First impressions of Nashville (Memphis, Nashville-Davidson: real estate, apartments, lofts)

[JMT]

I just spent a few days in Nashville with a buddy who'd never been there before. He moved to Memphis from Washington (state) in June and thought that all of Tennessee was like Memphis. I was glad to show him otherwise. Here's what he thought of Nashville:

1. Nashville is prosperous. It's hard not to get that impression while seeing all the construction cranes downtown, the host of new condo towers, the number of expensive cars on the streets, the many posh neighborhoods, and the packed shopping centers throughout the city.

2. People are friendly.

3. The city is beautiful. The fall colors probably helped, but seriously, the very hilly topography of the area makes for some absolutely beautiful neighborhoods. But it was more than just the hills and changing colors; he was impressed by how well-kept the homes were and how clean the streets were. We spent a lot of time in East Nashville (5 Points area) so he wasn't basing this just on places like Hillsboro Village and Belle Meade.

4. He was surprised at how cosmopolitan Nashville is. He was impressed by the number of African (mainly Ethiopian) restaurants there are, and he couldn't get over all the Latino stores along Nolensville Road. We also ran across some French people at Provence in Hillsboro Village who said Nashville has a surprisingly high number of native French speakers in the city (particularly from francophone Africa).

5. The network of freeways throughout the city is impressive. I reminded him that we were never driving around town during rush hour, and Nashville does sort of need all those freeways since the city doesn't have much public transportation, but he still had a good point.

6. Downtown was a lot livelier than he was expecting. We wandered into downtown at about 5pm last night (Saturday) and the place was already packed with, I guess, tourists. There were lines out the door at all the restaurants and clubs, and the sidewalks were teeming with people. He asked me if it was like that every weekend, and I told him I didn't know. But for last night, at least, downtown Nashville was hopping.

7. Nashville is a lot less sprawl-y than he thought it would be. Caveat: we didn't wander much outside of Davidson County except into Williamson County which he thought was just stunningly beautiful (although sprawl-y).

8. There is obviously an enormous amount of wealth in Nashville.

9. Nashville is a very young, energetic city, meaning he didn't see very many senior citizens but saw a heck of a lot of young people jogging, walking, and riding bikes pretty much everywhere we went.

10. Nashville seems politically balanced. There were about as many Obama signs as Romney signs throughout the city, with a surprising number of Romney signs in East Nashville and Obama signs in Belle Meade/Forest Hills.

Granted, these observations are based on pretty low expectations; he was expecting Nashville to be more like Memphis (and I love Memphis, by the way, I'm really not trying to bash that city). But still, I think he was pretty spot on, and now he wants to check out Nashville in more depth to see if his initial impressions were accurate.

Please feel free to comment on these impressions of Nashville, particularly those of you who are new to the area.

[nALgirl]

Thanks for sharing. We have had many of the same observations since moving here almost 2 years ago.

[bluffcity]

Memphis in this season also beautiful, the fall colors

[Edgefield D]

Just a comment about how busy it is downtown. I was just talking to some friends Saturday night about how things have gotten busier downtown. It's always been pretty busy on the weekend...but now, it seems like it's busy down around Lower Broad...even on a Tuesday. I'm not sure if it's because more people are living downtown? But, really, I kind of doubt it. Most locals don't spend that much time downtown...so I'm not exactly sure where everyone is coming from?

Oh...and living in East Nashville...I've noticed some Romney signs myself...which is kind of odd? I guess there were some closet Republicans around here that I didn't know about

[vivelafrance]

Originally Posted by JMT

4. He was surprised at how cosmopolitan Nashville is. He was impressed by the number of African (mainly Ethiopian) restaurants there are, and he couldn't get over all the Latino stores along Nolensville Road. We also ran across some French people at Provence in Hillsboro Village who said Nashville has a surprisingly high number of native French speakers in the city (particularly from francophone Africa).

This is very true even though I, unfortunately, am no longer one of them. I was once at the Target on White Bridge Road and noticed that two of the cashiers (likely West African) were speaking French to each other as I was walking up so when she greeted me I responded in French and she was quite surprised.

Nashville also recently got an honorary French consulate which is headed up by the Niece of Charles de Gaulle who has been a Nashville resident for quite some time.

This post just made me miss Nashville that much more. Can't wait to get back there for a visit in a few weeks!

