[MIRYDI]

City Winery Nashville sets opening date
https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/...s_opening_date

City Winery Nashville — the cosmopolitan night spot that is expected to help spur growth within SoBro — will open Oct. 1.

A combination restaurant, music venue and fully functioning winery, City Winery will be located at 609 LaFayette St. and will be the fourth City Winery location, joining those in New York, Chicago and Napa Valley, California.

The facility will be housed in a 30,000-square-foot warehouse space that is being dramatically overhauled (read more here). City Winery Nashville will feature a 300-seat concert hall, restaurant and private dining operation. A head chef has not been announced yet, but the menu will feature more than 400 wines and house-made City Winery selections on tap, according to a release.

“We’ve been eyeing Nashville for a long time and we’re thrilled to finally become a part of its flourishing cultural and culinary scene,” Michael Dorf, City Winery founder and CEO, said in the relase. “The heart of City Winery is its music and what better place than Music City to showcase all types of music in a unique, upscale setting with fine wine and food. We can’t wait to open our doors and provide our guests with a one-of-a-kind concert and dining experience.”

City Winery has a series of soft opening events planned leading up to October’s grand opening. It has partnered with the Americana Music Association to host an awards show after party and has booked a full calendar of shows during the Americana Music Festival. It will also serve as the after-party location for the second annual Music City Food + Wine Festival.

This is very positive news for upcoming hotel projects such as the Westin, Virgin and Turnberry's presumed JW Marriott, also for future hotels as well. The hospitality market in Nashville seems to be doing extremely well. I could see several more large scale hotel projects being proposed in the coming years.

Nashville June hotel rate gains were No. 1
https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/...ashville_june_

hotel_rate_gains_were_no_1
Hotel guests visiting Music City paid an average daily rate of almost $126 in June. That was 14.9 percent higher than the figure from a year earlier and was, according to research firm STR, the highest increase among the country's top markets. That performance was no doubt helped by the thousands who visited town early in the month for the CMA Music Fest, but it also was right in line with STR's March data, suggesting Nashville's hotel sector is moving a good bit upmarket.

A really good article on the need for more affordable housing downtown. This touches a lot of what Dr. Nevergold is talking about. It's a lengthy article so I'll just post up a few quotes from it.

Report: smaller, more affordable housing units are needed downtown
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville...units-are.html

Downtown Nashville rental occupancy hovered at 98 percent for the third consecutive year and condo sales hit record prices, according to the Nashville Downtown Partnership’s 2014 residential report, released Thursday.

Even with 14 new projects on the books, downtown housing stock will remain tight in the foreseeable future as demand continues to increase, contributing to rising rents and price per square foot. The report shows that the downtown area has 56 condo units on the market, translating to a two-month supply of re-sale units, tighter than last year’s three-month supply.

“Even with some new residential product on the horizon, pent-up demand, demographic shifts toward urban lifestyle preference and continued area job growth will perpetuate housing shortages for the near future,” the report states in its opening paragraph.

In 2013, Nashville’s downtown population growth outpaced peer cities at 15 percent, but that’s slowed down as new housing stock has also slowed. Downtown population is expected to grow six percent this year, compared to seven percent in St. Louis, six percent in Indianapolis and five percent in Austin. In total, downtown Nashville is expected to finish 2014 with 7,685 residents and 4,803 units. By the end of 2015, both downtown residents and housing stock are expected to grow an additional 5.5 percent in Nashville.

In comparison, downtown Austin, where occupancy is 89 percent, is expected to grow its housing stock by 28 percent over that same time period. Downtown Charlotte, which has a 93.8 percent occupancy rate, is expected to grow its housing stock by 17 percent.
Even if all planned units come online by 2017, the report still predicts a 900 unit deficit in downtown Nashville.

Currently, Nashville’s downtown housing stock is 49 percent rentals, 46 percent condos and five percent single-family. Affordable housing makes up just 8 percent of the downtown stock.
Here’s a breakdown of the downtown residential market by rentals and condo units, respectively:

Rentals: Currently, there are 2,232 rental units

-Six projects are under construction with an additional eight announced, which could deliver 2,569 new units by 2017

-Apartment rents increased over the past 24 months for studios, one- and two-bedroom units

-On the high-end, one-bedrooms saw rent increases of 18 percent, commanding $2,000 in some cases, and two-bedrooms saw rent increases of 15 percent. Studios saw rent increases of 10.5 percent on the low-end

-According to property managers, studios and the smallest one-bedrooms are the most popular and also yield the highest square foot prices

Condos: Currently, there are 2,097 condo units within 38 properties

-Twelve Twelve, the first condo project downtown since 2009, is expected to begin delivering units this fall

-Looking at four high-rise properties (Viridian, Encore, Icon and Terrazzo), cumulative price per square foot has risen nine percent over the past six months, to $389.03.

The report concludes there are opportunities for Nashville’s downtown developers to cater to these two groups by building smaller, more affordable units with unique designs. According to research, more than 80 percent of U.S. household growth over the next 20 years will be in households without children and 40 percent will be in single-person households.

Groceries and a movie theater top downtown residents' wish list
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville...-downtown.html