One year ago, I sold the majority of my real estate company, Village, to a local group of business partners and seasoned agents. The legacy sale freed me up from day-to-day management, so I could refocus my energies on improving my one-mile radius.
Rechanneling My Energy
It’s been a busy and productive year. I finished my ULI Nashville chair term and hosted the record-breaking ULI Spring Meeting in Nashville. During my two-year term, we increased membership from 550 to over 800 members. We have an active and engaged membership doing all sorts of good things for the city.
With ULI, I am now involved with Building Healthy Places, a committee examining trail-oriented development in conjunction with Greenways for Nashville. We are studying the rail and trail, and the Brown’s Creek section of the CityCentral Greenway, and will add our recommendations and insights to a feasibility study that is underway.
I am still serving on the Greenways for Nashville board, and on the Greenways Commission, with the intent to help build out Nashville’s greenway system. This is a personal passion and an important part of improving my one-mile radius. As a board, we are now considering a major capital campaign to involved corporations and philanthropic organizations in the creation of this urban greenway system.
Our Core Development team has continued to invest in the city’s emerging neighborhoods. We started the final phase to complete our Alloy neighborhood on Tech Hill — Alloy Artisan, an 8,000-square-foot building for mixed-use and artisan manufacturing. We are also readying projects on Trinity Lane, Gallatin Pike, Buena Vista, Dickerson Road and on a couple of sections of the urban greenway system.
Working with my CityLiving Group team of urban neighborhood specialists, we continue to help home buyers, sellers and developers find value in Nashville real estate. We’ve sold the remaining condos at Segment, the final Alloy units, the final 7th and Taylor units, and we are nearly sold out at CityLights. (Get yours before they are gone.) We are ramping up marketing and sales for the old schoolhouse, Elliott Germantown, readying the launch of the Odyssey, Alto, Becanni, and other multi-family residential projects for developers.
This past year, I used some of the new-found time to travel with my wife, Sherry. We continued our exploration in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, learning the culture, sampling the food and observing how others build community. Sherry has now started a new business, BrainTrust, so perhaps we will slow our jets this year.
Expanding the Village
The new year is bringing another exciting change to my one-mile radius.
Last year, when the opportunity knocked to sell Village to a group of agents who all came up through the company, I decided to go for it because I liked that the company would remain a locally owned, community-facing real estate company.
Now, the opportunity has presented to merge two locally founded companies so the combined entity will be a locally owned, community-facing real estate company. Village is merging with Parks Realty.
Both are strong firms with unrivaled cultures and deep roots in the community. Parks and Village have a combined 68 years in the Middle Tennessee real estate business and will be stronger together with $4 billion in sales volume. Both have extraordinary agents and staff who live their lives with integrity and purpose.
The companies will continue to operate under their respective names, and I will remain as chair emeritus of Village. This is a great move for investors and for the 1,000-plus Village and Parks agents. I look forward to guiding my CityLiving Group through the new opportunities this merger will bring.