by Jon Styf
Nashville’s Metro Council is on board and a new East Bank Development Authority will be created after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill creating the board in May.
The East Bank area is the land between Interstate 24, I-65 and the Cumberland River.
The board will have nine voting members with five appointed by Nashville’s mayor, two by the Metro Nashville council and the final two members are the speaker of the Tennessee Senate and House.
The East Bank development will be around the new $2.1 billion Tennessee Titans Nissan Stadium, set to open in 2027.
The Metro Council approved creation of the board earlier this week.
“I am grateful to our partners at Metro Council and the state who approved the East Bank Development Authority, giving us greater continuity as Metro starts construction on the East Bank,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said. “The Authority will help us deliver the neighborhoods that Nashvillians envisioned during the robust public engagement period of Imagine East Bank. Those neighborhoods will come with unprecedented commitments in affordable housing, childcare, and complete streets.”
Nashville’s Metro Council approved a deal earlier this year to have Fallon Co. develop the initial 30 acres of Nashville-owned land in the development area.
That development is part of a 130-acre tax capture zone where 50% of the sales tax collected will go toward a stadium fund to pay off bonds on the construction along with infrastructure and future maintenance and renovations at the stadium.
Fallon’s work will include an estimated $147 million in infrastructure costs for nine projects in the development zone including $6.8 million from Nashville, $67.6 million from the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s move on the East Bank and $72.6 million from Fallon.
The development will have an estimated 1,550 residential units with 695 of those deemed affordable at a price of 80% of the area median income and below.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
