Nashville is set to get another down-the-line pizzeria next week as the trend gains traction across the country.

Your Pie, a fast-casual pizza restaurant where customers can design their own pizzas that are made in minutes, will host its grand opening for its first Nashville restaurant on Friday, Jan. 12, at 421 11th Ave. N. in the Capitol View building in the North Gulch.

The opening comes about a month after local pub M.L. Rose opened an outpost at Capitol View and as build-your-own pizza concepts spring up across town. Similar concepts in the Nashville area include Blaze Pizza, PIZZAFIRE, PizzaRev and Pie Five Pizza.

“At Your Pie, we believe that food can be fresh, fast, delicious and experiential,” Your Pie founder Drew French said in a statement. “We want to be the go-to fast casual restaurant where families, friends, colleagues and groups can gather, dine and share memories without having to share pizzas.”

French founded Your Pie in 2008, and the company began franchising in 2010. The brand now has more than 50 U.S. stores with about 50 locations in development. The Capitol View site is owned by Nashville-based SMS Holdings Corp.

Your Pie uses hand-tossed dough, homemade pizza sauces and salad dressings and fresh toppings. There are vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free pizzas in addition to traditional pizzas, chopped salads and paninis. The restaurant serves local craft beer, wine and Italian-style gelato.

Signature pizzas include “The Nat” with basil pesto, mozzarella, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach and chicken; and the “Southern Heat” with buffalo sauce, mozzarella, chicken, red onions and jalapeno served with ranch or blue cheese.

Before the grand opening, Your Pie will host “Dine & Donate” events, serving free pizzas to up to 200 registered guests per day while collecting monetary donations for Second Harvest Food Bank. Those events will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday.

SMS Holdings Corp. also plans to open a Your Pie location in Providence Station in Mt. Juliet.

“We have been extremely impressed with the Your Pie organization — particularly the breadth and quality of menu items offered,” Dan Rakestraw, president of acquisitions and partnerships at SMS Holdings, said in a statement. “The food is outstanding, as is the attention to detail that goes into creating a fun, memorable dining experience for customers.”

Originally Published in The Tennessean

By Lizzy Alfs

When Jamie Grissom and his wife moved to Franklin in 2008, they fell in love with the history of the location, the downtown, and the people.

“It’s where southern hospitality truly is exhibited,” Grissom, 44, said of Franklin.

Grissom and his wife, also named Jamie, were born and raised in Memphis, moving to Franklin for his job with an insurance company, but, “my dream was always to be an entrepreneur and own our own business,” he said.

In 2013, the opportunity presented itself when Benchmark, a sports bar and grill, became available in downtown Nashville.

At the time, Grissom said, downtown wasn’t what it is today, with a more dangerous reputation. “It wasn’t cool to go downtown because of that,” he said. “We just kind of took a leap of faith.”

The Grissoms purchased the rights to the bar’s name, switched up the menu, and didn’t look back.

Now, they are expanding the Benchmark brand to Berry Farms with the opening of their new restaurant on Sunday.

Grissom said the location was ideal: “We wanted something kind of in our backyard, because we live in Franklin, and we want to build a business in Franklin,” he said.

The Grissoms had heard a lot about the expanding Berry Farms subdivision, and drove through the neighborhood late in 2016, before even the Publix had opened.

“We’re like wow, this area could really be something in the next five to ten years,” he said.

The new Benchmark, Grissom pointed out, deviates from the Nashville location. “This is more upscale, it’s more family-oriented,” he said.

Of the Nashville location, Grissom said, “It’s more downtown tourist, honky-tonk live music.” It has also become a rallying point for Green Bay Packers fans.

Grissom and his wife have a fifth and a first-grader, so it was paramount to build a restaurant that was friendly to both children and adults.

USB outlets along the bar and at booths allow for kids to plug tablets in; the menu is also more family-friendly, with options for kids along with standard bar fare.

But, Grissom promised an extended, “amazing” happy hour.

Along with a long bar and a room to the side that can fit groups, the restaurant has patio seating overlooking the Berry Farms Town Center and silo.

Grissom also said he hoped to create an open-air concept by installing garage doors to the patio for when the weather turns nice.

