Recap: Lessons from Music City and the ULI Spring Meeting

Recap: Lessons from Music City and the ULI Spring Meeting

May 6, 2019

When New York investment firm AllianceBernstein chose Nashville for its new corporate headquarters last year instead of Charlotte and its renowned financial services sector, it raised eyebrows in the Queen City.

On May 2, ULI Charlotte hosted a panel of members who visited Nashville in April for the 2019 ULI Spring Meeting. They shared their thoughts on the city’s explosive growth, how it compares with Charlotte, and what the Queen City can learn from Nashville’s success.

“Nashville is clear about its identity and so it feels authentic,” said Cooper Morrison, a principal with real estate investment and development firm Beauxwright. “Everywhere you saw examples of Nashville’s growth, but you also saw examples of its identity.”

Morrison participated in the panel along with Forde Britt of land brokerage firm Land Advisors and Charles Lindsey McAlpine, CEO of development firm CitiSculpt.

Some highlights from the panel:

  • Nashville’s growth: Although the numbers have cooled slightly, the Music City has been adding 100 people a day in recent years compared to roughly 60 in Charlotte. McAlpine said he could count 22 cranes on the skyline during a break on one property tour. “It’s phenomenal to see what they’re trying to deal with.”
  • Uptown advantage: Finding a drugstore or a grocery store in downtown Nashville is a challenge, McAlpine noted, and Britt said that the city’s urban core is not as well defined as Charlotte’s. “I think we have a real advantage there,” he said.
  • Music versus banking: Nashville is well-known for its music industry, and the echo effect of that has been an abundance of aspiring musicians performing live music throughout the city, seemingly at all hours, creating a vibrant tourist destination and an incredible asset, McAlpine said.
    “Nobody can steal what Nashville has,” he said. “The infrastructure of that music culture is embedded.”
    While Charlotte’s banking industry doesn’t have the same cool factor or generate tourism dollars, it does provide high-paying jobs and a growing fintech sector, panelists noted. And the city can embrace some of the things that have factored into Nashville’s success, such as additional entertainment venues and creative architecture, McAlpine said.
    “We have grown tremendously and we have to build on the great things we’ve got.”

    • Notes provided by Will Boye with Yellow Duck Marketing.

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