Jesse Abair serves as senior director, real estate development, for Massachusetts-based The RMR Group. The company owns a large East Bank property near downtown and is eyeing a major mixed-use project.

Specifically, the company — which had roughly $32 billion of total assets under management as of mid-year 2020 — is proposing the redevelopment of a 16.7-acre site with a main address of 111 N. First St. near the Cumberland River and Nissan Stadium (read here).

On the heels of the Oracle announcement related to River North (read here), the Post caught up with Abair for a quick chat.

Does the Oracle announcement expedite your efforts?

I don’t think it impacts the timetable since we were already advancing our redevelopment efforts for this property. We received approval of our specific plan earlier this year, and we have moved into the master planning and design phase of our project. We acquired an adjacent site earlier this year and we are seeking approval from the city to incorporate that piece into our overall development footprint. So, while we certainly view Oracle’s interest as an extremely positive indicator for the East Bank, it does not necessarily change how we are thinking about our site.

Does the Oracle announcement make your property — and other East Bank properties south of Jefferson Street — more valuable?

The Oracle plan is real-world market feedback from a major corporate player. That benefits everybody who has holdings on the East Bank, and, more importantly, it confirms what we have long thought about this area — namely, that it is poised to capture a lot of Nashville’s future growth.  

RMR recently paid $7.6 million for property at 151 N. First St. Would the company have acquired the property had Oracle not been expected to head to River North as the Post first reported in early 2019?

Yes, we would have. We are a true believer in the future of the East Bank, and we are always on the lookout for ways to strategically augment our existing project site.

Do you have any other East Bank property — or property in Nashville in general — eyed for purchase?

At the moment, there is no specific property on our radar.  

Have you been in contact with other East Bank property owners?

Absolutely, we are in regular contact with other East Bank landowners in order to understand what their plans are for their respective properties. We try to use that information to inform our own project design so that we’re making thoughtful and functional connections to what will become the broader East Bank neighborhood.  

How could your site unfold in terms of functionality?

We envision an internal road network and a greenway traversing our site that would eventually connect to Metro’s planned greenway system for the East Bank. We would ultimately like to extend Howerton Avenue to North First Street, and we also think that enhancing north-south connectivity through our site would benefit the city’s transportation infrastructure. I can tell you that we are spending a lot of time trying to get the ground plane right. Connectivity, open spaces, greenway extensions, activated streetscapes — these things will be crucial to the success of our project and to the transition of the East Bank as a whole into a place that people want to actually spend time in.

Could you have more residential units than originally planned given all the future Oracle employees?

Residential has always been an important part of the project, but we’re not necessarily changing the development program because of any one company. We always planned for a mix of uses here, and we believe that the ongoing emergence of the East Bank, coupled with Nashville’s continued growth trajectory, will increase demand for not just new residential space, but also new office, retail and hospitality space as well. We hope to accommodate all of those uses.

When might you have detailed plans and images?

We have assembled a comprehensive project team that has been actively engaged in that exercise for some time. Given the size of our property and the flexibility of our approved specific plan, we are evaluating a few different options with respect to how we program the site and how we might phase the development. While we can’t provide a firm timeframe, we are collaborating with our design team, Nashville-based Hastings Architecture, our leasing team, Colliers International, and several others involved with our project to put together a development program that we are genuinely excited about and that we can share with the market and the Nashville community.  We look forward to providing more details when they become available.