Nashville Bits and Pieces

[smeagolsfree]

Cool, we have a new generation of geeks to take over for the old farts. Congrats Paul!

[bnacincy]

Anyone hear about the attendance numbers for the CMAFest? I haven't heard anything and am wondering if it might have been down a bit from last year due to the weather perhaps?

[subkyle]

12 minutes ago, bnacincy said:

Anyone hear about the attendance numbers for the CMAFest? I haven't heard anything and am wondering if it might have been down a bit from last year due to the weather perhaps?

I’m not sure about the numbers for CMA fest, but I was very encouraged by the median age of the people downtown. I always stroll around town during big events, and I feel strongly that the CMA fest crowd is getting younger. That’s a great sign if you ask me.

[titanhog]

43 minutes ago, subkyle said:

I’m not sure about the numbers for CMA fest, but I was very encouraged by the median age of the people downtown. I always stroll around town during big events, and I feel strongly that the CMA fest crowd is getting younger. That’s a great sign if you ask me.

Country music is attracting a WAY younger crowd than 10-20 years ago.  Demographics used to be more of a 25-54 age group...and now is probably more 18-34.

[OnePointEast]

2 hours ago, bnacincy said:

Anyone hear about the attendance numbers for the CMAFest? I haven't heard anything and am wondering if it might have been down a bit from last year due to the weather perhaps?

A friend of mine who does gigs on Broadway told me the numbers were down this year but that's just him assuming by his eye count and not actual figures.

Edited June 22, 2019 by OnePointEast

[jmtunafish]

Nashville continues to be a top city for office construction.

https://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/585128263?utm_source=costar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2&utm_content=p0

[markhollin]

State of Tennessee to consider $10 million incentive package for SmileDirectClub expansion:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/06/21/tennessee-consider-10-m-incentive-smiledirectclub/1527494001/

[Craiger]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

State of Tennessee to consider $10 million incentive package for SmileDirectClub expansion:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/06/21/tennessee-consider-10-m-incentive-smiledirectclub/1527494001/

This seems unnecessary. 

[titanhog]

1 hour ago, Craiger said:

This seems unnecessary. 

Yeah...but if you don’t give them the $10 million, they’re threatening to change their name to Frown Direct Club...and nobody wants that. 

[bigeasy]

SmileDirect w/o incentive and then with it  (these are the founders incase someone didn't know)

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by bigeasy

[MLBrumby]

Anyone else tired of the grunge look on dot.com billionaires? Of course I realize they pay a lot of money to look poor. 

[fishsticks176]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/06/25/mitsubishi-moves-headquarters-franklin-tennessee-california/1549906001/

 

mitsubishi is moving its HQ from CA to Franklin

[satalac]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

Anyone else tired of the grunge look on dot.com billionaires? Of course I realize they pay a lot of money to look poor. 

Nah, I'm more tired of not being a billionaire.

[UTgrad09]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

Anyone else tired of the grunge look on dot.com billionaires? Of course I realize they pay a lot of money to look poor. 

[titanhog]

3 hours ago, fishsticks176 said:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/06/25/mitsubishi-moves-headquarters-franklin-tennessee-california/1549906001/

 

mitsubishi is moving its HQ from CA to Franklin

Anyone know where TN stands in the number of Auto jobs compared to other states?  Gotta be top 5, right?

[SumnerCountian]

Belated congrats to a fellow soccer enthusiast, Paul, on the arrival of your life's most important job; being a Dad. Good Luck.

[Binbin98]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tennessean.com/amp/1559510001

A San Francisco startup company named Pilot is relocating their headquarters here Creating 450 jobs. Although this wasn’t as large as the Mitsubishi news this is still good news. 

 

On another note with Mitsubishi leaving California, Honda will be the only Japanese automotive company whose North American headquarters are still there. 

[smeagolsfree]

Honda would be a huge catch as they have around 25,000 employees. I dont see us getting them to move here without huge incentives and direct flights to Tokoyo. We have to extend the runway first and as Bob updated us at the meet that will not happen till around 2024 I think was his response.

 

On a side note Toyota's NA hQ is in Plano TX.

[Nash_12South]

I'm not sure if this is appropriate for the forum or not but - did folks watch the mayoral debate last night? Thoughts on who would be our best new mayor? 

