Fifth + Broadway sells for record $715M | Development

Downtown’s Fifth + Broadway has sold for $714,999,999 in what almost certainly ranks as the most significant single-asset and single-location real estate deal in Nashville history.

According to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the new owner is Denver-based real estate investment firm Northwood Investors.

The seller was Brookfield Properties, via its OliverMcMillan Spectrum Emery LLC.

Northwood has landed a loan, valued at $426.9 million, from Pacific Life Insurance company, a separate document notes.

The Davidson County Register of Deeds document references the transaction includes all of Fifth + Broadway’s multiple buildings: the structures housing Assembly Food Hall and the National Museum of African American Music, residential and retail tower The Place and Class A office tower 501 Commerce (the headquarters of AllianceBernstein).

OliverMcMillan (which Brookfield acquired in 2018) and late local developer Pat Emery developed the site of Fifth + Broadway, which carried an estimated tag of more than $425 million and sits on the former footprint of the Nashville Convention Center. Having started initial work on the effort in 2013 when he was part of Spectrum | Emery, Emery (who was an owner of Hall Emery at the time of his recent death) called Fifth + Broadway a “legacy achievement” in early 2021 (the first components of the development opened in late 2020).

“We feel that Fifth + Broadway’s energy and integration in the heart of downtown is unparalleled,” Erin Cannata, managing director of Northwood Investors, said in the release. “As a mixed-use asset, all its elements work together cohesively, and Brookfield has done a phenomenal job with its development. Our Northwood management team is excited to carry on the torch, engage with the city, and partner with tenants like The National Museum of African American Music, AllianceBernstein, The Twelve Thirty Club, Assembly Food Hall and more.”  

Burgin Dossett, Brookfield Properties vice president of development, said the company is “very proud of its development and success as a major destination in and economic driver for Nashville. While Brookfield has successfully recapitalized the asset in line with its overall investment strategy, we remain very interested in Nashville and excited about its future.”

The Northwood website notes the company owns and manages $19 billion worth of real estate and is home to about 250 employees. It deploys about $7 billion in investor equity.

Northwood, which also offers a major New York office, is not new to Nashville. In October, the company paid $55.2 million for the Music Row building home to BMG Rights Management (read here). And in June, Northwood acquired for $119 million the Broadwest main tower component that offers the 234-room Hilton Conrad hotel (read here).

Northwood also owns One and Two Franklin Park in Cool Springs, having paid $200 million for the property in October 2020 (read here).

Nashville Business Journal was the first local media entity to report that Fifth + Broadway was being offered for sale and that, subsequently, Northwood was to be the buyer.