Nashville’s Parke West Scores $87M Project Loan

Parke West. Rendering courtesy of GBT Realty

First Horizon Bank has provided $87.4 million in construction financing for Parke West, GBT Realty’s mixed-use development in Nashville, Tenn., according to public records. GBT Realty took $56.5 million for the project’s residential and retail components, and Chartwell Hospitality will utilize $30.9 million to develop lodging in a separate tower on the site.

The project site encompasses 1.5 acres alongside Interstate 440 at 3415 Murphy Road, some 2 miles southwest of downtown Nashville. GBT had acquired the parcel—then home to a building owned by Fifth Third Bank—in August 2019 for $7.2 million.

Chartwell Hospitality joined Parke West recently, Davidson County records show. The firm paid GBT $6.5 million for a nearly 30 percent interest in the project just before the financing deal closed. The 172-key hotel’s plans call for nine stories in a separate tower rising from the western side of the parcel. According to Nashville Post, the hotel will operate under two flags: Hilton Garden Inn and Home2 Suites. Plans filed with Davidson County show the property will have an indoor swimming pool on its top floor.

Plans for the project’s 253,262-square-foot multifamily component call for 210 units in a tower rising 14 stories above 11,455 square feet of retail space. The community will have two elevators and an outdoor swimming pool on a 12th floor deck. Some 450 parking spaces will be located underground, with nearly half allocated to the residential side of the development.

Rising to the challenge

Nashville’s hospitality sector currently faces serious challenges as a result of the pandemic. Although the market had grown in importance as a business hub and major tourist destination, the path forward is likely to be long, with travel—both for work and pleasure—likely to take years to recover at the national level.

That said, hotel investors and developers are far from inactive in Music City, even in these uncertain times. Since the impact of COVID-19 hit the metro, several major hospitality deals have closed. Earlier in June, three investors joined forces to acquire the 250-key Hutton Hotel, some 1.5 miles northeast of GBT and Chartwell’s project.