Comparatively speaking, Nashville is about what you’d expect from a city with a population of 1.9 million. This Tennessee darling is home to more than 40,000 businesses, with some of the biggest names in multiple industries calling Nashville their home.
And, it’s growing. Fast.
As of the publishing of this article, Nashville is ranked #1 in the country for year-over-year growth in industrial rent. One of the biggest contributors to this growth is the ecommerce behemoth Amazon, which recently committed to a $1 billion investment into operations in Nashville over the coming decade. With this massive presence that Amazon is planning on developing, they’re bringing with them a lot of warehousing needs.
How will these needs be met? Construction of new warehousing space in Nashville now makes up a surprisingly high percentage of the total commercial development projects currently underway. Whether or not there will be enough square footage for Amazon to establish themselves according to their vision is yet to be determined.
We do know this, though: steel is being selected as the go-to construction material for the designing, planning, and construction of commercial warehouses just like the ones Amazon will be using to serve their customers throughout the world.
The Nashville Yards Project
As part of Amazon’s vision to make Nashville one of its most forward-thinking bases of operations, their plans include the development of something called the Nashville Yards, the term being given to the future home of their ‘Center of Excellence’.
To put things simply, this is a colossal undertaking.
Amazon is currently undergoing construction efforts aimed at pouring the foundation for an urban development zone of its very own, right in the middle of downtown Nashville. This zone will include its own public park and an Amazon-owned, 25-story hotel. The goal is to integrate Amazon and its employees into the very fabric of Nashville’s culture, going so far as to stake a massive claim in the commercial real estate sector.
It’s estimated that Amazon will have a financial impact on the Nashville regional area to the tune of $2 billion per year. What’s more, the ecommerce giant expects to bring more than 5,000 new, high-paying jobs to the area. That’s something all Nashvillians can get behind.
The Commercial Construction Response
One of the most significant factors that is allowing businesses in Nashville to prosper a little easier than in other cities is the state’s Governor. Republican Bill Lee spent 20 years in the commercial construction sector before entering politics, and as such, he has a unique perspective on enabling industrial growth in Nashville.
Lee describes Tennessee as being an ‘open competition’ state—a kind of free market for commercial contractors. This is great news for big-name construction firms like Turner, Skanska, and DF chase, all of whom are currently engaged in large-scale commercial construction projects peppered throughout the state.
Regardless of what all of these new commercial facilities are going to be used for, we know one for the certain: steel is going to play a major role in forging the infrastructure of this part of the country.
The steel warehouse construction sector, in particular, is experiencing its time in the limelight, as companies like Amazon and Nissan will continue to need more and more purpose-built, highly modularized steel structures to accommodate for their expansion throughout the area.
At Capital Steel Industries, we see trends like the one in Nashville as predictors of what is likely to happen in other corners of the United States. Wherever there are Fortune 50 companies like Amazon investing billions in metropolitan areas, there is almost certainly going to be a corresponding wave of steel warehouse construction that is going to rise in concert.
We want your contracting business to be in on this action. To learn more about how to become a CSI-certified Kentucky steel building contractor, contact us today.