The Grissoms are most excited to become a more integral part and give back to their community.

“We value service,” he said. “We want to create the experience we want to have when we go out.”

Location: 5000 Hughes Crossing

Opening: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17

Originally Published in Franklin Home Page

By Brooke Wanser

Owner Austin Ray already planning a fourth location of the neighborhood pub as third opens in ground-floor space at 11th and Nelson Merry Street inside hospital chain HCA’s 1100 Charlotte at Capitol View building.

It’s been a busy summer and fall for Austin Ray.

Barely two months ago, the Nashville restaurateur opened Von Elrod’s Beer Garden & Sausage House across from First Tennessee Park near Germantown.

On Saturday, he’s set to open his newest M.L. Rose Craft Beer & Burgers at hospital chain HCA’s new 1100 Charlotte at Capitol View building in the North Gulch.

And Ray is already working on plans for a fourth location in greater Nashville under that popular neighborhood pub concept known for its beers and craft burgers.

“Two restaurants in two months is ambitious to say the least, but we’re almost there,” he said earlier this week as employees underwent training and construction workers put the finishing touches on M.L. Rose’s new 4,750 square feet of ground-floor space at Capitol View. “When you go from three locations to five, it’s just exciting to see who on the team steps up and people you’ve worked with for a long time taking it to next level.”

Surveying the landscape around M.L. Rose’s new location at the intersection of 11th and Nelson Merry Street gives Ray confidence that he picked the best corner at Capitol View, which is in an area with limited dining and bar options within immediate proximity.

Across 11th Avenue, work is underway on the next phases of the 32-acre mixed-use campus, including on the former Hansen Chrysler Plymouth Jeep-Eagle dealership site at 11th and Charlotte. Buildings and parking structures rising would house apartments, a grocery store that could be a Publix, a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel plus headquarters for health care information technology HealthStream and other office spaces.

In addition, LifeWay Christian Resources recently opened its new 1,100-employee Capitol View headquarters at 11th and Jo Johnston Avenue. And on three acres near Capitol View where telecommunications giant AT&T previously operated a work center and garage, construction continues on developer Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners’ 271-unit Solis North Gulch apartments.

“It’s a new city in the middle of an already fast-growing city,” Ray said about the overall mixed-use campus, which is being developed by financial services giant Northwestern Mutual and its development partners Boyle Investment Co. and Northwood Ravin.

The new M.L. Rose has 70 employees and can seat for 222 people, including on the patio. Free parking is available at HCA’s garage for patrons of the neighborhood pub.

A garage door with a bar that opens up to the sidewalk is one key difference between the new North Gulch location and the two existing M.L. Rose pubs in Nashville’s Melrose area and Sylvan Park neighborhoods. Ray said the kitchen of the Capitol View location was designed to be efficient to accommodate an expected busy lunch crowd.

The bar will have 36 beers on tap, including four taps in the middle featuring sour beers. There are several television sets for patrons to watch games and collages decorating the walls.

“We’re not a sports bar, but a great place to watch a game,” Ray said.

In addition to craft beers and burgers, M.L. Rose’s menu includes sweet potato buns and its, signature waffle fries. The Capitol View location will have similar hours of operations as the neighborhood pub’s other locations.

At the 1100 Charlotte at Capitol View building where HCA houses roughly 2,000 employees, M.L. Rose will join a newly opened Pinnacle Bank branch among tenants for ground-level retail space. Others include or will include fast-casual pizza joint Your Pie, clothing boutique Southern Vintage Market and a Starbucks coffee shop.

“Although the other two M.L Roses have gone into neighborhoods on the early end of a slower development, and now that development is really picking up steam, this one’s at the front end of a really fast-moving development that we’re excited about,” Ray said. “I’ve said for a long time you can build a neighborhood around a neighborhood pub like M.L. Rose and a coffee shop, and you’ve a got a (Starbucks) coming down at the other corner.”

Originally Published in The Tennessean

By Getahn Ward

NASHVILLE (BP) — LifeWay Christian Resources dedicated its new corporate headquarters Monday (Nov. 27) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a prayer of thanksgiving and a pledge to remain faithful to God’s Word.

