Creative Artists Agency Relocates to Nashville Yards

A rendering of CAA’s future Nashville home. Image courtesy of CAA

The Creative Artists Agency, one of the world’s largest talent management firms, will relocate its Nashville, Tenn., office to the 19-acre Nashville Yards, the largest project in the city’s history.

CAA will move from its current office at the SunTrust Building to 75,000 square feet across two floors at 955 Church, an under-construction, 420,000-square-foot Class A+ tower. Upon relocation, scheduled near the end of 2025, the firm will become the building’s anchor tenant and earn exterior signage rights.

CAA has had a presence in Music City since 1991. The firm’s Nashville base of operations currently hosts 130 employees.

A creative office building

Developed jointly by Southwest Value Partners and AEG Worldwide, CAA’s future home rises 11 stories at 955 Church St. CannonDesign envisioned the firm’s offices to feature both indoor and outdoor workspaces, together with gaming and lounge areas.

When complete, the creative office building will have floorplates of more than 40,000 square feet, three levels of retail space, floor-to-ceiling windows and private outdoor terraces as well as a landscaped outdoor deck. Colliers Principals & Executive Vice Presidents Janet Sterchi and Shane Douglas, alongside Vice President Ashley Harrison, oversee all leasing at the property.

The development has no shortage of entertainment offerings in its immediate vicinity: Many of the city’s famous music venues lie half a mile eastward along Broadway, while Music Row lies within a mile to the south. The newly renovated Union Station Nashville Yards is also nearby.

Dealings at the Nashville megaproject

Nashville Yards’ origins go back to 2017, when the partners formed a joint venture for the development of the $1 billion project following AEG’s $44 million purchase of the site at 910 Commerce St. At full build-out, the mixed-use campus will include more than 3 million square feet of office space, over 2,000 multifamily units, two hotels, 350,000 square feet of additional retail and entertainment space, as well as a 4,500-seat event hall.

READ ALSO: Enhancing Work Environments Through Creative Offices

The campus’ other office offerings remain active in various stages of development. Amazon is currently building its Nashville headquarters, a two-tower, 1.2 million-square-foot office park whose 566,000-square-foot first building finished construction in 2021. However, this February the e-commerce behemoth paused on the construction of the second building, as it revaluated its uses of the space amid the apparent permanence of hybrid work.

As for office leases, one of the largest was the 180,000-square-foot deal signed by Bass, Berry & Sims PLC in 2021. The law firm preleased the top eight floors of the tower at 200 10th Ave. N.

Another office tenant at Nashville Yards is Pinnacle Financial, which leased 95,000 square feet at 201 Platform South, a 35-story, 675,000-square-foot Class A+ office tower. Following the commitment, the firm became the complex’s sole banking tenant.

Overall, the nation’s music capital retains strong office fundamentals, despite some short-term slowdowns in new development. According to data from a recent CommercialEdge report, the city had the second largest development pipeline in the South as of September, with more than 3 million square feet of space under construction.