Nashville’s United Artists Tower to Be Converted Into a Hotel

Date: October 2018

Location: Music Square West, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Name: Tapestry Collection by Hilton – opening 2020

No. of Keys: 185

Seller: Frank Bryant, owner of the penthouse, office space and 12 spaces in the parking garage (see below), said he has no plans to sell his portion of the building. He claims that the previous owner of the bulk of the building had denied him access to his penthouse.

“We’re just going to see where the chips fall,” said Bryant, whose deceased father once owned the entire building. “I’ve got my legal team ready to jump on this situation.”

Music Row’s famed United Artists Tower was originally constructed in 1974 by two members of Elvis Presley’s backup band, The Jordanaires, and served as office and recording studio space for decades.

Buyer: Sai Ram 009 LLC. Investors led by Dickson, Tennessee based hotelier Jay Patel paid $3.8 million (The Nashville Business Journal quoted US$5.9m in November 2016) for the first through eighth floors of Music Row’s tallest building. The transaction doesn’t include the ninth-floor, 6,000-square-foot penthouse and office space.

Jay Patel owns a Comfort Inn hotel in Dickson and HI Express in White House, among other properties.

The largely vacant 56,700-square-foot building was built as an office building and converted into condos in 2006. It has 137 parking spaces.

The property is located in the heart of Nashville’s famed Music Row in close proximity to music titans BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, CMA and Curb Records to name a few.

At nine-stories tall, it remains the tallest building on Music Row, affording 360 degree views of Music City. Transformation of the 56,700 square foot building is scheduled to begin by the end of this year.

Hotel Equities and Hilton revealed plans to transform Nashville’s iconic United Artists Tower into an upscale boutique hotel under Tapestry Collection by Hilton brand.

The new Tapestry Collection hotel will fall into Hotel Equities’ full-service and resort division of hotels. The firm manages premium hotel brands throughout the U.S. and Canada with asset classes ranging from suburban, urban upscale boutique and resort-style hotels.

Hotel Equities is headed up by Fred Cerrone, Founder and Chairman, with a portfolio of around 100 properties nationwide, under Marriott, Hilton and IHG brands, across the USA.

His four-decade career started as a desk clerk at Boston’s largest hotel and included work as an award-winning GM, an astute management company executive and a successful hotel owner. After many years in key positions with top hotels, he launched Hotel Equities in 1989 and Marriott tapped him as one of their first franchise partners.

In 2012, he co-founded Hotel Development Partners (HDP), an Atlanta-based joint venture between Hotel Equities, IRE Capital and McCarthy Investments to acquire and develop premier-branded hotels. He serves as COO of HDP which has ten properties under management in Atlanta and Charleston and three properties under development in Miami Beach and Atlanta.

Marriott International named Hotel Equities the recipient of its prestigious “Spirit to Serve Award for Community Service” in 2017 and 2012. The award recognised the company’s values as expressed through employee volunteerism plus in-kind and cash donations. Hotel Equities is also a two-time winner of the Marriott Partnership Circle Award.

Chairman of Marriott’s Fairfield Inn Franchise Advisory Board, Fred holds an MBA from Georgia State University and an undergraduate degree in Hotel and restaurant Management from Miami Dade College.

“We are proud to partner with this ownership group and Hilton,” said Joe Reardon, Sr. VP of Business Development for HE. “During initial conversations about the project, we were impressed with the passion and enthusiasm the owners displayed in regard to preserving the unique and important history of the building. We felt aligned with them right away and share in their excitement to bring the new hotel to Music Row.”

The hotel will provide sleek and trendy guest rooms and spectacular views of Nashville from its 360-degree rooftop bar. Additionally, the Music Row location will offer guests a unique experience with indigenous dining and entertainment options.

“We are excited to partner with Hotel Equities to revitalise a building with such a storied past into a vibrant hotel that will be an ideal addition to the growing Tapestry Collection portfolio,” said Jenna Hackett, global head, Tapestry Collection by Hilton.

“The original style and offerings of this forthcoming hotel will truly encapsulate the spirit of the city and will be one of the first Tapestry Collection properties in the great city of Nashville.”

The hotel will welcome out of town travellers as well as the local music community with its close proximity to historic RCA Studio A and B, Owen Bradley’s Quonset Hut and numerous other well-known recording studios.

Vanderbilt University and Belmont University are within walking distance of the hotel.

THPT Comment: Well they say that hotels are the new Rock’n’Roll – This one certainly is. Not 100% sure what the relationship between Hotel Equities and Jay Patel is…we shall investigate further.

First Seen: The Tennessean