How the winning Greer Stadium redevelopment plan stacks up against those that lost out
The Tennessean — Joey Garrison, May 31, 2017 | Story also appears in: Nashville Business Journal
After three years of speculation on the future of Greer Stadium, Mayor Megan Barry's administration last week chose a redevelopment proposal pushed by prominent Nashville developer Bert Mathews and legendary music producer T Bone Burnett.
In doing so, the city awarded their arts-driven vision for the site over four other redevelopment pitches.
After an open records request by The Tennessean, the Metro Finance Procurement Office provided the plans submitted by each of the other development groups that were under consideration.
· The development team that finished second, oneC1TY, proposed setting aside more acres of open space for the 21-acre Greer Stadium property than the group that was selected.
· Another, Nashville Adventure Park, sought a hotel, an array of sports complexes and a even a SkyTran system for visitors to navigate the revamped site.
· A separate development group outlined a vision for an artificial beach-style lagoon that would have included an amphitheater.
Mathews and Burnett, along with investor Tom Middleton, submitted their proposal under the name Cloud Hill Partnership. Metro issued an intent to award notification to the group late Friday, ending the city's competitive bidding process that began in January.
A panel that reviewed proposals gave Cloud Hill Partnership an evaluation score of 96 out of 100, the highest of the five bids, edging out a plan with similar concepts put forward by developers of oneC1TY — an entity with an existing mixed-use development on Charlotte Avenue under the same name.
OneC1TY, which received a score of 92.25 from the committee, proposed a development called Greer Park that would have set aside 12.8 acres of park space compared with 8 acres in the Cloud Hill project.
The review panel, a seven-member committee appointed by the Metro Finance Procurement Office, gave Cloud Hill Partnership and oneC1TY identical scores in subcategories on the plan's details, the developers' experience and qualifications. But the panel said Cloud Hill Partnership had better financial and diversity plans.
None of the other finalists got an evaluation score above 71.5.
Metro-owned Greer Stadium was abandoned by the Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team in 2014, opening up redevelopment possibilities.
Barry said last week she plans to further view the Cloud Hill Partnership proposal before deciding next steps. Redevelopment of the property would need approval by the parks board and Metro Council, and would need to satisfy historic guidelines.
Here's how each of the five proposals for the Greer site stack up. These are only the finalists, not necessarily all the developers that submitted plans
Winning proposal: Cloud Hill Partnership
Who: Developer Bert Mathews, president of The Mathews Co.; T Bone Burnett; Tom Middleton; Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon civil engineering firm; R.C. Mathews Contractor, led by Walker Mathews
Evaluation score: 96
Proposal details: 8 acres of dedicated park and open space; 294 units of affordable, workforce and market-rate housing; 200,000 square feet of space devoted to neighborhood-scale retail, creative space and maker space.
Breakdown: Partners of Cloud Hill Partnership, whose plan is still contingent on negotiations with the mayor's office before a contract is finalized, say open space is their focal point.
The plan also would offer creative spaces for artists, headlined by a cultural center — dubbed an "art and music generator" — to be open to the community.
Their proposal calls for a "great lawn" with recreational baseball and soccer fields where the dilapidated stadium currently sits, along with other smaller "neighborhood-scale" open spaces. A "ledge meadow" would offer access to adjacent Fort Negley as well as biking and other outdoor activities.
Their concept seeks to activate Chestnut Street while embracing pedestrian connectivity for the surrounding Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood by creating paths through the Greer site.
Rather than proposing to buy the land, Cloud Hill Partnership wants a public-private deal with the city in which the two parties would share revenue created by the site. The development team would offer a $1 million payment to the city and also chip in $7 million in private dollars for infrastructure work.
2nd: oneC1TY Developments Inc.
Who: Ryan Doyle (general manager of oneC1TY) and Jean Claude-Saada of Cambridge Holdings Inc; Elmington Capital; Hawkins Partners landscape architecture group; EOA Architects; Nashville entrepreneur Marcus Whitney
Evaluation score: 92.25
Details: 405 residential units, 43 percent of which (175 units) would have been set aside for affordable housing; 12.8 acres of new open green space; new early childhood education center; creative office space; food, fitness and entertainment offerings; and a "community-centric" mentorship program.
Breakdown: The group behind oneC1TY's proposal, dubbed Greer Park, said its top priority was to deliver "neighborhood and regional access to high-quality flexible open space, both active and passive." The plan called for park amenities to include open space, pocket parks, sidewalks, trails and urban plazas activated by a surrounding mix of affordable housing and workplace buildings.
