Aggressive Atlanta Buyer Strikes Its Biggest Downtown Deal Yet
DAVIDSON COUNTY PROPERTY ASSESSOR
The Ardent Cos. paid $23 million for this five-story building at 150 Second Ave. N., home to BB King’s Blues Club and the national customer service operations of Lyft.
A real estate investor from Atlanta that has paid record-setting prices for downtown Nashville real estate has cemented its largest purchase yet.
On Jan. 19, The Ardent Cos. closed a deal for the historic building at 150 Second Ave. N. that’s home to BB King’s Blues Club and the national customer service operation of the ride-sharing company Lyft. Scott Werbel, managing director at Ardent, said his company paid $23 million for the fully leased, 87,000-square-foot building.
This is the fifth deal Ardent has struck since debuting in Nashville in 2014 — keeping an intense focus on the Lower Broad tourist district that is bursting with tourists and riding country music’s mainstream status to a higher-than-ever profile. Ardent has now invested at least $66 million buying downtown real estate since making that first purchase in the fall of 2014.
“This is our biggest deal by purchase price and by square footage, so it’s pretty meaningful to us,” Werbel said in an interview. “Ardent continues to actively identify future acquisitions in the Lower Broadway entertainment district and downtown Nashville, in general.”
Ardent bought the building from an investor group led by Rob Lowe, who is also a senior director at the Nashville office of real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield. Seth Harlan, a broker with Nashville’s Robin Realty Co., represented Ardent Cos. in the deal.
Previously, Ardent Cos. bought the buildings at 312 Broadway and 305 Broadway. Ardent also paid $16 million for the property at 208 Broadway, where country artist John Rich is opening his Redneck Riviera honky-tonk. That deal set the local record for price per square foot, a common yardstick in the real estate industry.
The Tennessean has reported that Ardent is under contract to buy the building at 126 Second Ave. S.
Adam Sichko
Senior Reporter
Nashville Business Journal