President and CEO Thom S. Rainer recounted the changes taking place at LifeWay, from new physical spaces to new digital technologies.
“You could say we have reinvented ourselves,” Rainer told the crowd of employees and guests. “But we remain faithful to Him who has called us.

“We will continue to provide resources that will point people to God’s Word and to Christ.”

Joined by other LifeWay leaders, Rainer wielded giant scissors to cut an oversized red ribbon in front of the new 277,000-square-foot facility, which includes a retail store to serve downtown Nashville.

“We dedicate this building to God,” Rainer said, “for His glory and for His Gospel.”

Moments earlier, LifeWay’s executive leadership team spoke briefly to highlight LifeWay’s five core values — trustworthy, collaborative, innovative, comprehensive and transformational.

“LifeWay is trustworthy — not because of our merit but because we stand on the true and faultless Word of God,” said Eric Geiger, senior vice president and chief business officer.

Joe Walker, senior vice president and chief financial officer, pointed to the collaboration between LifeWay and churches. “Our success is defined by the success of those we serve,” he said.

LifeWay has a growing array of digital products and mobile and cloud-based applications for churches, said Tim Hill, senior vice president and chief information officer. “We are innovating with technology to build biblical solutions for life.”

Selma Wilson, senior vice president and chief people officer, said the mission of Christ compels LifeWay to be comprehensive. “We serve all churches — in farmlands and in cities. We serve churches here in the U.S. but we also are committed to serving churches around the world.”

Brad Waggoner, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said transforming people’s lives with the truth of the Gospel is at the core of LifeWay’s ministry. “That transformation is something we praise God for on a routine basis.”

In his closing prayer, Rainer thanked God for all He has done through LifeWay. “We are grateful for the transformation of LifeWay,” Rainer said. “May everything that comes from this place be used in such a way that lives will be transformed, not only here on earth but into eternity.”

The event capped a month of activities celebrating LifeWay’s move to Capitol View from its former location about a half-mile away. LifeWay, known as the Sunday School Board at its founding in 1891, sold the previous property to developers in late 2015 and broke ground on the new facility in April 2016.

On Nov. 1, during LifeWay’s final chapel service at the former site, Rainer presented mementos to employees and credited God for blessings related to the move. “In the midst of the biggest downtown boom ever, we’ve seen obstacle after obstacle fall,” he said.
A week later, on employees’ final day in the previous building, LifeWay celebrated the move with lunch, games and music.

For most employees, Nov. 13 was the first day of work at the new campus. Activities during the first week included tours and prayerwalks throughout the building and an inaugural chapel service in which Rainer chronicled LifeWay’s history and looked toward the future.

“God has chosen since 1891 to make this a place where people around the world will be touched, moved, empowered, equipped and evangelized by our resources,” Rainer told employees.

“We remember the miracles of God in the past, hold on to His promises in the present and enter the future with enthusiasm.”

Special guests at the Nov. 27 ribbon-cutting ceremony included Rainer’s wife Nellie Jo, and their son and daughter-in-law Jess and Rachel Rainer; Frank S. Page, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee; Hamilton Frost, great-grandson of the Sunday School Board’s first president, James M. Frost; Lloyd Elder, former president of the Sunday School Board; Randy Davis, president of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board; Kevin Smith, executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware; John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention; Jeff Iorg, president of Gateway Seminary; Bill Henard, executive director of the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists; Tim Patterson, executive director of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan; former LifeWay trustees Adam Greenway, Jeanne Davis and Phil Neighbors; Jeff Haynes, a partner in Boyle Nashville LLC and chief overseer of the overall Capitol View development project; and representatives from Skanska construction, Gresham Smith & Partners, Alfred Williams & Company and Herman Miller.

Work is fully underway on a Starbucks to operate in the Capitol View building home to various HCA Healthcare entities.

A permit, valued at about $115,000 has been issued to allow for the build-out of the space within the 1100 Charlotte building, a name that derives from the address.

Atlanta-based Venture Construction Co. is the general contractor.

Franklin-based Boyle Investment Co. has landed retail leases at 1100 Charlotte, which houses HCA Healthcare subsidiaries Sarah Cannon, Parallon and HealthTrust.

