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Viridian
Nashville, Tennessee
Project Type: Residential/Mixed Use
Volume 38 Number 16
July–September 2008
Case Number: C038016
PROJECT TYPE
When Viridian—a 31-story, 305-unit condominium tower—was completed in
October 2006, it provided some of the first residential ownership opportunities
in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Located on Church Street in the heart of
the central business district, Viridian contains both affordable and market-rate
units as well as the city’s first downtown grocery store in 40 years.
Comprising 222,514 square feet (20,672 sq m) of parking and retail space,
the base of the tower nearly covers the entire 0.55-acre (0.22-ha) site and
was built within inches of the property lines and existing structures on both
sides. The project clearly met a market need—there were fewer than a dozen
condominium units in downtown Nashville when sales began—and was fully
sold out nine months before it was completed.
LOCATION
Central City
SITE SIZE
0.55 acre/0.22 hectare
LAND USES
Condominiums, Multifamily For-Sale Housing, Grocery Store, High-Rise Tower
KEYWORDS/SPECIAL FEATURES



High-Rise Building
Urban Infill
Mixed Housing


Mixed Use
Public/Private Partnership
WEB SITE
www.viridiannashville.com
PROJECT ADDRESS
415 Church Street
Nashville, Tennessee
DEVELOPERS
Giarratana Development, LLC
Nashville, Tennessee
615-254-0555
www.giarratana.com
Novare Group
Atlanta, Georgia
404-815-1234
www.novaregroup.com
ARCHITECT AND INTERIOR DESIGNER
Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia
404-233-5453
www.srssa.com
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Walter P. Moore & Associates
Atlanta, Georgia
404-898-9620
www.walterpmoore.com
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
R.J. Griffin and Company
Atlanta, Georgia
770-551-8883
www.rjgriffin.com
PUBLIC PARTNER (Tax Increment Financing)
Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA)
Nashville, Tennessee
615-252-8400
www.nashville.gov/mdha
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The result of a collaboration between locally based Giarratana Development, LLC, and Atlanta-based Novare
Group, Viridian is a 31-story concrete and blue-green glass condominium tower that stands in the heart of
Nashville’s central business district (CBD). Originally priced between $130,000 and $400,000—with penthouses
selling for more than $1 million—the 305 condominiums feature floor-to-ceiling windows, ten-foot (3-m) ceilings,
and one- and two-bedroom floor plans that average approximately 875 square feet (81 sq m). The building’s first
floor contains a grocery store, another smaller retail space, a lobby, a concierge desk (staffed 24 hours a day), and
a mailroom. Part of the ground floor and the eight floors above it contain 430 parking spaces; the lowest
residential units are located on the tenth floor, and most offer views of the downtown skyline and/or the
Cumberland River. The 31st floor features a club room, an exercise facility, and an outdoor rooftop pool. The
project, which embodies smart growth principles, has helped generate demand that has led to the development of
several additional high-rise residential projects in and around downtown Nashville.
THE SITE
As mentioned above, Viridian is located in the heart of Nashville’s CBD, within blocks of major employment
centers, including the Fifth Third Tower, SunTrust Plaza, the U.S. Bank Tower, and the landmark AT&T Building
(known also as the “Batman Building”). It stands within walking distance of many of the city’s entertainment,
cultural, and sports venues, including Ryman Auditorium, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, LP Field (where the
National Football League’s Tennessee Titans play), and the Sommet Center (home to the National Hockey League’s
Nashville Predators).
The small (100-by-235-foot/31-by-72-meter) urban infill site lies on the south side of Church Street, between
Fourth and Fifth avenues, with an alley and a parking deck behind it. The site was formerly a parking lot that had
been operated by several different companies as a valet parking facility, and was sold to Giarratana Development
for the development of Viridian in December 2003.