[GWoodle]

Originally Posted by Edgefield D

Just a comment about how busy it is downtown. I was just talking to some friends Saturday night about how things have gotten busier downtown. It's always been pretty busy on the weekend...but now, it seems like it's busy down around Lower Broad...even on a Tuesday. I'm not sure if it's because more people are living downtown? But, really, I kind of doubt it. Most locals don't spend that much time downtown...so I'm not exactly sure where everyone is coming from?

Oh...and living in East Nashville...I've noticed some Romney signs myself...which is kind of odd? I guess there were some closet Republicans around here that I didn't know about

Makes a huge difference having the Opry back at the Ryman Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays. A short walk over to the Opry shop. With WSM now on an app the world may be listening more than just those on 650AM.

Makes another huge difference with Bear fans. We miss having hockey in the Arena for all the out of town Chicago-Detroit fans.

Sometimes makes a huge difference for the out of town fans heading for the Vandy game.

Between the 2 groups of sport & music fans, the world comes to Nashville

[groovamos]

Thanks J. I have real estate investment on Harstine Island in the Evergreen State, and have made friends up there consequently. The natural beauty up there is unsurpassed, but you have to get past the cloudy drizzly weather. I recommend visiting the state in September, very much sunshine over about a 2+ month window there; a spectacular corner of the planet with a spectacular urban complex to boot. Somebone from there liking Nashville says a lot.

Question: what is going up in downtown Nashville with the cranes? I haven't seen this discussed on the board. I have gathered in the past month that the migration influx has picked up hugely, based on comments here.

[the_commuter]

Originally Posted by JMT

7. Nashville is a lot less sprawl-y than he thought it would be. Caveat: we didn't wander much outside of Davidson County except into Williamson County which he thought was just stunningly beautiful (although sprawl-y).

This one doesn't quite ring true. Regrettably, Nashville is one of the most sprawl-y cities east of the Mississippi. Besides the fact that Nashville's population is spread over an entire county and is highly dense in only a couple of areas, the city proper houses only slightly more than one-third of the metro area's population. Memphis is much more densely populated, and its metro area is much more centralized than Nashville's. (This, of course, is not something one can necessarily 'see' with ease, which makes your friend's impressions understandable.)

Most of his other observations were subjective, so to each his/her own. I'm glad he liked the area. And I definitely agree with his opinion of Williamson County. It is very pretty. I get to drive down the hilly, curvy Clovercroft Road every day, and the green/yellow/orange/red covered hills are absolutely stunning right now. My days are better because they begin with these great views.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by groovamos

Question: what is going up in downtown Nashville with the cranes? I haven't seen this discussed on the board. I have gathered in the past month that the migration influx has picked up hugely, based on comments here.

The cranes that are downtown are not residential related (at least not yet ).

The construction is concentrated around a couple blocks in SoBro where the Music City Center is undergoing its finishing touches (no cranes). The cranes are around the 21 story Omni Hotel, the 4-5 level connection between the hotel and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the now rising 13 story Hyatt Place about a block away.

There are, however, a number of cranes dotting the landscape around the core.

-Pine Street Lofts (6 story? residential in The Gulch)
-Kissam Hall (6-7 story dorm near the NE corner of Vandy's campus)
-Homewood Suites (7 story hotel on West End across from Vandy -- old Tower Records lot)
-Elliston 23 (7 story apt/retail on the old Father Ryan campus)
-Park Central (8 story apt on 25th across from Centennial Park)
-a number of small projects north of West End and west of 31st
-Note 16 (5 story residential in Music Row)
-Ryman Lofts (4 story residential on Rolling Mill Hill)
-Meharry Turner Center
-TSU Ag Building
-3 story apartments in Germantown
-quite a number of small lot projects inside the 440/Briley loop

And there are a plethora of projects that are slated to begin soon, and even more that are proposed.

-Spring Hill Suites on West End @ 18th
-Hilton Garden Inn on Korean Vets near the Music City Center
-31 story SoBro apartments near the Pinnacle building
-23 story luxury apartments 12th @ Laurel (The Gulch)
-Fairfield Inn on Division (The Gulch)
-West End Summit (two 20+ story office towers, plus a possible 250-300 key luxury hotel)
-7-8 story lofts on Demonbreun @ the roundabout

^^^ those all rumored to be starting in the next 3-6 months

Plus quite a number of huge projects awaiting financing or prospective tenants.

