhollin]

"...as of now, the stadium has been far from successful, especially considering that the main goal in choosing the location was to spark the this particular type of development."

The key part of this statement is "as of now."  It is not the city's fault that enterprises have not stepped-in as quickly as would be hoped to activate the immediate area around the ballpark.  Some criticisms are being based solely on the fact that The Carillon Apartments only have one retail slot available at street level a block from the stadium.  Eventually, when the Ward Family's Sounds Apartments (400 units including retail/restaurants wrapped around the third base line and left field), Stockyard Apartments (310 units with some retail/restaurants just a block east), and Provident Germantown (on hold for now, but 300+ units with retail/restaurant a block and a half southeast), are up and running, that will add to the percolation around the stadium. The Geist House bar/restaurant redevelopment on Jefferson should be finished by next spring, just one block north of the First Tennessee Park. Closers Sport Bar on 3rd Ave. North and Harrison, just 1.5 blocks south from the stadium, should be open next spring as well.  

And let's not forget that numerous eateries and bars just two blocks north of the stadium in Germantown have had significant increases in business since the park opened two seasons ago.  Once all of these now-empty blocks are filled-in over the next five years, there should be some decent activity, not just on games nights, but year 'round.  

And the ballpark, simply on it's own merits, has been quite successful, registering 2 of the franchises 3 best season attendance records since it's opening in Spring of 2015. 

Patience, folks.  Rome wasn't built in a day. 

[Canuck87]

A great little feature from PBS NewsHour about music row.

 

[samsonh]

5 minutes ago, markhollin said:

"...as of now, the stadium has been far from successful, especially considering that the main goal in choosing the location was to spark the this particular type of development."

The key part of this statement is "as of now."  It is not the city's fault that enterprises have not stepped-in as quickly as would be hoped to activate the immediate area around the ballpark.  Some criticisms are being based solely on the fact that The Carillon Apartments only have one retail slot available at street level a block from the stadium.  Eventually, when the Ward Family's Sounds Apartments (400 units including retail/restaurants wrapped around the third base line and left field), Stockyard Apartments (310 units with some retail/restaurants just a block east), and Provident Germantown (on hold for now, but 300+ units with retail/restaurant a block and a half southeast), are up and running, that will add to the percolation around the stadium. The Geist House bar/restaurant redevelopment on Jefferson should be finished by next spring, just one block north of the First Tennessee Park. Closers Sport Bar on 3rd Ave. North and Harrison, just 1.5 blocks south from the stadium, should be open next spring as well.  

And let's not forget that numerous eateries and bars just two blocks north of the stadium in Germantown have had significant increases in business since the park opened two seasons ago.  Once all of these now-empty blocks are filled-in over the next five years, there should be some decent activity, not just on games nights, but year 'round.  

And the ballpark, simply on it's own merits, has been quite successful, registering 2 of the franchises 3 best season attendance records since it's opening in Spring of 2015. 

Patience, folks.  Rome wasn't built in a day. 

Completely agree. Stadium has been a huge hit as far as I am concerned. It has helped stir activity in an area people used to never go. Once these apartments start opening up the area will be buzzing. I am not sure what people expect from a minor league stadium, but Nashville is getting good bang for its buck.

[Canuck87]

2 minutes ago, samsonh said:

Completely agree. Stadium has been a huge hit as far as I am concerned. It has helped stir activity in an area people used to never go. Once these apartments start opening up the area will be buzzing. I am not sure what people expect from a minor league stadium, but Nashville is getting good bang for its buck.

I agree with both of you, and I certainly did not intend to come across as critical of the stadium itself or the city's decision in choosing that location. I think it's an excellent facility, and I really believe the location will prove to be the best choice in the long run. 

If anything, I'm surprised that: A) it's taken as long as it has to develop the area around the ballpark (not that 1.5 years is an especially long time), and B) that the existing development (i.e., the Carillon Apartments) did not do more to cater to the park's attendees. But neither of those issues are attributable to the city.

I guess I was expecting more of an immediate response from developers, but to echo Mark, Rome wasn't built in a day...

