More than 3,000 ULI full members are expected in Nashville, April 16–18, to attend the 2019 ULI Spring Meeting. Music City was ranked fifth among markets to watch in Emerging Trends in Real Estate© 2019. The meeting is also open to all ULI members residing in Tennessee; other associate members can upgrade to full membership to attend.
The meeting host committee includes Bert Matthews, chief manager, the Matthews Company; Kim Hawkins, principal, Hawkins Partners; Jimmy Granbery, chairman and chief executive officer, H.G. Hill Realty Company; and Mark Deutschmann, CEO, Village Real Estate and Core Development.
Nashville will soon be home to an East Coast operations hub for Amazon, bringing an expected 5,000 workers to the fast-growing city. The region already is home to the headquarters of Bridgestone America and Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), both of which will be highlighted on a sold-out morning tour titled “Art of the Big Deal” on April 16.
Other tours include:
Historic Franklin, Tennessee: Where Preservation Profits . . . Big Time! With its historic district recognized in 1995 as a “Great American Main Street,” the city of Franklin attracted a record 1.5 million visitors in 2017, generating an annual economic impact of $427 million from tourism and hosting more than 50 major events. This tour will include the 1942 art deco jail transformed into a center for historic preservation, and the Franklin Theatre, an intimate venue that has featured shows by musicians ranging from Sheryl Crow to Art Garfunkel to Keb’ Mo’. Explore Franklin’s newest developments, learn how the city balances success with challenges such as affordability and parking, and discuss how the city’s land use policy has worked to maintain the historic charm while encouraging sustainable growth and creative development. The tour departs from the Music City Center at 8 a.m. on April 16.
A Tale of Three Universities: Neighborhood Campuses. This tour will explore how Vanderbilt, Belmont, and Lipscomb universities have been transformed during the past decade through broad expansion of their campus buildings and land. With each university offering new models of on-campus housing as well as additional schools/programs, participants will see how the use of institutional overlays can assist with rapid university growth within the distinctive characteristics of the historic neighborhood fabric of 12South, Hillsboro Village, and Belmont Boulevard. They will also see how student integration into the neighborhood can foster adjacent private development, off-campus housing, and vibrant retail centers. The tour departs from the Music City Center at 9 a.m. on April 16.
From Farm-to-Table to Building Healthy Developments across the Region. Although Nashville is renowned as a music mecca and tourist destination, its largest industry is health care. Nashville is home to more than 300 health care companies, including Hospital Corporation of America, the world’s largest private operator of hospitals, contributing tens of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs to the economy. Likewise, Nashville continues to expand ways for people to live healthier lives. This tour will showcase healthy places across the region, including oneC1TY, a transformative urban healthy place with health-focused tenants, plant-based dining, and many distinctive sustainable design features. The tour will visit a dead mall remade as a mixed-use project by Vanderbilt University Health, as well as two healthy-lifestyle new neighborhoods. Participants will enjoy a meal at AVO, a ‘locally-sourced plant based eatery’ serving delicious at meals at oneC1TY. The tour departs from the Music City Center at 8:30 a.m. on April 16.
Welcome to the Makerhood: Equity, Urban Manufacturing, and Nashville’s Vibrant Maker Economy. Nashville’s urban manufacturing and “maker” economy reaches far beyond music. Emerging creative pursuits coupled with 21st-century entrepreneurship are reinventing industrial buildings, energizing districts, and driving an urban manufacturing sector in the city. With an understanding of the importance of equitable access and jobs, urban manufacturing is producing goods reflecting the city’s creative class, including fashion, videography, design, the culinary arts, and, yes, music-related manufacturing. Stops on this tour will represent this diversity in Nashville’s maker economy. Among others, participants will view experimental art produced at Oz Arts, see vinyl record pressing at North America’s largest press, and learn about the philosophy driving Able in its pursuit of using fashion and jewelry manufacturing to reduce the generational poverty that is often a consequence of typical maker industry practices. Come see what happens when Nashville’s urban makers, creative class, and manufacturing intersect with real estate and the built environment to realize inventiveness, originality, and commerce. The tour departs from the Music City Center at 10 a.m. on April 16.
Nashville’s Legacy in the Civil Rights Movement: Healing Cities. During the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement in Nashville was in constant flow as thousands of its African American residents sparked a nonviolent challenge to racial segregation in the city and across the South. In September 1957, Nashville took the first steps toward ending segregation and discrimination in its public schools. In February 1960, students from the city’s four acclaimed black colleges set out to confront segregation at lunch counters, movie theaters, and other places of public accommodation. This tour visiting landmarks and historically significant neighborhoods will examine Nashville’s important role in the civil rights movement; the imprint it left on the city, equity, and opportunity issues; and how this important legacy affects real estate and culture. It will conclude with a meal at the infamous Woolworth’s lunch counter—recently restored, “honing the history of the space, while also giving it a new story as a welcome table for all.” The tour departs from the Music City Center at 9 a.m. on April 16.
The complete schedule of tours is available at spring.uli.org/schedule. Separate tickets are needed for each tour, and availability may be limited.