The tower is situated between the landmark 31-story Life & Casualty (L&C) Tower—an icon on the Nashville skyline
that was once the tallest edifice in the South—and the historic Cohen Building, a three-story structure built in
1895. Giarratana also purchased the Cohen Building, which leaned about a foot (0.3 m) into the Viridian site.
Although the owner of the Cohen Building originally wanted to sell it for a price based on the value of the land,
Giarratana agreed to preserve and restore the landmark in exchange for a lower purchase price. Giarratana
ultimately sold the Cohen Building, then leased it back to use as a construction office and sales center for Viridian.
The fourth building on the Church Street block—the Egyptian Revival–style Downtown Presbyterian Church, a
historic structure dating to 1849—is next door to the Cohen Building and less than 50 feet (15 m) from Viridian.
This distance became relevant when the grocery operator needed to obtain a permit to sell alcohol.
PLANNING
Viridian’s genesis can be traced to both a 1993 zoning change and the development of the Cumberland, an
apartment tower that broke ground in 1996—but only after 68 banks declined to finance it. From 1963 until 1993,
residential uses were prohibited within the commercial core zone district (the historic CBD). Although Nashville’s
population grew by 60,000 people between 1990 and 2000, virtually no one lived downtown until Giarratana
Development built the 24-story, 289-unit Cumberland, which opened in March 1998. At the time, it was believed
that there was no market for housing in downtown Nashville. It took a while to attract residents to downtown;
lease-up at the Cumberland took 18 months and, after that process, Tony Giarratana (whose background is in
office leasing and development) had no interest in developing another residential project.
Several years later, however, as the Cumberland’s tenants began to turn over, Giarratana decided to conduct exit
interviews with each departing resident. After hundreds of interviews, he determined that the primary reason
people were leaving was to purchase their own homes—and that many of these prospective homebuyers would
have chosen to remain downtown if ownership opportunities had been available there. When Giarratana asked
departing tenants what features they wanted in a new residence, they indicated a preference for larger (floor-toceiling rather than punched) windows, higher (ten-foot [3.04-m] rather than eight-foot [2.4-m]) ceilings, higherend kitchens and bathrooms, a more elaborate fitness center and club room, a swimming pool, and a place to shop
for groceries. Just as important, they told him what they didn’t value—larger units, enclosed kitchens, powder
rooms, or pantries.
The concept for Viridian grew out of those interviews. Realizing that what former residents were describing was
similar to Metropolis—a condominium tower built above a garage and retail podium in midtown Atlanta that was
completed in 2002—Giarratana approached architect Robert Riddell of Atlanta-based Smallwood, Reynolds,
Stewart, Stewart & Associates—which had designed Metropolis—to discuss his ideas for the Nashville project. In
October 2003, Tom Raney of R.J. Griffin, the general contractor for Metropolis, introduced Giarratana to Novare
CEO Jim Borders so that Giarratana could request a peer review of his proposed project. Borders—who had long
wanted to develop a project outside of Atlanta—was impressed with the plans and pro forma, and asked to become
a partner and codeveloper.
A change to the building code also helped make Viridian feasible. The Cumberland was built under the Southern
Building Code, which limited the percentage of open window space a building could contain and required greater
setbacks. In 2005, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law that enabled state and local governments to use
the International Building Code, which required lesser setbacks and allowed up to 75 percent of a building’s
exterior to be glass.
DESIGN AND MARKETING
Shoehorning Viridian into such a tight site was a major design challenge. The first nine floors, which contain
parking and retail space, have no windows on the east and west sides. Above the ninth floor, the building steps
back 15 feet (4.6 m) on the east and west sides, allowing windows and balconies to be included on all four sides.
All of the residential floors are notched at the corners, with a step-out at the building’s front facade, allowing
designers to fit two units into each front corner, for a total of six possible corner units per floor. A corridor runs
down the center of the building, and the remaining units open off this corridor, facing either east or west. The
original design thus called for a total of 16 units per floor.