In addition to Starbucks, future retail tenants include Your Pie and M.L. Rose. In addition, Southern Vintage Market and Pinnacle Financial Partners are operational.

Terms of the leases are not being disclosed.

Originally Published in Nashville Post

By William Williams

Franklin’s newest hotel will open Wednesday in Berry Farms.

The Hilton Hampton Inn & Suites, the global mid-priced hotel chain, has four-stories and 124 rooms and will officially open for business and reservations.

Off Interstate 65 at Peytonsville Road (Goose Creek Bypass) interchange, it is located at 7101 Berry Farms Crossing.

“At Hampton Inn & Suites Berry Farms, guests will have everything they need to ensure a great experience and a memorable stay,” said Christy Howlett, general manager. “We strive to offer consistent and quality accommodations with value-added amenities.”

Unique offerings of the new hotel include beautifully appointed public areas that are spacious and inviting, to use for work or simply enjoying some quiet time. In addition, it has an outdoor pool, grilling gazebo, green space and firepit.

Owned by Chartwell Hospitality and developed by Boyle Investment Company, Hampton by Hilton offers guests amenities such as free hot breakfast featuring delicious waffles and seasonal offerings, or On the Run™ Breakfast Bags for the on-the-go traveler. Additionally, it offers complimentary Wi-Fi, 24-hour business center and JumpStart Fitness Center. Each guestroom includes HDTV, free in-room movie channels and coffeemaker.

Hampton Inn & Suites Berry Farms, is part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest-loyalty program for Hilton’s 14 distinct hotel brands. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels save time and money and gain instant access to the benefits they care about most, such as an exclusive member discount, free Wi-Fi and a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay. Members can also redeem their Points for free nights, to gain access to unique events through the Hilton Honors auction platform or to make purchases with at Amazon.com with Amazon Shop with Points.

For more information or to make reservations, visit or call 615-599-3700

Originally Published in Williamson Source

By Zach Harmuth

The Daily News

October 31, 2017

By Andy Meek

A week after Pinnacle Financial Partners’ Memphis chairman told The Daily News the bank would be growing its footprint around the city, the bank has announced it’s preparing to do just that.

Pinnacle has opened its new Memphis headquarters office in the Ridgeway Center at 949 S. Shady Grove Road, a location that houses a full banking office and drive-through. The new office, which replaces the bank’s previous main office on Quail Hollow Road, also includes almost 100 financial advisers, market leaders and support staff.

Meanwhile, the bank is also planning to open two new loan production offices, a new mortgage office and a new full-service banking office in different areas of the city.

Construction is underway now on two loan production offices – in Whitehaven on Elvis Presley Boulevard, and another on Whitten Road. Pinnacle’s mortgage team is part of a project that broke ground on Getwell Road earlier this month, and the bank is also planning a Midtown office on Union Avenue.

The new office on Shady Grove spans almost 35,000 square feet, with additional room to grow. It was designed by Hastings Architecture in Nashville and built by Linkous Construction Co. Boyle Investment Co. developed and owns the building, and Pinnacle’s standard design aesthetics are present, including light blond woods, modern metal and glass fixtures, and abundant natural light.

That new office also includes a “learning center” with video conferencing technology for clients, associates and community events as well as dozens of works sourced from Memphis artists.

“Between our new home at Shady Grove and the other offices we have in the pipeline,” said Pinnacle’s Memphis chairman Kirk Bailey, “we’re prepared to serve more of our city and do it better than ever before.”

The news caps a big year of growth for Pinnacle. The most recent deposit market share report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows, for example, that during the 12 months ended June 30, 2017, Pinnacle added more than $315 million in deposits in the Memphis MSA, representing a growth rate of 67 percent.

The Daily News

October 31, 2017

The town of Collierville has been enjoying strong development activity in all sectors over the past several years, fueled by the area’s strong schools, low crime rate, plentiful amenities and an abundance of developable land.

“One of the great things about Collierville and one of the things that will sustain us as we move forward is our economic diversity,” said John Duncan, Collierville’s director of economic development. “We have more than 1,200 acres of developable land in this community, so we have opportunity to grow residential, commercial, office and industrial.”

