CCIM Nashville Economic Outlook

I spent an interesting afternoon at the Nashville CCIM Economic Outlook Conference yesterday.

Nashville truly has exploded in the last decade and Janet Miller,  chief economic development and marketing officer for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, provided fascinating facts.

Snap shot:

• In the last 16 Nashville has courted 99 projects for expansion to the metro area.  Janet emphisized these are SERIOUS opprotunities for the region not just phone calls for companies looking for handouts. 

• If Nashville was able to successfully recruit all the projects they would total 33,000 jobs and cover 18,000,000sft of commercial real estate (office and industrial)

• 60% of the projects were considered Corporate Headquarters.  Funny quote from Janet, "Twenty years ago if a headquarters called us looking for a location we would not know how to act."

• Data Centers have become a huge part of the relocation process.  Bank of New York has invested more than $1 BILLION into a new data center in Nashville.  Why?  Because Tennessee is not subject to severe weather (like hurricanes) and earthquakes.  Also, Nashville is not considered a prime terrorist target.  Bank of New York's previous data center was destroyed on 9/11.

• The key to recruitment can be "The Spread".  Basically the cost of living vs the cost of business.  

• Nashville is the #1 destination for companies and employees moving out of Los Angeles.

I hope the trend extends to Knoxville.