Viridian initially was targeted to young professionals: 20- and 30-something, highly educated, highly compensated
professionals and first-time homebuyers, both singles and childless couples. Eighty percent of the condominiums
were to be one-bedroom units, and only 20 percent were to have two bedrooms. But something interesting
happened during the marketing process: empty nesters showed up. Although the building’s units were the ideal
size for the target market, the empty nesters were looking for larger spaces: even the planned 1,190-square-foot
(110.6-sq-m) two-bedroom dwellings were too small for them. The marketing team initially saw these visitors as
an anomaly; clearly, they believed, empty nesters were not going to be buying condos in downtown Nashville.
However, after a month or so, when about 20 percent of the sales center’s visitors turned out to be empty nester
couples, the development team decided to rethink its target market—and the project design. They took the middle
two units on the front of each floor off the market, and worked to design a larger, 1,500-square-foot (139-sq-m),
two-bedroom unit out of space that had been designed for two 750-square-foot (70-sq-m) units.
After much struggle on the part of the architects, engineers, and salespeople, they still were unable to figure out
how to make it work as planned, with the front balconies set into the building (which was designed to be built out
to the sidewalk). One member of the sales team eventually suggested pushing the balconies out over the sidewalk,
which would create enough additional interior space to accommodate a larger living/dining/kitchen area.
Giarratana obtained a permanent encroachment permit from the city to allow the balconies on the front of Viridian
to extend over the sidewalk, which enabled designers to fit two bedrooms (a master suite and a guest room) and a
large living/dining/kitchen area into the reconfigured unit with windows on three sides and a V-shaped balcony that
extends over the front of the building. This unit was so popular with empty nesters that it sold out in
approximately two months.
All of the condominiums at Viridian feature ten-foot-high (3-m-high) ceilings, exposed concrete columns and
ceilings, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, cherry or maple cabinets, bathrooms with ceramic tile
floors, and at least one angled balcony. Units on the tenth floor, which sit directly atop the parking base, have
large terraces separated by privacy walls. Each unit is prewired for surround sound and satellite television and has
access to high-speed Internet service. Six penthouse units on the 30th floor include two two-bedroom units with
two bathrooms and four three-bedroom condos with 3.5 bathrooms, two of which contain circular staircases
leading to an upper level.
Four east-facing units on each floor face a narrow (roughly 95-foot/29-meter) section of the L&C tower. These
units, which have the poorest views (yet still offer views of the river from their balconies and/or living rooms),
were designated as affordable and sold out quite quickly. Other than the views and their slightly smaller size, the
affordable units, which are located on floors ten through 29, are no different from the other condos; they have the
same design features and finish level as all of Viridian’s other units.
The inclusion of affordable units has made it possible for lower- and middle-income workers—including musicians,
police officers, teachers, and municipal employees—to become homeowners in the city where they work.
Purchasers of the affordable units had to meet income restrictions; they could earn no more than 80 percent of the
area median income (AMI) for a two-person household. The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency
(MDHA) reviewed financial statements for all prospective buyers and each of the contracts for the affordable units.
Those who purchased affordable units may rent them only to tenants who meet the same income restrictions as
purchasers. They are also restricted as to how they can resell their units within the first five years: if they sell to
someone who does not meet the income restrictions, they must pay a penalty that starts at $50,000 in the first
year and drops to $10,000 in the fifth year. After five years, they are free to sell to anyone without penalty.
The grocery store design also presented challenges, since an urban model is much smaller than a typical suburban
supermarket and has to meet the needs of downtown residents. The development team visited and studied smaller
grocers in other cities to determine which features and products to offer at Viridian.
The design of the H.G. Hill Urban Market blends an old-fashioned look with modern features. The market has 30foot-high (9-m-high) ceilings with large columns and metal fixtures. A rolling ladder along one wall allows stockers
and shoppers to reach products on high shelves. (The idea for the ladder came from the Modica Market at Seaside,
Florida.) The market, which can be entered both from the street and from Viridian’s public lobby, offers a wide
array of freshly prepared foods that are designed to appeal to busy professionals.
