The completion of Capital View, Endeavor, Nashville Yards, and 5th and Broad. (Franklin: condo)

[Jadedfadedisbae]

What does this mean for Nashville as a city? Let's ask the big questions here...
I think it pushes Nashville into a different stratosphere in the urbanity department. Here you will have an urban core with all of the amenities that our current one doesn't as far as grocery options and non country entertainment. It also adds residents. I'm not even going to touch RiverNorth because I'll believe that when I see that. But the convergance of the CBD, SoBro, Gulch, North Gulch, doubles what we can call "downtown" and creates a more viable and dynamic urban area. Many cities are judged by their downtowns to the casual city goer. Since these developments are more focused on the street level activity over height I think it really connects the gulch-north gulch-sobro-downtown. No new tallest needed or anything outrageous to take us to another tier. The fact that 505 is in the middle of the CBD is great, because from this point in I don't see many buildings being built in the CBD as Sobro and the gulch get most of them.

[mjtinmemphis]

Being a fan of city living, I agree with what has been written. I use to assist young people with relocation and they all asked about parks, grocery store options, movie theaters, restaraunts, places to buy shoes or a new dress and mass transit. Never did they ask about big buildings.

Look at cities like Boston and DC. Neither one has an impressive skyline but they both offer the sophisticated urban experience.

This has the potential to push Nashville into a totally different class that isn't seen in the south and will make the city more attractive place to live.

[somewhereoutthere15]

Also, don't forget oneC1ty. I know it is not downtown, but is down Charlotte Avenue and will be a huge addition to West End and maybe even alter West End's skyline quite a bit. It is supposed to have 1 million sq ft of office space, 270-600 residential units, 120k sq ft of retail, and a 140 room hotel. Small portions of the project have already been built.

Regarding the tier these projects will place Downtown Nashville (in addition to everything else currently being built), It will either match or overshadow the downtowns of several mid-sized, Midwestern cities, such as Cincinnati, Columbus, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and even St. Louis. None of these cities have the size and number or projects in the pipeline to my knowledge (I may be wrong).

Today I was describing Oklahoma City to someone and how it is around the same size of Louisville, but not quite the size of Nashville and they acted surprised, saying "I thought Louisville was bigger than Nashville." I believe this is due to Nashville having an underdeveloped city core and Louisville acting larger and having more industrial areas near major freeways. Once these projects in Nashville are completed, no one will be saying that anymore. In fact, many do not say that now.

[jmecklenborg]

I think Nashville's extreme sprawl and relative lack of good first-ring suburbs is working to the advantage of its downtown and immediate surroundings. Compared to cities like Columbus or Cincinnati, Nashville only has a fraction of their walkability outside of DT and Vanderbilt. East Nashville isn't really even that walkable. The lack of walkability and horrendous suburban traffic is incentivizing people to spend the big money to buy a condo or house in formerly ignored areas like Fisk.

The one really curious thing about Nashville is the acute lack of neighborhood business districts. Cities like Columbus and Cincinnati have dozens of squares and focal points in the older suburbs that resemble 5 points or even downtown Franklin. Also, there are generally more old vacant buildings in those cities to rehab and so there isn't a tower crane for every new project.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by somewhereoutthere15

Midwestern cities, such as Cincinnati, Columbus, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and even St. Louis. None of these cities have the size and number or projects in the pipeline to my knowledge (I may be wrong).

Today I was describing Oklahoma City to someone and how it is around the same size of Louisville, but not quite the size of Nashville and they acted surprised, saying "I thought Louisville was bigger than Nashville." I believe this is due to Nashville having an underdeveloped city core and Louisville acting larger and having more industrial areas near major freeways. Once these projects in Nashville are completed, no one will be saying that anymore. In fact, many do not say that now.

Nashville is in the building stage. Big time.

I know from living in DT St. Louis we don't have the cranes nor the amount of construction in our city. Not even close. I've never seen anything like whats going on in Nashville right now. St Louis has many projects that are in the construction phase now that involves rehab that is changing our DT but no cranes involved.

I will say DT St louis does have more amenities for residents like bowling, movies and full service grocery store with numerous bodegas for quite a few years. There is a more livable neighborhood feel.

There are a lot more neighborhood options because its been urbanized longer. Plus there is 40+ miles of LRT plus local funding secured for an additional 8 to 20 miles (depending on other jurisdictions involvement). So the urban living thing is going to take some time to catch up with the St. Louis or Cleveland types of cities because they have been at it longer. Like jmecklenborg wrote most cities in the midwest are neighborhood centric.

[Hey_Hey]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I think Nashville's extreme sprawl and relative lack of good first-ring suburbs is working to the advantage of its downtown and immediate surroundings. Compared to cities like Columbus or Cincinnati, Nashville only has a fraction of their walkability outside of DT and Vanderbilt. East Nashville isn't really even that walkable. The lack of walkability and horrendous suburban traffic is incentivizing people to spend the big money to buy a condo or house in formerly ignored areas like Fisk.

The one really curious thing about Nashville is the acute lack of neighborhood business districts. Cities like Columbus and Cincinnati have dozens of squares and focal points in the older suburbs that resemble 5 points or even downtown Franklin. Also, there are generally more old vacant buildings in those cities to rehab and so there isn't a tower crane for every new project.

I've always thought of Nashville having good neighborhood focal points, although they are typically linear as opposed to gridded because Nashville was built with a hub-and-spoke design. 12South, Hillsboro Village, 8th Ave, Germantown, and 5-Points all have a neighborhood feel with a large number of retail, food, and entertainment options. Places are Edgehill Village, Marathon Village, Eastland, and Gallatin Pk in Madison playing important, but smaller, roles.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis

Nashville is in the building stage. Big time.

I haven't been to St. Louis in a long time but I think Nashville might have more going up right now than all three big Ohio cities combined. That's saying a lot because Columbus is really booming. There is a lot of good infill going up in Columbus and the functionality of the in-town neighborhoods is good despite the lack of rail transit.


DT St. Louis has had a rougher time competing with its own suburbs than most cities because the downtown is on the eastern extreme of the metro. There is very little on the Illinois side of the river.


Chicago hasn't had the same problem because its established rapid transit system funneled so much activity into the Loop.


DT Cincinnati has held on in part because the airport was crazily located across the river in Kentucky. The NKY counties are much more developed than the Illinois side of the St. Louis metro.