Down To The Studs: Elmington Revamps Offices Atop Downtown’s Renaissance Hotel

Down To The Studs: Elmington Revamps Offices Atop Downtown’s Renaissance Hotel

Dominic Zabriskie is director of asset management at Elmington Capital Group. In 2014, the company bought the six-story office building that sits atop the Renaissance Hotel.

One of Nashville’s odder real estate features is the 100,000-square-foot office building perched atop downtown’s Renaissance Hotel. The 26th through 31st floors jut out from the hotel beneath, offering expansive and uninterrupted views of the city. Office tenants can take advantage of the hotel’s room service, valet, gym and Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX).

But, then there’s this.

“It is the only building I’ve ever toured where people say, ‘Man, this hasn’t been updated since the ’70s.’ And then I have to explain that it was built in 1987,” said Dominic Zabriskie. He is director of asset management for Elmington Capital Group.

Last summer, Elmington Capital paid $10.15 million to buy the six-story office building. In July, Elmington Capital will have completed a $2 million renovation, which involves rebranding the offices as CitySpace.

Elmington Capital is seeking to benefit from the fact that Nashville has a relatively minuscule amount of top-grade (Class A) office space available to rent. The company is asking $25 per square foot in rent, which is on par with the average price of Class A space available to rent in Nashville’s central business district.

Elmington Capital is hoping to push rents a little higher once renovations are complete, Zabriskie said.

The tower was 75 percent full when Elmington bought it. Last week, a new tenant moved in: Borman Entertainment, which represents singers such as Keith Urban and Alison Krauss.

The biggest tenant is the public relations firm McNeely Pigott & Fox, which occupies a third of CitySpace. The Tennessee Chamber is leaving in seven months (for Bank of America Plaza), a move that will vacate a full-floor suite of 18,250 square feet.

“A big priority for us was getting a full floor, to chase brand-name tenants,” Zabriskie said. “We like the entertainment and lifestyle brands, like a Red Bull or Warby Parker.”

Why? “They’re less concerned with having the traditional office and lobby — and this definitely is not the traditional office space,” Zabriskie said.

Elmington’s renovations include overhauling the elevator lobby serving CitySpace, installing curved glass and laying down marble floors where multicolored carpet exists today.

Elmington also is gutting and redoing the restrooms. As Zabriskie gave me a tour of the construction, an employee on the 26th floor asked about the progress on her floor’s facilities. “I can’t imagine Borman wants Keith Urbanusing those,” she said with a laugh.

Borman and its nine full-time employees are still unpacking. They moved from prior offices in Belle Meade, four miles outside downtown.

“In Belle Meade, you can feel removed. Downtown was our target, but the inventory, frankly, there’s not too much space available,” said artist manager Michael Corcoran.

“Yesterday, we had a meeting with Universal. It was a five-minute walk,” Corcoran added, clearly happy to be rid of the scheduling logistics that can come with driving into or out of town on West End Avenue.

Centric Architecture and Steelhead Buildings Group are handling the renovations. To lease the office space, Elmington Capital has retained the brokerage services of Jones Lang LaSalle.

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