Accommodating beverage sales also created a design challenge. H.G. Hills (which operates more than a dozen
suburban supermarkets in Nashville) insisted that it needed to be able to sell beer in order to operate a financially
successful grocery on the site, yet a city zoning code prohibits the sale of beer within 100 feet (30.5 m) of a
church. Modifying the planned locations of the store’s entrances and placing the beer display in the corner of the
market farthest from the entrances put the store within inches of compliance. The grocer received permission to
sell beer just one hour before the supermarket’s grand opening in February 2006.
FINANCING
As the first condominium project in downtown Nashville, Viridian initially was seen as financially risky. After nine
months of negotiations, however, the MDHA agreed to provide $6 million in tax increment financing (TIF) through
First Bank and Pinnacle Bank in exchange for the developers’ setting aside 20 percent of the units (61 onebedroom condominiums) as affordable.
Viridian was developed as a 50/50 partnership between Giarratana Development and the Novare Group; the latter
provided $3.5 million in equity. Both developers deferred their development fees and pledged the TIF to make up
the remainder of the project equity. The project used $53 million in debt financing: primary debt financing came
from Wachovia, which provided approximately 40 percent of the total ($20 million); and three additional banks
(Regions Bank, Compass Bank, and LaSalle Bank) each lent approximately $11 million.
Under the terms of the loan, the development team needed to presell approximately two-thirds of the
condominiums (about 200 units) before construction commenced. Presales began in March 2004, and by October
that number had been reached, allowing ground breaking to take place in November 2004.
DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
Giarratana and Novare’s original agreement called for two project managers—one to be assigned by each
company—who would work cooperatively, but they eventually agreed to rely on a single manager—Frank Reese of
Novare—who reported to both companies on a regular basis.
The project’s primary construction challenge involved fitting Viridian into such a constrained site without damaging
the adjacent structures. The base of the building is roughly six inches (15 cm) from its neighbors on each side.
Contractors and subcontractors found the site frighteningly small and have described Viridian as one of the most
difficult buildings they’ve ever worked on. There was little space to store materials and supplies on site, so they
had to be brought in as needed and moved from one area to another as construction proceeded.
Access also was an issue, since the site was essentially boxed in on all sides. Contractors were not able to access
the site from Church Street—a major city street—so the only access was from the 15-foot (4.6-m) alley behind the
site. Deliveries had to be carefully timed, since they were limited to certain hours. Because the parking levels are
only inches from structures on either side, a luffing crane with a 446-foot-long (136-m-long) boom that can be
raised and lowered—one of only four such tower cranes in the United States, and the first to be used in Nashville—
had to be brought in to ferry materials essentially straight up, over the L&C Tower, and down, without disturbing
the existing structure.
The subsurface was primarily rock, but blasting could not be used during the excavation for fear of damaging the
historic Cohen Building. Instead, workers had to chip and drill away at the subsurface. A monitoring system was
installed in the Cohen Building to minimize the chances of its suffering structural damage during the construction
process. The system included both vibration and inclination monitors and was tied into developers’ and contractors’
computers and cellular phones.
All members of the construction team worked closely together—along with municipal officials and neighbors—to
meet the 23-month construction schedule. As Viridian was being constructed, the city was in the process of
completing an $8 million upgrade of the streetscape along Church Street, and municipal workers were able to
revise their plans for the street and sidewalk in the field in order to improve the entrance to the grocery store by
adjusting the grade to avoid the need for steps and a railing. The city’s improvements included transforming
Church Street from a one-way to a two-way street.
An agreement between the development team and the Downtown Presbyterian Church allowed construction crews
to use the church’s small parking area for the erection of the tower crane and buck hoist (which moved materials
and personnel up and down) in exchange for certain concessions, including temporary parking space on a lot that
Giarratana owned nearby and an agreement to resurface the church’s parking lot after construction was
completed. The developers also agreed to provide a permanent “canvas” on the side of the building—at the base of
Viridian facing the church, behind the diminutive Cohen Building—on which the house of worship could install a
mural.
