When Bridgestone Arena opened in 1996, Broadway, a spiritual home for country music and culture in Nashville, was at rock bottom...Nearly 30 years later, Broadway is unrecognizable...
The arena police station eventually closed and the register of deeds office relocated in late May 2024, giving the Predators an opening. They’re proposing a significant reimagining of the arena’s one-city-block footprint, a renovation that could cost anywhere from $650 million to $750 million and take an inward facing arena and make it extroverted, just like the people riding mechanical bulls at bars down the street.
“It’s probably the last undeveloped area on Broadway,” said Predators Chief Strategy Officer Kyle Clayton. “We don’t want to be seen as an island. We want to be part of the fun of Broadway; take these concrete walls and open them up and connect all the energy inside the building with what’s going on outside on Broadway.”
As the Predators work with Populous, CAA ICON and Turner (the latter for pre-construction project pricing work) to adapt the arena to the modern state of its surroundings, the two-story concrete building fell into the team’s crosshairs. It will be demolished and replaced with a glassy six-story structure directly connecting the arena and Broadway, with restaurants, retail and arena entrances right off the street. Another five-story building, the future home of the Predators’ business operations, will stretch upward above it. The team hopes to begin that work, which will minimally affect the arena’s interior, by next summer.
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