[Nashtitans]

I don't think people are trying to downplay the stadium's success, but it's really just missing a critical thing.

[Pyramid Scheme]

2 hours ago, samsonh said:

Eventually, when the Ward Family's Sounds Apartments (400 units including retail/restaurants wrapped around the third base line and left field), Stockyard Apartments (310 units with some retail/restaurants just a block east), and Provident Germantown (on hold for now, but 300+ units with retail/restaurant a block and a half southeast), are up and running, that will add to the percolation around the stadium.

I know this is off topic, but I can't help but marvel at how densely populated Germantown is going to be. That whole place is going to be very much alive, especially on game nights.

[markhollin]

Nashville Business Journal ranks the Top Ten Most-Read Articles of the Year.  Five of them are development-related:

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2016/12/14/year-in-review-nbj-s-most-read-stories-of-2016.html#g1

[Nashtitans]

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2016/12/14/nashville-still-cant-top-austin-according-to-new.html

 

"Despite the city's quick growth, Nashville still can't top two of its most competitive peer cities, Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C., on a new list of the country's best-performing cities.

According to a new study released by the Milken Institute, Nashville ranks No. 7 in relation to its 2016 growth in employment opportunities, wages and technology. Austin, meanwhile, came in at No. 2 and Raleigh was ranked No. 6.

 

Though it fell short of these notable competitors, Music City saw its individual rank increase 11 spots compared to its 2015 performance.

“America’s best-performing cities yet again demonstrated their innovation advantage aligned with high levels of entrepreneurship,” Ross DeVol, chief research officer of the Milken Institute, said in a news release. “That is witnessed not just in ‘traditional’ technology but in medical and financial services.”

Not having an abundance of high-tech jobs is what ultimately impacted Nashville's overall score. For instance, if the entire United States' concentration of high-tech jobs is scored as a 1.0, then Nashville's is 0.65, according to the study. By comparison, the study's No. 1 city, San Jose, Calif., has a concentration of 4.42.

While highly touted, Nashville's tech scene has lagged behind both Austin and Raleigh's Research Triangle, both of which had a higher concentration of technology jobs than Nashville. Take, for example the tech war between Nashville and Austin. In 2015, Nashville-area startups raised a combined $135.9 million, while Austin’s brought in $740 million.

Nashville's overall rank benefited from solid wage growth. The war for talent in Greater Nashville has led several of the city's largest employers to raise wages in order to retain their best employees, as we wrote about recently in relation to the city's booming restaurant sector."

[SoundScan]

What's really holding Nashville back as far as tech jobs growth is the lack of local major university STEM programs. UT Austin has more engineering students than Vanderbilt's entire undergraduate enrollment. Raleigh has NC State, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill to pull from, with Wake Forest less than 100 miles away.

[titanhog]

3 minutes ago, SoundScan said:

What's really holding Nashville back as far as tech jobs growth is the lack of local major university STEM programs. UT Austin has more engineering students than Vanderbilt's entire undergraduate enrollment. Raleigh has NC State, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill to pull from, with Wake Forest less than 100 miles away.

What is the reason that UT (Tenn) doesn't have a Nashville campus?  Is it because of TSU?

[Flatrock]

UT does have a campus here in South Nashville. The College of Social Work, I believe. Tennessee Tech in Cookeville has an excellent and well respected engineering school...just as an aside. 

[Guest]

UTN becomes TSU (Avon Williams Campus)

[Nathan_in_DC]

7 hours ago, titanhog said:

What is the reason that UT (Tenn) doesn't have a Nashville campus?  Is it because of TSU?

UT Nashville was shut down because of a lawsuit claiming that its existence was defacto segregation. The person behind the lawsuit, who's name I cannot remember at the moment, spoke at my graduation from UT back in 2006, giving the most self congratulatory oration I had heard up to that time and since. 

