By Drew Hutchinson – Reporter, Nashville Business Journal
Jul 8, 2022
Two multimillion-dollar land sales were recorded on Church Street this week — one in the North Gulch and one in Midtown.
Here’s a breakdown of each:
Planting a flag near Nashville Yards
A business entity tied to Frank Hessel, a veteran real estate developer from Miami, paid $25.5 million for Sonder Dovetail, a short-term rental building at 814 Church St., according to newly filed deeds.
The sale equals around $566,667 for each of the North Gulch property’s 45 rooms.
Dovetail sits right across Church Street from what will one day hold a 2.46 million-square-foot entertainment district developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group. That property will be one slice of the larger Nashville Yards master development.
Hessel’s son, Brent Hessel, is listed as the business entity’s, Nashville Metropolitan LLC, registered agent. He’s an immigration lawyer in town, according to previous Business Journal reporting.
In 2016, the Hessels also bought downtown’s Freedom Center office building for $5.8 million.
Moving ahead with Midtown apartments
Further west, in Midtown, Chicago-based Ascend Real Estate Group closed on the site it needs to build hundreds of apartments.
The firm paid $13.75 million for a handful of parcels at 1805-1815 Church St., according to newly filed deeds. The site spans a collective 1.5 acres and sits just over 1,000 feet away from Broadwest, the two-tower office, condo and hotel project that opened last year.
Ascend is planning a 383-unit building, according to the latest available documents from this year. The project appears to be in the permitting process, and several buildings on the site are requested for demolition.
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The firm first unveiled its project via Metro filings last July. It previously cited a building height of 15 stories.
Since its conception in 2009, Ascend Real Estate Group has focused on investments and development in the Chicago metro, according to its website.
Notably, Ascend’s apartment project would sit directly across 19th Avenue North from another residential project by Atlanta-based North Point Hospitality. Read more about that development here.