NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new study shows Nashville beat out every city in the country when it comes to pandemic recovery in 2023.
The study is titled “Downtowns Rebound: The Data-Driven Path to Recovery,” and it compares resident, worker, and visitor populations in the downtown areas in Quarter 2 of 2019 and the same time in 2023. Nashville places number one across the country with a 100% overall recovery rate while only one other city ranked above 90%. The average rating across the country is 79%.
“I have a lot of reasons to think that downtown Nashville is #1, but it’s certainly nice for it to be verified and reinforced in the company of so many great American cities. Our property owners and businesses, along with Metro government, the Convention & Visitors Corp, Chamber, and so many others work together to build a clean, safe, active, and attractive downtown,” Tom Turner, Nashville Downtown Partnership President and CEO said.
The study was presented at the International Downtown Association conference this week in Chicago by the Center City District in Philadelphia. It says one of the driving forces for the music city's recovery rate is our tourists. The data is not at the expense of residential/commercial real estate or other quality of life factors for people who live in the music city, which is supported by other reports the Partnership publishes regularly to track metrics like vacancy rates.
The number of vacant commercial buildings is 13%, less than similar downtowns in Austin, Charlotte, and Indianapolis. Retail vacancy rates have been below 4% for five years, and residential vacancy rates have a 5-year streak at 10% or less, even with the delivery of record numbers of new homes.
“Out of the 26 largest downtowns we looked at across the United States, Nashville should be really proud to rank No. 1 in recovery when comparing the total number of workers, residents, and visitors downtown in 2023 to the number there in 2019,” Paul R. Levy, President and CEO of Center City District in Philadelphia said.
Nashville city leaders say they hope to keep going strong and keeping Nashville at the top as it continues to grow.
