Financial backer revealed for hotel in Gulch’s Capitol View development

An increasingly aggressive investor from Ohio is fueling a 10-story hotel that’s part of a $750 million mixed-use downtown development helping spur the revitalization of Charlotte Avenue.

Rockbridge Capital, of Columbus, is the equity partner in a 168-room hotel to be built as part of the Capitol View development anchored at 1100 Charlotte Ave. Rockbridge made the announcement Aug. 25, the same day in which a newly filed deed showed that a joint venture between Rockbridge and Franklin-based hotel developer Chartwell Hospitality paid $4.5 million for 0.4 acres of the Capitol View project.

This will be Rockbridge’s third hotel in Nashville, underscoring the influx of out-of-state newcomer investors looking to seize on the seemingly ever-rising demand for rooms in Nashville. Rockbridge is overhauling a former downtown office building into a 226-room boutique hotel. Last year, Rockbridge paid the third-highest price ever for a Nashville hotel, buying the Hilton Garden Inn in SoBro from Chartwell at a price of $375,000 per room.

“Nashville is a dynamic city and hotel market, and we are excited to deepen our roots with our third investment downtown,” Rockbridge CEO Jim Merkel said in an Aug. 25 statement. Rockbridge and Chartwell bought their slice of the 32-acre Capitol View project — one of the biggest developments in Nashville — from developer Boyle Investment Co. and its financial backer, Northwestern Mutual.

In December 2016, the Nashville Business Journal was the first to report the hotel’s brand and Chartwell’s involvement. The hotel, set to open in summer 2019, will be located next to a 10-story office building that will feature the headquarters of HealthStream Inc. (Nasdaq: HSTM). Hampton Inn is a flag of Hilton (NYSE: HLT).

Originally Published in the Nashville Business Journal

By Adam Sichko