Edited December 15, 2016 by Nathan_in_DC

[shanky]

37 minutes ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

UT Nashville was shut down because of a lawsuit claiming that it's existence was defacto segregation. The person behind the lawsuit, who's name I cannot remember at the moment, spoke at my graduation from UT back in 2006, giving the most self congratulatory oration I had heard up to that time and since. 

Not that it matters but wasn't it Avon Williams to whom your referring to?

[bhibbs]

7 minutes ago, shanky said:

Not that it matters but wasn't it Avon Williams to whom your referring to?

he died in 93, so that would be a very creepy speech in 06

[rookzie]

17 hours ago, Nathan_in_DC said:

UT Nashville was shut down because of a lawsuit claiming that its existence was defacto segregation. The person behind the lawsuit, who's name I cannot remember at the moment, spoke at my graduation from UT back in 2006, giving the most self congratulatory oration I had heard up to that time and since. 

 

16 hours ago, shanky said:

Not that it matters but wasn't it Avon Williams to whom your referring to?

 

16 hours ago, bhibbs said:

he died in 93, so that would be a very creepy speech in 06

Nathan might have been referring to Avon Williams III, who died in 2005.  He attended the former Peabody Demonstration School (then a part of Geo Peabody College, prior to it becoming incorporated with Vanderbilt), a K-12 school from where I was graduated in 1969, when he had been in about the 2nd or 3rd grade.  Indeed it was reported that he had tooted a mouth full of whistles form time to time.

It was his father, a former Tennessee state senator and prominent civil rights lawyer (as well as the divorce attorney for my parents in 1963), who died in 1993.  That was the one who actually had initiated the litigation.

[shanky]

16 minutes ago, rookzie said:

 

 

Nathan might have been referring to Avon Williams III, who died in 2005.  He attended the former Peabody Demonstration School (then a part of Geo Peabody College, prior to it becoming incorporated with Vanderbilt), a K-12 school from where I was graduated in 1969, when he had been in about the 2nd or 3rd grade.  Indeed it was reported that he had tooted a mouth full of whistles form time to time.

It was his father, a former Tennessee state senator and prominent civil rights lawyer (as well as the divorce attorney for my parents in 1963), who died in 1993.  That was the one who actually had initiated the litigation.

I like the idea of the ghost of AW giving the commencement

[Canuck87]

"Nashville: ‘Music City’ has amplified appeal for homebuyers"

A great write-up about Nashville's recent growth and development from the Financial Times. 

https://www.ft.com/content/26e68698-bd42-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080

Edited December 15, 2016 by Canuck87

[Flatrock]

22 minutes ago, Canuck87 said:

"Nashville: ‘Music City’ has amplified appeal for homebuyers"

A great write-up about Nashville's recent growth and development from the Financial Times. 

https://www.ft.com/content/26e68698-bd42-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080

 The article appears to be locked behind a paywall. Any chance of pasting a screenshot of the article? Thanks!

[Canuck87]

Nashville: ‘Music City’ has amplified appeal for homebuyers

The capital of Tennessee is one of the top six cities in the US for property investments

The US in 1968 was in ferment. In April, Martin Luther King was assassinated, sparking riots across the country. In June, Senator Bobby Kennedy was shot, too. The war in Vietnam was claiming more than 500 American lives a month.

As the country simmered, Bob Dylan was in a Tennessee recording studio. The resultant Nashville Skyline, released the following year, was a paean to the city of Nashville and the country music industry it had nurtured. Not for the first time, fans complained the voice of a generation was neglecting his duties.

Tennessee’s capital, nicknamed “Music City”, has drawn in the greats of country and rock, from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash to Kings of Leon and Taylor Swift. Today, businesses and their employees are feeling the draw, too.

Office construction is at an all-time high, according to agent Cushman & Wakefield. And vacancies are at record lows, says Keith DeCoster of Savills’ research department in New York, despite a huge 2.9m sq ft of office space created since 2009.

The healthy local economy is attracting workers. At 3.9 per cent, Nashville’s unemployment rate in October was well below the US figure of 4.9 per cent. Between them, healthcare — the city’s largest sector, worth about $38bn — finance and technology, as well as the bellwethers of music and entertainment, are in rude health, says DeCoster.