The town has issued nearly 800 residential building permits in the last five years, and a new $93 million, 450,000-square-foot high school – the largest in Tennessee – is expected to open next August. It will have the capacity for more than 3,000 students.

“On the office side, we have close to 600 developable acres for office uses,” said Duncan, who cites the Houston Levee Road corridor, where Orgill Inc. is building its new 92,000-square-foot world headquarters. The hardlines distributor, whose current headquarters is near the intersection of Winchester and Forest Hill-Irene roads, plans to move by December.

Mueller Industries, meanwhile, is moving its headquarters to Collierville’s Schilling Farms development from Southwind. The company – which manufacturers and markets piping systems, industrial metals and climate-control products – broke ground on a 55,000-square-foot facility in early October.

“With the fact that we have the FedEx World Technology Center here with 2,500 employees, $90,000-plus salaries and 1.2 million square feet of office space, that is our cornerstone that has helped us grow the office part of our economy,” Duncan said.

Pursuing Amazon’s second headquarters has been a top priority for Collierville in recent weeks, and town leaders worked with the city of Memphis to present the online retail giant a unified package by the Oct. 19 deadline for proposals. Two 100-acre-plus sites in Collierville were to be presented as options in that package, including one near Houston Levee and Tenn. 385 across from Orgill’s new headquarters, and one off of Shelby Drive next door to the new high school on the southeast side of town.

Most of the town’s industrial real estate is on the southeast side of Collierville near the U.S. 72, Tenn. 385 and Interstate 269 crossroads.

“In fact, I-269 will be completed all the way over to I-55 in a year, and we expect industrial activity to follow that,” said Duncan, who estimates roughly 300 acres in that area are zoned for industrial use.

CCL Label recently added 85,000 square feet to its facilities nearby, and FedEx operates a packaging facility in the area.

“We’re looking for the type of manufacturing that is low impact. We don’t want smokestacks. We want assembly and advanced manufacturing, pharmaceutical, electronics – great companies that have very limited environmental impacts on our community,” Duncan said.

Restaurant and retail activity in Collierville also has remained brisk.

Both Pimento’s Kitchen + Market and Salsarita’s recently signed on to anchor Houston Levee Market, developer Kevin Hyneman’s proposed 15,000-square-foot retail center at Houston Levee and Winchester roads, which received approval from the Collierville Planning Commission in early October.

And popular barbecue restaurant Germantown Commissary is expanding its reach eastward with plans to open a Collierville Commissary at the corner of Houston Levee Road and Poplar Avenue next spring.

Duncan sees no infrastructure concerns because the town planned well in advance of development, including widening Shelby Drive, Byhalia Road and U.S. 72.

“Infrastructure is something we take very seriously – and not only roads, but also sewers and water,” he said.

Collierville-based Crews Development, which develops both residential and commercial properties, has been working on several residential subdivisions in the town over the past six years, owner Jason Crews said.

“We believe there is a huge demand for homes in Collierville, with the town’s strong school system and the incoming new high school coming in,” he said.

Crews just finished the 110-lot Village Park community, sold the first phase of the 250-lot Cypress Grove and started construction on phase two, is working on homes in the 30-lot The Villas and just finished the second phase of the 88-lot Shepherd’s Creek. Starting prices in the communities range from the $400,000s to $1 million.

His company has several more residential projects in the pipeline, including the 250-lot Oak Hill on Shelton Road. Homes there will start in the $400,000s.

“The challenge now is trying to keep home prices down. Lot prices have increased, and there are higher development costs, material costs and labor costs,” said Crews, who sees a lot shortage right now in Collierville. He estimates it takes about 20 months to prepare lots for construction.

Next up, Crews is planning some retail development and a Home2 Suites hotel on Houston Levee near Tenn. 385, where his company owns 250 acres. Construction on the hotel could start within the next year.

Township Development Services, which offers a variety of real estate-related services and acts as a fee-based developer for some projects, is working with clients on several projects in Collierville, according to founder and owner Kevin Vaughan.

“We recently began construction on infrastructure for the Arboretum, a new, 22-acre mixed-use development on Poplar Avenue near Bray Station. We’re also knee deep in the planning of some retail redevelopment along Poplar and other mixed-use developments.”

