Hyatt Regency hotel deal dead
By Matt Batcheldor
Nashville Business Journal
Jan. 2, 2014
Denver-based hotel developer Bob Swerdling declined to renew contracts with at least two property owners on a proposed $135 million Hyatt Regency Hotel at Second Avenue and Broadway, effectively killing the project, property owners said.
Doug Hirt, one of the property owners, said Swerdling’s contract expired a couple of weeks ago.
“We have no written contract with him,” Hirt said of his property, adding that if “someone wants to buy it, it’s for sale.”
Swerdling could not be reached for comment this afternoon.
The Nashville Business Journal broke the news in October 2012 that Swerdling & Associates, a real estate financial consulting firm that specializes in hotel development, had a contract to buy a 1.5-acre tract on Broadway between Third and Second avenues south.
The site included retail buildings facing Broadway, including the western wear store Trail West. The deal was assembled through contracts with several property owners.
In July, Swerdling announced he intended to build a 450-room, full-service Hyatt Regency hotel on the site. A month later, city officials said the project would be eligible for $3 million in tax-increment financing — the same amount that was earmarked for tax abatement for developer Tony Giarratana’s proposed full-service Marriott on a lot under contract from the First Baptist Church.
But Swerdling’s project still required private financing to get off the ground, and little movement has been seen since the summer.
The amount of public financing offered to the project was significantly lower than what the Metro Development and Housing Agency and Mayor Karl Dean's administration initially told potential developers: that up to $20 million in tax-increment financing, or TIF, could be available for construction of a four-star, full-service hotel downtown, the business journal reported in 2012.
Metro is offering the incentives to lure more hotels for the city’s Music City Center, which is hungry for more full-service hotel rooms for convention-goers.
It’s the second time in recent years that a hotel project has been proposed for the site.
Arkansas-based The Barber Group and Denver's Sage Hospitality Resources in 2007 proposed building a 19-story Westin hotel along with retail shops and condos. The same year, Metro Council rezoned the land to make way for a hotel project but also gave the Metro Nashville Historical Commission oversight of future construction projects on lower Broadway.
Nashville Business Journal
Jan. 2, 2014
Denver-based hotel developer Bob Swerdling declined to renew contracts with at least two property owners on a proposed $135 million Hyatt Regency Hotel at Second Avenue and Broadway, effectively killing the project, property owners said.
Doug Hirt, one of the property owners, said Swerdling’s contract expired a couple of weeks ago.
“We have no written contract with him,” Hirt said of his property, adding that if “someone wants to buy it, it’s for sale.”
Swerdling could not be reached for comment this afternoon.
The Nashville Business Journal broke the news in October 2012 that Swerdling & Associates, a real estate financial consulting firm that specializes in hotel development, had a contract to buy a 1.5-acre tract on Broadway between Third and Second avenues south.
The site included retail buildings facing Broadway, including the western wear store Trail West. The deal was assembled through contracts with several property owners.
In July, Swerdling announced he intended to build a 450-room, full-service Hyatt Regency hotel on the site. A month later, city officials said the project would be eligible for $3 million in tax-increment financing — the same amount that was earmarked for tax abatement for developer Tony Giarratana’s proposed full-service Marriott on a lot under contract from the First Baptist Church.
But Swerdling’s project still required private financing to get off the ground, and little movement has been seen since the summer.
The amount of public financing offered to the project was significantly lower than what the Metro Development and Housing Agency and Mayor Karl Dean's administration initially told potential developers: that up to $20 million in tax-increment financing, or TIF, could be available for construction of a four-star, full-service hotel downtown, the business journal reported in 2012.
Metro is offering the incentives to lure more hotels for the city’s Music City Center, which is hungry for more full-service hotel rooms for convention-goers.
It’s the second time in recent years that a hotel project has been proposed for the site.
Arkansas-based The Barber Group and Denver's Sage Hospitality Resources in 2007 proposed building a 19-story Westin hotel along with retail shops and condos. The same year, Metro Council rezoned the land to make way for a hotel project but also gave the Metro Nashville Historical Commission oversight of future construction projects on lower Broadway.