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What will follow all the hotels in SOBRO


nashwatcher

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MTSU: "Nashville isn't and never will be a Ritz Carlton or Four Season market" :ph34r:

Nashville is a Maserati and Jimmy Choo and Tiffany & Co. market so why shouldn't it also be a Ritz Carlton market? I mean, they aren't THAT exclusive anymore. There's one in Charlotte, Phoenix, and Cleveland. Why not Nashville?

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Nashville is a Maserati and Jimmy Choo and Tiffany & Co. market so why shouldn't it also be a Ritz Carlton market? I mean, they aren't THAT exclusive anymore. There's one in Charlotte, Phoenix, and Cleveland. Why not Nashville?

Don't forget the Four Seasons in Saint Louis that is part of Lumiere Place Casino resort.

I can see the Ritz entering the market, apparently they've wanted to before. Maybe they'll go in Tony's proposed hotel location. I mean it'd be perfect, across from the symphony center, a block from the MCC, and 2 blocks from Lower Broadway and The District, not to mention just a handful more from the epicenter of the financial core of Nashville.

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P2, that's interesting and would love to pick your brain, but I know how you operate. That said - are we talking about them joining an existing structure or a new one?

What existing structure is there for them to move into? Certainly not the old Union Planters building on Union Street.

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P2, that's interesting and would love to pick your brain, but I know how you operate. That said - are we talking about them joining an existing structure or a new one?

It's no secret that there are hoteliers and developers visiting and meeting here every week. This has been going on for months. Limited service hotels are buying properties and building hotels. Full service folks are looking for some help from the City and so far no deals have been made. Ritz, Westin, Marriott, Sheraton, etc. have all been looking, what or who dives in first is anyone's guess.

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I hope we're able to get another full service luxury hotel to come on board. Having a Ritz or Four Season type hotel would definitely help with recruitment of big, high value conventions. Those brands carry names and reputations that are hard to ignore.

I could very easily see a JW Marriott being the next full service hotel that decides to locate in Nashville. They are expanding nationally right now, and Nashville would seem to be a good fit.

I also keep waiting on the announcement of a 21c hotel. They're based in Louisville, but have been expanding recently. They now have hotels in three cities (Louisville, Cincinnati, and Bentonville, AR) with announcements made in Lexington and Durham that they will be opening soon there. Other than Bentonville they always locate in historic buildings and then renovate them, but they clearly appear willing to be part of new construction as evidenced by Bentonville. Half hotel and half art museum, a 21c would definitely be a unique addition to Nashville. I've never been, but the urinals in the men's bathroom in Louisville actually look out into the lobby through one-way glass.

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I have noted on this board before that Ritz has discussed plans to come to Nashville, and in the past they were extremely interested in a parcel of land at 21st and Broadway that Vandy controls. I still think their best interests in Nashville would be served by locating in midtown... as that's still quite close to downtown, but also in the midst of the medical centers and healthcare corporations, not to mention (but I will) the rich parents of Vandy and Belmont students...and especially close to Music Row.

I have stayed at both Ritz and Four Seasons several times, and across the board I am far more impressed by Four Seasons. Given that Four Seasons also has more cache, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ritz come here... but not Four Seasons.

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I hope we're able to get another full service luxury hotel to come on board. Having a Ritz or Four Season type hotel would definitely help with recruitment of big, high value conventions. Those brands carry names and reputations that are hard to ignore.

I could very easily see a JW Marriott being the next full service hotel that decides to locate in Nashville. They are expanding nationally right now, and Nashville would seem to be a good fit.

I also keep waiting on the announcement of a 21c hotel. They're based in Louisville, but have been expanding recently. They now have hotels in three cities (Louisville, Cincinnati, and Bentonville, AR) with announcements made in Lexington and Durham that they will be opening soon there. Other than Bentonville they always locate in historic buildings and then renovate them, but they clearly appear willing to be part of new construction as evidenced by Bentonville. Half hotel and half art museum, a 21c would definitely be a unique addition to Nashville. I've never been, but the urinals in the men's bathroom in Louisville actually look out into the lobby through one-way glass.