Vaughan is bullish on Collierville’s future and expects office and industrial projects to continue to build the daytime population of Collierville as more businesses and industries move operations into the town.

“The availability of land; the local control and capacity of infrastructure such as water and sewer systems; access to I-269, SR-385 and U.S. 72; great public education and public safety; and strong, effective leadership is a recipe for success,” he said.

Memphis Business Journal

October 27, 2017

It’s moving day.  Two years after Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners acquired Memphis-based Magna Bank via an $83.4 million transaction, the company is ready to debut its new Memphis division headquarters at 949 S. Shady Grove Road.

“We needed the extra space.  We were tapped out where we were,” said Kirk Bailey, local chairman for Pinnacle.  “We also needed to redesign the flow of the office — to bring us up to what I would call the Pinnacle standard.”

Pinnacle expects to commence the one-mile move from its current headquarters on North Quail Hollow Road, on Friday, October 27.  Regular business operations will start Monday, October 30.

The 949 building is a 155,000-square-foot ground-up office building owned by Boyle Investment Company.  Pinnacle will initially occupy 35,000 square feet with the option to expand by another 10,000 square feet.  Bailey said that expansion could come sooner rather than later.

Boyle started developing Ridgeway Center in the early 1970s.  The six-story, Class A 949 space marks the last remaining developable site in Ridgeway Center.

“We are excited that Pinnacle is going to be one of our tenants here in Ridgeway Center,” said Tom Hutton, vice president of Boyle.  “We look forward to a long-term relationship with them.”

About 90 Pinnacle employees will occupy the space.

In addition to offices, state-of-the-art audio/visual conference rooms and a computer lab, the Pinnacle space will include a bank branch located on the bottom floor, as well as drive-thru banking lanes and an ATM in the parking lot.

Nashville-based Hastings Architecture Associates LLC handled the design for Pinnacle.

Memphis-based Linkous Construction Co. Inc. was the general contractor.

Pinnacle plans to open loan production offices in Desoto County, Raleigh and Whitehaven by the first quarter of 2018, as well as branches in Midtown and Bartlett.

“It is a function of growth,” Bailey said.  “For all practical purposes, we are twice the size we were when Pinnacle bought us (Bailey was previously the Magna chairman) two years ago, so we need more coverage in the marketplace. We’ve got different sectors of the community we need to cover, such as Raleigh and Whitehaven, so it is part of the expansion effort.”

“Centricity is sort of the act or the place of being centered, or having a center in your life,” Centricity Music manager Steve Ford said sitting in a brightly lit room inside their new business space.

Located above Soulshine Pizza Factory in mixed-use community Berry Farms, the Christian record label moved from the “little red house,” as they called it, in downtown Franklin, to their current location in July.

So why Franklin in the first place?

“We are such a relational company,” Ford said, though he noted that when the label began, it was out of sheer necessity.

“We all lived in Franklin, and we started working out of our houses,” he said.

When the company moved out of their old building downtown, the managers questioned whether they wanted to remain in town or move to Nashville.

According to Ford, the company quickly came to the conclusion that they “really like the idea of being a Franklin company.” He said, “We picked Franklin because it was a smaller town, with a little bit more of a communal feel.”

Although the office sits above a pizza restaurant in a new and still developing neighborhood, Ford said he still feels a sense of community akin to what he felt working in historic downtown.

Downtown, he said, “You saw the same people, you went to the same places, there was some sort of community created. When we came here, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this feels like a new Downtown Franklin.’”

Ford pointed to artists and repertoire director John Mays’ fascination with Tito’s, the Mexican restaurant down the street. “John is down at Tito’s probably about once a day,” he laughed. “And they know him. We like that, we like being a part of a bigger community.”

Ford said of their current space, a sun-drenched, open-floor plan, “The minute I walked in, I was like, ‘This is it.’”

Ford has been in the Christian music industry for nearly 30 years, and was recruited to Centricity by Mays after serving as the general manager for another Christian record label.

“I thought he was crazy, but we talked for months,” Ford said. He referred to the time period, between 2005 and 2006, as “scorched earth” for the record industry, as record sales reached a valley of the decline.

