New plans for black music museum have Nashville leaders wary
NASHVILLE — Updated plans for a National Museum of African-American Music are drawing scrutiny from city council members and prominent black leaders who argue that the institution will be less prominent than previously announced.
Developers pitched it for part of the ground floor of a $400 million private mixed-use development called Fifth + Broadway that is to be built at Nashville’s former convention center site. Its main entrance was to have been on Broadway, Nashville's main street; in the next block on Broadway is another music icon, Tootsies Orchid Lounge.
But 37 of 40 Nashville-Davidson County Metropolitan Council members signed a letter objecting to the latest incarnation of the museum scheduled to open in 2019, what they call small entrances on Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
Project leaders at Oliver McMillan, Spectrum | Emery and Burgin Dossett said the African-American music museum will sit across from historic Ryman Auditorium, the birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry, on a recently revitalized Fifth Avenue, dubbed in the past few years as the Avenue of the Arts between Church and Union streets.
The city-county government is helping the entire project with $57 million in payments and tax-increment financing — tax revenue from a designated area to be used for economic development. It also is chipping in $10 million for the museum itself.
“Under the current proposed center and African American museum site plan, we are not convinced that the museum will reflect the dignity and reverence that it deserves and that our substantial public investment warrants,” At-Large Councilwoman Erica Gilmore said. “We welcome suggestions that the developer might have about upgrading the museum’s site and facilities.
“That is the particular street that everyone sees nationally,” she said of Broadway. “Fifth Avenue just not have that same prominence.”
One critic Shirley Lightfoot, held a sign that read, “Underground railroad — yes. Underground museum — no.”
The new plan leaves the museum without secure and convenient access to loading facilities that are needed for visiting exhibits, critics said.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry met Wednesday with Gilmore and Kevin Lavender, chairman of the museum’s board, said Barry's spokesman, Sean Braisted.
“We believe that once the museum is completed, it will be an institution that serves as a source of pride for Nashville and a beacon for those wanting to learn more about or celebrate African-American musical heritage,” Braisted said.
Gilmore and the council’s budget and finance chairman, John Cooper, plan to draft a resolution to ask that an independent evaluator ensure that the amount of space devoted to the museum be valued at $11 million.
“The ordinance contemplates a shell at the $11 million price,” Cooper said, adding that placing the museum behind retail stores would be much less expensive.
Fifth + Broadway has been billed as a destination that would include separate office and high-rise apartments, a cut-through road with street-level shops, an entertainment venue, restaurants with rooftop decks and the museum.
The mixed-use project is planned for city-owned property that houses the 1987-era, city-owned Nashville Convention Center, which became obsolete after the 2013 opening of Music City Center two blocks south.
The lead developer, Pat Emery of Franklin, Tenn., has until the end of the year to pay $11.25 million to close on the city-owned land after choosing to use three extensions that required three separate $250,000 payments to the city. Payments would come in an initial $5 million lump sum — earmarked to go toward the city’s affordable housing fund — and $250,000 a year annually over 25 years.
The museum, which will be using both private and public sector financing, previously had been talked about at Jefferson Street and Rosa Parks Boulevard, about a mile and a half away. That land instead is the site of the state’s new Tennessee State Museum now being built.
In a statement, Henry Hicks, president and chief of the music museum, expressed satisfaction with the Fifth Avenue frontage despite the outcry of more than 9 in 10 council members.
"We also remain very confident that the developers are committed to ensuring the museum’s success,” he said. “Cooperative discussions are continuing and I'm certain they will benefit the entire project."
Under a long-term lease agreement between the museum and developer, Oliver McMillan | Spectrum Emery is to build out shell space for 50,000 square feet at no cost on the street level of the property. The museum also won't have to pay rent.
Oliver McMillan | Spectrum Emery officials said in a statement that they have worked with project leaders and determined that the museum's best location for is on the Fifth Avenue side of the development because the museum wanted 15,000 square feet more than what was envisioned in the Broadway-entrance plans.
The museum's board and Metro's Convention Center Authority board of directors supported the change, the developers said..
"The avenue is one of the state’s top tourist corridors due to iconic cultural centers that include the Ryman, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Tennessee State Museum among others — and, very soon, (the museum)," the developers' statement reads. They express confidence that the Fifth Avenue site will provide the museum a world-class showcase and the most accessible location for visitors.
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