I'm not a Swain fan and am leaning towards Clemmons, but I thought he came off a little badly. He was too stiff and a little too formulaic in his answers. I'm tired of Briley and disappointed in his lack of leadership. He was full of ideas for new directions but where were these prior to the election. Cooper impressed me, but seems part of the problem and I thought Briley was spot on in pointing out his lack of leadership on the budget debate. Swain seems to want to burn the house down and start over, which won't work, in my opinion.  Asking friends or coworkers generally gets a response of "what mayoral race?"

Edited June 26, 2019 by Nash_12South

[Craiger]

2 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

I'm not sure if this is appropriate for the forum or not but - did folks watch the mayoral debate last night? Thoughts on who would be our best new mayor? 

I'm not a Swain fan and am leaning towards Clemmons, but I thought he came off a little badly. He was too stiff and a little too formulaic in his answers. I'm tired of Briley and disappointed in his lack of leadership. He was full of ideas for new directions but where were these prior to the election. Cooper impressed me, but seems part of the problem and I thought Briley was spot on in pointing out his lack of leadership on the budget debate. Swain seems to want to burn the house down and start over, which won't work, in my opinion.  Asking friends or coworkers generally gets a response of "what mayoral race?"

Perfect topic for the coffee house. 

[Andy20]

Anyone able to read behind NBJ paywall on Metro incentives want to give a summary? Thank you.

[markhollin]

28 minutes ago, Andy20 said:

Anyone able to read behind NBJ paywall on Metro incentives want to give a summary? Thank you.

The essence of the article is that  with many of the past latest job announcements (Pilot.com's 450, Posmates' 1,000, Ernst Young's 600, etc.) Nashville has offered no incentives.   so, it makes one wonder how much longer the state will put its own grants and other aid packages on the table as well when recruiting new businesses.

"If a company chooses Nashville and the city chooses not to participate, we certainly are not critical of [Metro's] decision. But you're right, it does place an additional burden on the state when a local community chooses not to participate," said Bob Rolfe, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

"We still look at Nashville as a fabulous recruiting partner. And I look at the chamber … and the mayor as great partners," Rolfe said. "We also recognize the city only has so much bandwidth, and my sense is, going forward, the city is going to save its incentives for the larger projects that have the greatest impact."

More behind the NBJ paywall here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/06/26/with-metro-cooling-to-incentives-how-long-will-the.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

[nashvillwill]

On 6/25/2019 at 12:05 PM, fishsticks176 said:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2019/06/25/mitsubishi-moves-headquarters-franklin-tennessee-california/1549906001/

 

mitsubishi is moving its HQ from CA to Franklin

Is this really even a big catch? They don’t have an assembly plant in North America. I’m pretty sure they don’t even build cars anymore. I think they just take models from other auto makers and re-badge them. I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate, but honestly, when is the last time you remember seeing a Mitsubishi on the road that turned your head?

When I first saw the headlines and the excitement over it, I assumed it was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Now that would have been a huge catch. Then I found out it was a nearly defunct auto “maker”, and I was severely disappointed. 

 

Edit: Just looked into this and apparently the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is one of the worlds larger automakers. So they are probably just trying to move closer to Nissan.

Edited June 28, 2019 by nashvillwill

[smeagolsfree]

6 hours ago, nashvillwill said:

Is this really even a big catch? They don’t have an assembly plant in North America. I’m pretty sure they don’t even build cars anymore. I think they just take models from other auto makers and re-badge them. I’m not sure that’s 100% accurate, but honestly, when is the last time you remember seeing a Mitsubishi on the road that turned your head?

When I first saw the headlines and the excitement over it, I assumed it was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Now that would have been a huge catch. Then I found out it was a nearly defunct auto “maker”, and I was severely disappointed. 

 

Edit: Just looked into this and apparently the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is one of the worlds larger automakers. So they are probably just trying to move closer to Nissan.

I think you nailed it.  That was my reaction at first as well and then I realized it was not that many employees and then I found out they were in some kind of partnership with Nissan and Renault that I though this was not that big of deal. The San Francisco company was really more of a bigger deal and they located to Davidson and not Williamson.

[titanhog]

8 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

I think you nailed it.  That was my reaction at first as well and then I realized it was not that many employees and then I found out they were in some kind of partnership with Nissan and Renault that I though this was not that big of deal. The San Francisco company was really more of a bigger deal and they located to Davidson and not Williamson.

But I think I read somewhere that Mitsubishi may be trying to kinda restart their auto division...as far as designing / building autos.  With the help of Nissan / Renault, maybe they'll become an up-and-coming rebrand?