If you haven’t been to Nashville lately, you’re in for a surprise. This music mecca has come full circle over the past few years, diversifying and expanding for both visitors and locals alike.
The music scene has traveled well beyond just country, the food scene is exploding, the arts scene is thriving, the neighborhood scene is blossoming, and the meetings and conventions scene is home to a bustling new district.
Yet rest assured the old standbys that originally gave this town its feel-good vibe—honkey-tonks and good ole Southern hospitality included—are still around, and in many cases, better and more accessible than ever. “We feel like downtown has this whole campus feel to it, and it’s kept its authenticity,” says Kay Witt, chief sales officer for the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. “It’s a cool, cosmopolitan, walkable city with a really integrated community, not just a fabricated thing.”
Indeed, the downtown area is home to the budding new SoBro (South of Broadway) district, where two major new stars have taken the stage: Omni Nashville Hotel, the first Tennessee property for the Dallas-based brand (see On the Scene story, next page) and the adjacent Music City Center, a mind-boggling, massive venue that is both a tribute to the city’s rich music heritage and the state’s geography, as well as one of the greenest facilities in the country.
“How often can you say a convention center turned out even better than expected?” Witt says. “Music City Center pays just as much attention to form as it does to function. It’s very indigenous to Tennessee, with rolling hills reflected in the curved roof, Tennessee limestone and music-themed design features and artwork, and then there’s the whole concentration of bringing in natural light, the green roof, the solar panels and the water reclamation tank.”
The 2.1 million-square-foot venue nearly doubled the downtown meeting and exhibit space available in the old Nashville Convention Center.
“It’s a whole new dynamic for us, and it’s opened up a different market segment,” Witt says. “The No. 1 market segment at the new Music City Center is medical, which is also the No. 1 industry in Nashville. Before, we tended more toward the association side.”
SoBro will continue to bloom with new properties, including a proposed 400-room Westin that could break ground next year and other developments such as small concert venues, restaurants and retail shops.
Meanwhile, Renaissance Hotel Nashville is in the final stages of a major renovation and will soon take over the meeting space at the old Nashville Convention Center.
The new projects nicely augment the city’s existing meetings product, centered on standout properties like the sprawling Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, a go-to destination for the corporate market; the stylish Hutton Hotel, a favorite for intimate meetings and among celebs for its tucked away location; the venerable Hermitage; the recently renovated Loews Vanderbilt Hotel; and the recently renovated Hilton Nashville Downtown.
Meanwhile, restaurants are all the rage, with hot spots such as City House, Etch, Catbird Seat, and Rolf and Daughters, in addition to diversifying neighborhoods, all of which have given the destination a hip ambience punctuated by everything from designer boot shops to obscure arts collectives peddling locally made goods.
Not bad for a planner wishing to inject a one-of-a-kind Southern vibe that stays true to its roots into agendas.