The company started when the owner became close with a musician who attended his church. Wanting to invest in that musician’s creativity led to a record, then, eventually, to John Mays in Nashville, who was known for his record-working skills. The owner convinced Mays to begin a record label in 2004.

Ford said the owner, a wealthy man from Seattle, prefers his name not be mentioned. “He’s just a very humble, quiet man,” Ford said. “It’s not about him, it’s about the company.”

Since Ford’s hire in 2005, the label went from three signed artists to 11, which include vocal powerhouse Lauren Daigle, Jordan Feliz and Jonny Diaz.

What sets Centricity apart, Ford believes, is their approach to their artists.

“We love to say we’re a little more of an artist development label. We’re going to take our time,” he said, noting that the label is patient with artists who aren’t immediate successes.

He points to Daigle, who he said it took over two years to release her first song after she was discovered during one of their artist’s retreats.

The label invites unsigned artists, producers and songwriters up to Winthrop, Washington, for a collaborative experience and to hear new talent each year.

One year, the lead singer of a band Centricity bowed out of the activities due to a sudden ailment. Since the lead singer was out, one member of the band approached their female background singer. “Can you do a couple songs with us, just so we can do our two songs?” he said.

“That girl was Lauren Daigle,” Ford said. “We sat in the back and went, ‘What is that? She is spectacular.’”

“When she got first nominated for a Grammy, we were like, ‘Really?’” Ford said. “Because we’re a little record label and usually they have block voting and all of the politics behind all of the awards.”

Daigle, who has since been nominated for another Grammy, has now won several Dove Awards, including Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year in 2016.

And, at the end of the day, Ford said the work is deeply fulfilling.

“What’s nice about putting in the hours and the work that we do is it’s for a bigger cause. It’s not just for money,” Ford said. “We’re carrying a bigger story with us. Our faith, each one of our faiths is so important to us, that we’re able to go, ‘I’m working to impact the world with that, hopefully make the world a better place.’”

Originally Published in Franklin Home Page

By Brooke Wanser

There’s no denying the key role Cool Springs’ office market has played in Greater Nashville’s growth over the past two decades. Year over year, it seemed, workers would break ground on another 250,000-square-foot building to give health care companies, financial services firms and other notable names a top-shelf home within an easy drive from their executives’ homes and downtown Nashville. And year after year, those buildings would rise to six, eight or nine stories and be surrounded by a lake of surface parking.

Those years are over. The combination of rising land prices and rents, a supply crunch that dates back to the Great Recession and changing consumer demand is quickly turning parts of Cool Springs — the epitome of mixed-use suburban development in Middle Tennessee, with your retail over here and your office over there — into a smartly designed and better-connected district.

The best example of that trend — and looking around the country, it’s not a fad — comes in the form of Bigby, a $150 million hub at the corner of McEwen Drive and Carothers Parkway. There, Crescent Communities plans to build offices, apartments, retail spaces and a hotel in a way that will tie in its nearby One and Two Greenway office buildings as well as neighboring high-end apartment communities Venue Cool Springs and Cadence Cool Springs.

About a mile to the north on Carothers, development firm Boyle several years ago finished building its Meridian project, which includes several office buildings tucked behind dining, retail and hotel structures that front Carothers. The company also connected the new Meridian site to the One Meridian and Two Meridian office buildings it owns on adjacent sites. There, the Boyle team led by Phil Fawcett has taken the next step toward densifying its holdings: Crain Construction recently topped out an eight-story Hilton hotel building that sits snugly between One Meridian and Two Meridian and includes a 224-space parking garage.

The ever more popular concept of live/work/play — and our blending of them during the course of the day — is at the the heart of such projects. Another factor driving the move toward urban design in suburban settings is an interesting alignment of generational preferences: Brian Leary, Crescent’s president of commercial and mixed-use project, says Baby Boomers looking to downsize from their empty nests and millennials finding their way — and thus maybe still priced out of city centers — are seeking walkable places that integrate their work and leisure lives.