"In the end, the open space provides the platform on which great communities are built," the oneC1TY proposal reads.
In addition to the 405 in mixed-income housing units, the oneC1TY plan identified 155,000 square feet of commercial office space; 33,000 square feet of "progressive urban retail"; and a 7,000-square-foot modern community event center. Whereas the Cloud Hill Partnership proposes the demolition of Greer Stadium, the oneC1TY plan sought the preservation and adaptive reuse of a portion of the existing stadium structure for 16,000 square feet of creative and maker space.
OneC1TY asked for $7 million in tax increment financing loans from the city for its Greer project and hoped to lease the site. Ground lease payments would have totaled $84,000 over the first five years of the agreement.
3rd: Lendlease Communities LLC
Who: Real estate developer Matt Garrett, Peter Hoffman, Roger Franklin; Hawkins Partners Inc. for landscape architecture and planning
Evaluation score: 71.5
Details: 7.85 acres of new park and open space, including a 2.3-acre central park; 1.9 miles of trails and greenways; 90 units of workforce and affordable housing out of 596 total housing units; 25,750 square feet of neighborhood commercial space; $287,000 in annual fundraising for Fort Negley in perpetuity. Proposed "phased land sales of portions of the property and the development over time."
Breakdown: Lendlease proposed a plan it says was "derived from the idea of a neighborhood within a park."
Greer Stadium would have been demolished and replaced with a Wedgewood-Houston Park that would have played host to music and arts festivals that raised money for Fort Negley, its proposal said.
The southeast end of the park would have included a pervious plaza and play space. The northwest end would have had another plaza that doubled as a "speed table" to allow pedestrians access to Fort Negley.
The proposal envisioned Chestnut Street as a "two-sided urban storefront streetscape acting as a gateway into the neighborhood, and supporting local, community commercial and service needs." Small-scale retailers, maker space and cafes and restaurants would have lined sidewalks at the project.
4th: Nashville Adventure Park
Who: Devinder Sandhu, Sandhu International; Tony Giarratana, Giarratana LLC; Don Hardin of the Don Hardin Group; Britnie Turner Keane of Aerial Development
Evaluation score: 70
Details: 78 units of senior living; 200 units of luxury apartments and condos; 57 units of minihomes; 30 town homes; 110 units of workforce and affordable housing; a 170-room three-star hotel; a new sportsplex named for former Nashville Sounds manager Larry Schmittou; a Jim Fyke Park; a Greer Stadium Amphitheater; an indoor skate building; a gymnastics building; a new farmers market; 378,000 square feet of retail and restaurants; 108,000 square feet of office space; 40 units of artisan retail; 18 artisan studios; a 5,000-square-foot event center; and a SkyTran vehicle called a "greenways hopper" to navigate portions of the project.
Breakdown: The ambitious Nashville Adventure Park — with a slogan of "Live, Work, Play, Discover" — was made public to the media weeks ago by the development team.
The project claimed 74 percent of the land (16.2 acres) would have been reserved as open space, but renderings appear to show a much denser development.
Greer Stadium would have been rehabilitated and rebranded as the "Schmittou Field and SportsPlex," which would have included a farmers market. Lining Jim Fyke Park would have been three condos designed to offer spectacular views of downtown.
The group proposed a lease with the city for the property and to also donate between 2 and 37 acres of other land to Metro that could be used for park space. It estimated the value of the land to be $11.25 million.
5th: BNA Associates LLC/ St. Clair Bay
Who: Philip Welker and Ethan Orley of BNA Associates; Crystal Lagoons; Gobbell Hays Partners Inc.
Evaluation score: 65.25
Details: A privately managed park with a multiacre lagoon called St. Clair Bay, named after the builder behind the Civil War-era Fort Negley, Capt. James St. Clair Morton. The lagoon would have been built by the Miami-based technology company Crystal Lagoons, which creates lagoons in public settings across the country.
Breakdown: The centerpiece of the plan would have been a 6-acre lagoon, billed as a "missing component" to Nashville's current recreation scene. It would have brought 175,000 square feet of water into Nashville. Beaches would have been used for a fitness program, relaxation and unstructured recreation.
Amphitheater seating would have been on one end of the lagoon and faced an island in the lagoon where bands could play.