If anyone wants the complete list, more details, and pictures of renderings, DM me.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by the_commuter

This one doesn't quite ring true. Regrettably, Nashville is one of the most sprawl-y cities east of the Mississippi. Besides the fact that Nashville's population is spread over an entire county and is highly dense in only a couple of areas, the city proper houses only slightly more than one-third of the metro area's population. Memphis is much more densely populated, and its metro area is much more centralized than Nashville's. (This, of course, is not something one can necessarily 'see' with ease, which makes your friend's impressions understandable.)

Nashville is definitely a sprawled out city. I won't take issue with that.

But I think people need some clarification on the notion that Nashville's population is "spread throughout the county." While Nashville does include all of Davidson County, sans 6* small independent communities, the vast majority of the development is concentrated. Nearly 1/3 of Davidson County is very sparsely populated, and with quite rugged terrain. Fewer than 30,000 live in the west and north sides of the county. Furthermore, the river that meanders through the county creates an obstacle for development in the form of large floodplains, and a road network that makes it difficult to get from bend to bend (try to get from Opryland to Peeler Park, then on to Hermitage).

Because of terrain, Nashville's population is not as centralized as some cities -- it primarily follows the old "pikes" that spread out from downtown. But it is a lot more dense and developed than the city proper population density would lead you to believe.

I created a map using the data from Census tracts to show the developed portions of town (it's a map I actually colored in...don't laugh...I'm not a software geek)

(this is from a post I made on another website)



It might be a little hard to read the writing on the side, so I'll type it out here:

Brown represents a density of 7,500+ per square mile
Red represents a density of 5,000-7,500 per square mile
Red-Orange represents a density of 3,000-5,000 per square mile
Orange represents a density of 2,000-3,000 per square mile
Yellow represents a density of 1,000-2,000 per square mile
Green-Yellow represents a density of 750-1,000 per square mile
Green represents a density of 500-750 per square mile
Blue represents a density of 250-500 per square mile
Purple represents a density of less than 250 per square mile

The white areas represent the airport and Radnor Yard, where there is no population.

The thick black outline represents a contiguous group of Census tracts that have a density of at least 750 per square mile. I did this to illustrate that the developed portion of Davidson County contains more than 90% of the population in just over half of the land area. Because Nashville-Davidson County is a consolidated government, the entire county land (minus the small independent towns) is considered to be the city of Nashville, and therefore it severely distorts our population density.

I have heard numerous people point out how low our population density is compared to peer cities. Officially Davidson County has 626,681 people in 504 square miles, giving it a density of 1,243 per square mile (I'm using the county figures as a whole because some of the Census tracts are not drawn along municipal boundaries - for the city, there is a slight bump to 1,265 per square mile).

Anyhow, I broke down the county by density thresholds to give an idea about how dense the actual "city" area is, as well as the population numbers:

3,000+ density tracts (basically anything that is reddish) - non-contiguous
257,528 population (41.1% of county total)
58.66 square miles (11.6% of county total)
4,363 ppsm

2,000+ density tracts (orange to reddish) - two primary groupings: downtown/north/west/east/Vandy/G'Hills/Inglewood/Madison and Woodbine/Antioch/Southeast
355,012 population (56.6% of county total)
86.30 square miles (17.1% of county total)
4,114 ppsm

1,000+ density tracts (yellow to red) - contiguous...barely - defined by the smaller black line
528,354 population (84.3% of county total)
214.60 square miles (42.6% of county total)
2,462 ppsm

750+ density tracts (yellow-green to red) - very contiguous - defined by the thick black line
568,816 population (90.8% of county total)
263.55 square miles (52.3% of county total)
2,158 ppsm

I think the 750+ best represents the approximate population of Nashville if it had the more traditional boundaries rather than a metropolitan government. Some of the 750-1,000 tracts are developed, but largely industrial, so I think it would be more accurate to include them than to just cut off at 1,000+.

At 2,158 ppsm, that puts us more in line with some of the other sizeable Southern cities.

Atlanta - 3,154 ppsm
Tampa - 2,960 ppsm
Raleigh - 2,826 ppsm
Austin - 2,653 ppsm
Charlotte - 2,457 ppsm
Fort Worth - 2,181 ppsm
Memphis - 2,053 ppsm
New Orleans - 2,029 ppsm