US Census data from the Nashville metropolitan area show its population is growing at more than twice the national rate. “Today the city is seeing roughly 90 new arrivals per day, meaning prices [are] on the rise and affordable housing [is] running low,” says Denise Creswell, president of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

Across Davidson County — an area dominated by the city — median sales prices in the three months to September were up 15 per cent on the same period in 2015. Nashville is the sixth-most appealing city in the US for property investments, according to PwC’s yearly nationwide survey.

Many of the younger, affluent new arrivals make a beeline for 12 South, a neighbourhood roughly three miles south of central Nashville. Its ready supply of new homes, central location and proximity to Belmont and Vanderbilt universities have made the area popular with young families and singletons alike, says Clay Kelton of Pilkerton Realtors, a local agent. A two-bedroom penthouse apartment on 20th Avenue South in the neighbourhood is on sale for $2.99m through Pilkerton.

That price is right at Nashville’s top end; median sale prices in October were $261,000, according to Creswell. And the city’s relative affordability is at the heart of its appeal. Companies filling Nashville’s growing tech and finance sectors, in particular, are exiles from larger US cities, where spiralling office and residential prices are making running a business — or even a home — increasingly tough.

“Nashville is among a clutch of secondary cities providing cheaper living and working with a trendy urban lifestyle. In particular, this is providing affordable talent [staff] to start-up companies driven out of Silicon Valley, Manhattan and Boston,” says DeCoster.

Those working in Nashville’s growing financial services sector, meanwhile, will be looking to roost in the city’s well-heeled, roomy suburbs, which include Franklin, Belle Meade and Brentwood. Family homes here sell for a prayer in comparison with the best neighbourhoods in New York or Los Angeles.

Pilkerton is selling a five-bedroom house, with a large garden, on Granny White Pike in Brentwood for $2.15m. Those with deeper pockets might consider the home available on Westview Avenue in Belle Meade. A 20-minute drive from Nashville’s airport, it has eight bedrooms, a pool and a large landscaped garden. It is on sale for $11.95m through The Lipman Group Sotheby’s International Realty.

Meanwhile, Nashville’s music scene has not missed out on the action. High studio rents in New York and LA are driving recording studios and artists back to the city, says Kelton. Early recruits included Jack White of The White Stripes who bought a studio in 2009 to house Third Man Records, the label he started in 2001.

Dylan, sadly, has left for sunnier climes. Forty-eight years and (by this fan’s count) 55 albums after Nashville Skyline, the singer recorded his latest album, Fallen Angels, last year in LA.

Buying guide

● Flights from Nashville international airport to New York take about two hours and 15 minutes

● The population of the metropolitan area of Nashville is 1.8m

● Transfer tax on all home purchases in the city is 0.37 per cent. An additional 1 per cent annual property tax is calculated on the assessed value of a home

● Nashville’s famous recordings include Elvis Presley’s 1956 single “Heartbreak Hotel” and Bob Dylan’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde

What you can buy for . . .

$500,000 A two-bedroom condo apartment in downtown Nashville

$1.25m A four-bedroom home with a pool on 1.5 acres in Belle Meade

$2m A five-bedroom, detached house on three acres in Brentwood

Edited December 15, 2016 by Canuck87

[Nathan_in_DC]

11 hours ago, rookzie said:

 

 

Nathan might have been referring to Avon Williams III, who died in 2005.  He attended the former Peabody Demonstration School (then a part of Geo Peabody College, prior to it becoming incorporated with Vanderbilt), a K-12 school from where I was graduated in 1969, when he had been in about the 2nd or 3rd grade.  Indeed it was reported that he had tooted a mouth full of whistles form time to time.

It was his father, a former Tennessee state senator and prominent civil rights lawyer (as well as the divorce attorney for my parents in 1963), who died in 1993.  That was the one who actually had initiated the litigation.

Nope, it was a lady. I cannot believe I'm blanking on her name at the moment. She was one of the main plaintiffs in the case.