Thoughtful development is vital to Nashville’s continued success

Thoughtful development is vital to Nashville’s continued success

2022-07-13T09:19:05-04:00January 5th, 2022|Economy, Nashville|

Writer: Joey Garrand

2 min read January 2022 — With so much growth and excitement in the Nashville region, there has never been a greater need for smart development. The integral role thoughtful development plays in the region’s current and future success will be a featured topic for one of the panels at the Invest: Nashville 2022 Launch Conference on Jan. 13. Participants on this panel shared with Invest: their thoughts on smart development and priorities moving forward.

Mark Deutschmann, Founder – Village Real Estate, CEO – Core Development, CEO – The CityLiving Group

What should be the main priorities for the region to maintain its growth momentum?

I’ve been passionate about building out our greenway system. We’re at about 100 miles of greenways, and we’re creating connectors between the over 100 parks in Davidson County. Now we’re building the City Central Greenway, a 23-mile loop around the city. This greenway will connect people to their schools and their jobs. It will be a great benefit to residents’ health and wellness. We also need to improve public transportation, and this goes hand in hand with greenways. Another priority is attainable housing and taking care of the workforce, particularly with transit-oriented conversations, by putting housing on those greenways and giving people a chance to live affordably in the local community with good accessibility to their jobs.

John Vardaman, Nashville Business Unit Leader, DPR Construction

What are some of the most pressing infrastructural needs for the city of Nashville? 

This city is doing quite a bit to address local infrastructure. First and foremost, we are quite fortunate to live in a city where the business community, local government and the other entities that make up the community that is Nashville all tend to work together. There has been continued investment in infrastructure, specifically utilities, to broaden development opportunities in outlying areas of the city. In parallel, there have been somewhat less than popular moves around making sure the tax base is equitable and ensuring the municipal government of Nashville maintains all the services that people can count on. At the end of the day, that will turn out to be a net positive, even though taxes are not always popular. It shows a commitment toward ensuring the infrastructure is in place for the continued growth of Nashville to the benefit of surrounding areas. 

Marshall Crawford, President & CEO, The Housing Fund

What is your outlook for affordable housing in Nashville?

The outlook for the next three to five years is tough but promising because this issue is getting the attention and resources it needs. Our goals are becoming more aggressive as we see an increasing commitment to affordable housing. But again, to average over 50,000 units per year is significant and it’s not all going to be done overnight. It’s going to take years and an intentional plan to address this. 

Nashville is all-in in trying to address this. Have we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish? No. Are we making efforts to achieve our goals? Absolutely. When you have for-profit and nonprofit entities committed, it makes sense that the local government should come along for the ride, offering land, development and new codes to make our journey easier.

Janet Miller, CEO & Market Leader, Colliers International Nashville

What is your outlook for Nashville?

We have to pay attention to the unwieldy issues that come with the growth we’ve experienced, such as public transit, infrastructure and crime. If we don’t pay attention to these problems, they will threaten all of the work we’ve put in over these past 40 years to make this region a great place to live and work. As Governor Phil Bredesen used to say, the danger is when you put your feet up on the desk, smoke a cigar and talk about how great everything is. We can’t sit back. We have to tackle these mature issues with the same public-private approaches that have gotten us to where we are today.

To register for complimentary access to the event, register here! 

For more information, visit: 

https://www.villagerealestate.com/

https://www.dpr.com/ 

https://thehousingfund.org/

https://www.colliers.com/en/united-states/cities/nashville 

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