In downtown Nashville, it is round 2 in the battle of the new luxury hotel versus the honky-tonks

By Chas Sisk
Staff Writer for the Tennessean

A Colorado developer has revived plans for a controversial hotel on Lower Broadway, but historical preservationists are gearing up to fight the project a second time in a bid to protect Nashville's honky-tonk row from what they see as a 21st century intrusion.

Sage Hospitality Resources, a Denver hotel firm, wants to build a luxury hotel between Second and Third avenues and has been meeting with city officials to seek support for a revised design that would be simpler and as much as 20 feet shorter than previous ones, while adding as many as 100 more hotel rooms.
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Originally, Sage and Barber wanted a 19-story hotel with 375 rooms and 48 upscale condos. The hotel would be branded as a Westin, the developer said.

The idea drew support from many downtown business owners, who believed a hotel would give an economic boost to the area, but opponents, led by the historical commission and the staff of the Metro Planning Department, said the tower would be out of place.

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The Nashville Westin is Shrinking

The developers of a controversial high-rise Westin hotel planned for Lower Broadway are shortening the tower by three stories, a move they said would make the project more economically viable but probably reopen it for public debate.

Sage Hospitality Resources and The Barber Group have decided to eliminate the proposed hotel's 48 condos, saying the units would be too costly to build and unlikely to sell as well as company executives had once hoped.

"Nationally, the residential market has cooled, and Nashville really is not immune to that national epidemic," Michael Coolidge, Sage's senior vice president of development said Monday.

The firms instead plan to add 75 rooms to the hotel, bringing the count to about 450. Because hotel rooms are smaller than condos, the changes will let the firms eliminate three floors, lowering the hotel to 16 stories.

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