That is one cool place in Louisville. I was up there in July and visited that hotel. Wish we had something like that here for sure. As far as the bathrooms go, you have to be careful of the women coming into the mens room to see the one way mirror. Had several women coming in on me to take a peek . heyhey, no pun intended.LOL

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  • 3 weeks later...
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WOW! That is such a lousy list of hotels for an area of downtown that had such promise. Especially Chartwell, Platinum and Pinnacle (all based here)... should have a bit more pride in what visitors to their city see. I am so tired of the crappy, precast-block construction of hotels... and really disappointed in the squatty box that the Omni is going to be. I see that whole wing of rooms along 5th Avenue and think what a wasted opportunity to really make a tall "statement" on the skyline (that wing could have been a vertical continuation over the middle section that runs along KVB). But the Omni owner doesn't have any real stake in Nashville, he just wants to build a hotel and sell it after a few years. So do you blame the city government for not demanding something nicer? The Holiday Inn and Hilton Garden Inn are like the BRT of hotels -- a cheaper alternative to what is really needed. Nashville always settles for the cheap alternatives... never going all the way.

And the Mathews property (I guess they won't be dictating the style and size of the "dual brand" hotels) really should be a full-service Westin (too bad not a nice Hilton, as that one next to Bridgestone Arena is C-R-A-P!), instead of another "dual brand" p-o-s. And I'll bet North Pointe won't even build one that looks as massive as the one they're building in Atlanta (they'll probably play it safe and build a 9-story p-o-s in precast blocks). Sprydon even said that the MCC needs another 400-500 room full service nice hotel. Could Dayal at Pinnacle be holding his cards close to his vest? Maybe the property at the CaringBridge site will be the crappy limited Holiday Inn mentioned in the article, and his property on KVB and 5th will be a stunning, tall first class convention hotel! One that would be taller than and nicer than and make a bigger statement than Omni. I know... not likely... by a long shot. But a guy can dream can't he?

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Do those in charge of the visionary development of downtown have any say in what type of hotel is built(or at least propose basic standards to get zoning...?) Seems like some thought should be given to what type of structures are built in this area, as it will impact the future vitality and potential for future development...

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Do those in charge of the visionary development of downtown have any say in what type of hotel is built(or at least propose basic standards to get zoning...?) Seems like some thought should be given to what type of structures are built in this area, as it will impact the future vitality and potential for future development...

not really...the only way that government can help is to incentivize (think TIF) developers to build specific projects. We know how the local citizenery feel about this. Otherwise it is private property and money being spent and as long as it meets codes, they canbuild whatever they feel works in their best interests. The tourism industry calls these limited service hotels "ankle biters" but you can't tell them not to exist. It does dictate the types of groups that will choose the MCC as the hotel packages available are important. My only hope is the administration will come to the table soon and help deliver a higher end full service property because developers will not budge until they do.

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There is another way the city can pretty-much control the development of those sites... by owning the property and selling/leasing with conditions. The MDHA did this with several projects downtown, including Rolling Mill.

The MDHA is supposed to have a lot of influence when it acquires property, as happened for the MCC. Of course, as owner of that site they had full direction of the building's development. Now having said that, it should be noted that Metro (MDHA) showed very little forward "thinking" in acquiring the properties enough in advance to avoid several parcels being jacked up in price (don't blame those owners at all for maximizing their prices), but MDHA took a painfully long time in site selection... and then acquisition. I know three parcels (not including the whole block site where the Omni is) that were turned over at least three times by the time MDHA got around to buying property. Not exaggerating to say that people were speculating on SoBro property 10 years before the MCC construction actually got started. In addition to the delays and the rising costs due to such, MDHA has done a miserable job planning for future expansion of the MCC. The article states that the property on the opposite side of KVB is all but locked-up. I know I saw some early site plans (on the MCC web site) that had plans for multi-story parking garages with the first two levels at the street with retail. That was supposed to run along the block between 6th and 7th... with some retail/restaurant structure at the block between 7th and 8th. It would enable MDHA to make money off leases, while controlling the property. But alas!! That did not happen either.

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Not advocating the government approach... just pointing out "another way" to control what gets built.

That is what has been done in RMH, and the results (15 years and two developers giving up) have been slow and mixed. Compare/contrast to the development in the Gulch, which has been primarily done by private developers.

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  • 1 month later...

I think the announcement of the Pantheon Project sort of blows a hole into anything we can imagine now. There will be a lot of surprises coming in the next five years I would think. I would think you will see some more residential and shopping coming in the near future. There is just a lot under the surface brewing that we cant see right now, but if this is any indication of some of the projects and the economy holds out and continues to improve, Nashville will be in for a boom time, IMO.

There is going to be so much synergy in the Gulch, SoBro and Midtown, we may be about to see something here we have never seen before in terms of growth.

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