Viridian is the first residential tower in Nashville to use the Metro Nashville District Energy System (DES), which
circulates chilled water to more than 40 buildings in and around downtown Nashville from a plant in the nearby
South-of-Broadway (SoBro) district. Because the agreement with Metro Nashville DES was negotiated after the
building had been designed—but before construction had begun—it was relatively expensive to retrofit the design.
Metro Nashville DES contributed $250,000 toward the approximately $400,000 cost of accommodating the system
in the building design. Using district cooling eliminated the need for an on-site cooling system and reduces the
building’s energy consumption and operating costs. It is competitively priced; residents pay about 10 percent less
than they would with a standard on-site cooling system.
MANAGEMENT
The developers’ deal with H.G. Hill Urban Market gave the grocer 5,140 square feet (477 sq m) rent free for five
years, as well as several thousand dollars to build out that space. Although giving away such valuable retail space
was a risky decision, the grocery proved critically important to Viridian’s success. The project was announced on
January 15, 2004, and the local newspaper initially reported the story as “First Downtown Grocery to Be Built since
1967; Condos to Be Built on Top.” As Giarratana’s exit interviews with departing Cumberland apartment residents
had indicated, the grocery store was essential to attracting prospective homebuyers to a downtown residential
project.
The second, smaller retail space has not been built out and remains vacant as of September 2008, although
several prospective tenants (including an ice cream parlor, a coffee shop, a hairdresser, and a masseuse) have
expressed interest.
A concierge staffs a desk in a secured lobby, which residents enter by using their keycards. The lobby also features
three plasma televisions and a seating area; residents pick up their mail from a mailroom adjacent to the lobby. All
elevators, as well as the elevator lobby on each floor, contain flat-screen monitors that provide community updates
and information—including a message welcoming residents by name when they swipe their keycard in the elevator
to access their floor or the rooftop terrace.
EXPERIENCE GAINED
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Giarratana not only copied the concept of Metropolis, which he saw
as the perfect fit—as well as the highest and best use—for the Viridian site, but he also hired its architect and
general contractor, and entered into a partnership with its developer, Novare. Their partnership has been so
successful that Giarratana and Novare have gone on to collaborate on nine additional projects.
If it works once, do it again. Giarratana and Novare’s second urban residential tower—Encore, a 333-unit
condominium project located just a few blocks from Viridian in the aforementioned SoBro neighborhood—is
essentially the same product with subtle differences, including 22,000 square feet (2,044 sq m) of retail space
wrapped around its base, additional residences, and a seventh-floor terrace-level pool, club room, and gathering
areas. That 20-story project, which was completed ahead of schedule in early 2008, also has been a success.
What works in one city may not work in another. The original design for Viridian contained one type of unit
that was very popular in Atlanta, yet proved not to be a good fit for the Nashville market. The model featured a
single bedroom set in the middle of the unit, with cutouts to offer views through the living area. Dubbed the
“Austin Powers” model, it proved to be too edgy for the Nashville crowd, particularly among parents who were
guaranteeing loans for young adult prospective purchasers, and thus was a complete nonstarter in Nashville.
Although Viridian had been planned with four of these units per floor, before construction began the developers
decided to include only one. Their next residential tower, Encore, eliminated this model entirely.
It’s all about the view. At the Cumberland apartment building, Giarratana offered models with both traditional
(closed) and contemporary (open) kitchen layouts. By the time construction cranes had reached the fifth floor, the
marketing staff realized that nobody was interested in the units with closed kitchens. Views from every room—and
through one room to another—make smaller units feel larger, and high-rise residents want unobstructed views
from everywhere in their units, including the kitchens.
Expect speculation. More than a dozen Viridian condos were resold within three months of the project’s
completion in October 2006, indicating intense investor interest. Many of these investors made significant profits,
with increases in 2006 alone ranging from 9 percent to more than 49 percent.
