Dive Brief:
- Nashville International Airport officials have released details of the design of a $1.2 billion expansion, the Tennessean reported.
- Dallas-based architecture firm Corgan designed the new space, which will feature a reavamped terminal and plaza as well as a primary entrance filled with natural light. The design references that of an acoustic guitar, denoting the city’s music history.
- The five-year project, called BNA Vision, was announced last summer and is already under construction. Whether a proposed light-rail expansion will service the airport has yet to be determined.
Dive Insight:
When airport officials announced the expansion in July 2016, they cited the city's growing prominence as a tourist destination as the driver of the update. That tourism boom has sparked a burst of hotels, office buildings and residential high-rises over the last few years, The New York Times reported. In addition to servicing more tourists, the development is also responding to a local population that has been steadily growing.
Developers say a $430 million development currently underway featuring retail, entertainment, residential and office space will be the largest mixed-use project in the city. The project, Fifth + Broadway, is located near the Nashville Convention Center and plans call for it to include the new National Museum of African-American Music.
One driver of Nashville's growth is its relatively affordable housing market. That's drawing residents and businesses alike. Real estate listing company Zillow named Nashville as its top housing market for 2017 based on the speed at which home values there were increasing, along with the unemployment rate and income growth.
Nashville has also attracted several healthcare sector employers. Healthcare adds more than 250,000 jobs to the metro's economy each year, with an economic benefit of nearly $39 billion, according to the Nashville Health Care Council. Of the almost 400 healthcare companies working in Nashville, 18 are publicly traded firms that were also based there, as of June 2017.
