Hotels Opt To Move Into Music City | WKRN.COM
Travis Roy  |  by wkrn.com. All rights reserved. 14.11 | 18:38

[November 13, 2006, 5:07 pm]

More businesses are looking to move into Music City, changing the heart of the city's downtown district. Baltimore resident Troy Hastings visits Nashville often and loves historic Lower Broadway, with one complaint. ldquo;They definitely need more hotels down here within walking distance of everything, rdquo; he said.

For the past several months, one Arkansas development company has been trying to get Metro's approval to do just that. The proposed 19-story hotel/condo development has stirred a lot of controversy from folks concerned about preserving the historic nature of Lower Broadway.

.

..it would be great if they can preserve the historic nature of the buildings.

rdquo; Monday night, Councilman Mike Jamison will hold a meeting at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center to get more public input about the project. James Weaver is an attorney for the developers the Berber Company. He had an architectural model built to scale to show people exactly what the project's physical relationship will be to Broadway.

ldquo;There's been a lot of discussion about this project being too tall, so we had this built to show people exactly how it would work, rdquo; he said. The project needs a key variance from the city and Weaver's modelshows exactly what that variance would be. He said, ldquo;Because Metro pushed us to push this building off of second it required a variance for us.

rdquo; Metro Council will hold a public hearing Monday night regarding the proposed Westin Hotel development for lower Broadway at 5:30 p.m. at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The public will be able to view plans and illustrations of the structure. The Metro Planning Staff has raised some questions about the Westin project. On Tuesday, the Metro Planning Commission will vote on a recommendation to reject the zoning changes, requested for this project.

The planning commissionwill not have the last word. The Metro Council can still approve the zoning change, but it will need the support of more members, if the planning commission votes against it. Other developers have already gotten their hands on land located in the city's tourist district.

Last month the, Metro Design Committee approved the design for a Westin Hotel at the corner of lower Broadway and Second Avenue. The hotel will be 19 stories high and hold 375 rooms. Developers are still working on approving height issues for the proposed hotel.

Construction has also began on the Hampton Inn at the corner of Fourth Avenue South and Gateway. Local developer Alex Palmer is looking to build an Intercontinental Hotel on West End Avenue. It would be a two tower hotel, residential and office complex offering high end retail stores and restaurants, along with a world class spa and health club.

Mark Lineberry of the Wesley Hotel Group of Atlanta has his sights set on the vacant American Trust building. The building was bought a month ago. Plans are in the works to convert the building into a 110 room Hotel Indigo on Union Street.

Construction could begin in 2008. Copyright 2006 by WKRN Nashville Tennessee. All Rights Reserved.

Read more on by wkrn.com. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Lower Broadway, Into Music City, Metro Council, Metro Planning, Move Into, Schermerhorn Symphony, Planning Commission, Westin Hotel, To Move, Into Music
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