Downtown infill projects can be profitable. Although a project like Viridian clearly would have been much less
expensive to build on a suburban or an exurban greenfield site, Viridian is a financial success. The developers were
able to achieve their pro forma targets despite three constraints: one, they were required to presell two-thirds of
the units before beginning construction; two, their contracts specified that purchase prices of executed contracts
could not be adjusted for rises in project costs; and three, the contracts were written during a period of nearly
unprecedented increases in construction pricing.
PROJECT DATA
LAND USE INFORMATION
Site area (acres/hectares): 0.55/0.22
Percentage complete: 100
Gross density (units per acre/hectare): 555/1,386
Number of off-street parking spaces: 442
LAND USE PLAN
Use
Acres/Hectares
Percentage of Site
Buildings
0.55/0.22
100
Landscaping/open space
(rooftop pool deck)
0.18/0.07
Total
0.55/0.22
100
RESIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Unit Type
Number
Area
(Square Feet/Square Meters)
Percentage Sold Sales Price
One bedroom (affordable)
61
618–648/57–60
100
$130,700–$140,700
One bedroom (market rate)
137
721–824/67–77
100
$200,000–$265,000
Two bedroom (market rate)
101
981–1,470/91–137
100
$270,000–$450,000
Penthouse
6
1,237–2,672/115–248
100
$500,000–$1,050,000
RETAIL INFORMATION
Tenant Classification
Number of Stores Total Gross Leasable Area (Square Feet/Square Meters)
Grocery
1
5,140/478
Other
1
435/40
Total
2
5,575/518
DEVELOPMENT COST INFORMATION
Site Acquisition Cost: $4,575,000
Site Improvement Costs: $645,133
Paving/curbs/sidewalks and landscaping/irrigation: $323,461
Demolition: $208,455
Relocation: $33,609
Environmental: $29,608
Public improvements: $50,000
Construction Costs: $49,323,000
(Includes site improvement costs)
Retail: $700,000
Residential: $48,623,000
Soft Costs: $11,602,000
Architecture and engineering: $2,055,650
Project management: $3,270,000
Marketing: $949,350
Legal/accounting: $275,000
Taxes/insurance: $555,000
Construction interest and fees: $4,022,500
Other: $474,500
Total Development Cost: $65,500,000
Total Development Cost at Completion: $67,100,000
DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
Planning started: December 2002
Site purchased: December 2003
Sales/leasing started: March 2004
Construction started: October 2004
Project completed: October 2006
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
From Nashville International Airport: Take I-40 West (toward Nashville) for 7.6 miles (12.2 km). Take exit 209.
Turn right onto Church Street and go 0.7 mile (1.1 km). Viridian is located on the right at 415 Church Street.
Driving time: 15 minutes in nonpeak traffic.
Julie D. Stern, report author
Jason Scully, editor, Development Case Studies
David James Rose, copy editor
Joanne Nanez, online production manager
Ted Thoerig, editorial associate
This Development Case Study is intended to serve as a resource for subscribers in improving the quality of future projects. Data
contained herein were made available by the project’s development team and constitute a report on, not an endorsement of, the
project by ULI–the Urban Land Institute.
Copyright © 2008 by ULI–the Urban Land Institute
1025 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W., Suite 500 West, Washington, D.C. 20007-5201
Developed jointly by Giarratana Development, LLC, and Novare Group, the 305-unit Viridian is the
first condominium project to be built in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
The $67.1 million infill project, which nearly covers the entire 0.55-acre (0.22-ha) site, was
constructed within inches of adjoining property lines and without disturbing two neighboring historic
structures.
The ground floor of the Viridian includes the 5,140-square-foot (478-sq-m) H.G. Hill Urban Market—
the first grocery store in downtown Nashville in over 40 years.
Viridian’s 305 condominiums—which feature floor-to-ceiling windows and ten-foot-high (3-m-high)
ceilings in one- and two-bedroom layouts—were fully sold out nine months before completion.
Featuring a rooftop pool and panoramic views of the downtown skyline, the 31-story luxury tower
has helped generate residential demand in downtown Nashville, leading to additional high-rise
development there.