Developers are having to adapt quickly: Leary says Crescent’s Two Greenway, a five-story, 155,000-square-foot office building started two years ago, likely is the last “traditional” suburban building his team will develop here. Simply put, customers and prospects are asking for a different product now.

“As we were leasing Two Greenway, people kept asking us, ‘What can I walk to? Where is the shopping?’” Leary says. “We realized we had to rezone the land we had for Bigby. We had a responsibility to put the ‘there’ there.”

At Bigby, “there” is a place that, despite being anchored by a 10-story office tower, creates a walkable, cohesive district that erases the car-centric and long-defined suburban boundaries between uses. Bigby will feature office lofts above stores and restaurants within 30 steps from a hotel and an apartment building.

“We want this project to be a little more quiet and connected,” he says. “We don’t want to do 10 more square feet of retail than we have planned.”

“Connected” also describes what Boyle has in the works on the other side of Interstate 65 with its Northside at McEwen project. Southside, its sister development across McEwen Drive, is anchored by a Whole Foods store, a 175,000-square-foot office building set back from the road and acres and acres of surface lots. The much larger Northside, though, will hug an extended Aspen Grove Drive with almost 800,000 square feet of office space in seven buildings as well as 580 residential units — while featuring no fewer than five garages with about 4,500 spaces. It will look different, feel different and function differently.

Leary sees no reason owners of other complexes wouldn’t follow the example being set by Crescent and Boyle as well as — to a slightly lesser extent — Spectrum|Emery Properties’ Franklin Park project nearby. With rents on the rise — and in some cases rivaling those of downtown Nashville properties — the numbers work better to fill in parking lots and connect buildings now separated by hundreds of yards.

“Those buildings with gigantic lawns and huge buffers? For what?” Leary asks. “People want to be close to the amenities.”

So picture this a decade from now: Crescent Centre Drive, the horseshoe road now home to 700,000 square feet of office space and an Embassy Suites hotel, is lined with townhomes and apartments whose first floors are packed with restaurants and other amenities such as gyms or daycare centers.

Not long ago, that scenario was fanciful. Today, it feels palpably close.

Originally Published in Nashville Post

By Geert De Lombaerde

At the construction site on Corporate Centre Drive just north of Cool Springs Boulevard, workers and those who came to celebrate the opening of Franklin’s new Hilton Hotel craned their necks towards the soft blue sky, clapping as an American flag unfurled from atop the skeletal building.

“In this building, the last structural element is concrete,” said Michael Rankin, president and CEO of the project’s Nashville-based contractor Crain Construction. “It’s kind of challenging to pour concrete and have everyone watch that as the celebratory milestone,” he continued, before inviting guests who had donned hard-hats to watch the flag descend from the top floor.

Construction began on the hotel, a full-service, eight-story Hilton with 244 rooms, in early March, and it is slated to open next summer. Will Schaedle, the vice president of acquisitions and mergers for Chartwell Hospitality, a hotel development and management group based in Franklin, is the developer.

Matt Largen, the president and chief executive officer of Williamson, Inc., spoke to the gathering inside what would become the hotel lobby. He spoke about the hotel’s benefit to local businesses, citing a recent chamber study which found that 75 percent of hotel room nights are driven by the corporate business community in Williamson County.

“We see a lot of companies, because their corporation is based out of here, like Nissan, Community Health System, Trench Supply Company, that fuels demand for hotel rooms,” Largen said, “because they’ll have sales meetings, they’ll have vendor conferences, and they’ll have people travel in to get to their headquarters. I do know there’s a direct tie between the kind of companies here and the demand they have for hotel room nights and meeting space.”

Matt Maxey, the public relations manager of the Williamson County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said tourism numbers continue to increase each year. Last year, the county saw a 9.4 percent increase in visitors at 1.43 million, and a 4 percent increase in economic impact at $427 million. “In comparison to other counties, that’s staggering,” Maxey said.

Though Maxey said the county did not have data on the reason for visits, he agreed with Largen: “Based on our hotel occupancies, during the week, we have a very strong business market.”

Largen said there are currently two full-service hotels in Franklin, the Marriott and the Embassy Suites, both a stone’s throw from the new Hilton.

As the city expands, Largen said one thing is sure: “You will see more hotels in the future in Williamson County.”