NDOT traffic control facility will come at no cost to taxpayers
Garth Brooks is teaming with the city of Nashville for a police substation that will be adjacent to the country superstar’s forthcoming Friends In Low Place entertainment complex at 411 Broadway. Nashville Mayor John Cooper shared the news of the agreement to bring additional safety measures and traffic control tools to Lower Broadway on Monday (Aug 15th).
The construction of a new Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) substation and Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) traffic control room located on Lower Broadway will be developed by Brooks at no cost to Metro taxpayers and will add critical resources to both departments’ efforts to reduce traffic congestion and keep the city’s busiest few blocks secure. As part of the agreement, which is subject to Metro Council approval, Metro will authorize a commonplace condemnation of an alley adjacent to the site of Brooks’ future entertainment concept. Metro Government authorizes approximately between 15 and 30 alleyways each year to developers, property owners and other third parties as part of the standard city planning and permitting process.
“Lower Broadway is an iconic destination for fans of world-class music, sports and a good time, but as Nashvillians know well, it can also create safety and traffic challenges that my office is working hard to tackle across multiple fronts,” shares Mayor Cooper. “I commend Garth Brooks for stepping up to help make Lower Broadway safer and more enjoyable for everyone. These additional resources will add new tools to reduce traffic and improve community safety downtown while continuing to prioritize other initiatives for neighborhoods and families throughout Davidson County.”
“I am deeply grateful to Garth and his team for including space that will serve as a mini hub for our operations in the Broadway entertainment district,” adds Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake. “This unique partnership will help enhance public safety for downtown residents and visitors.”
In April, Brooks first announced his plans to open a new entertainment concept and bar in Nashville at 411 Broadway, in a three-story, 40,000+ square foot property that he purchased in December 2021 via 411, LLC. 411 Broadway is located on Nashville’s historic Lower Broadway, home to its famous honky-tonks and a stone’s throw from the historic Ryman Auditorium, the “Mother Church of Country Music.”
“Managing traffic and congestion across Nashville is a big priority for NDOT,” states Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure Director Diana Alarcon. “As we continue building out our city-wide traffic management center, we’re excited for the opportunity to be a partner in the development of a smaller TMC downtown. The benefits are enormous—from managing large-scale special events to enhancing safety and utilizing infrastructure more efficiently.”
There are still no details on when Brooks will open the complex. We were in town in April when the ground level retail store opened and the name was unveiled across a scrim on the building. Brooks has engaged Strategic Hospitality, a Nashville-based hospitality company owned by brothers Benjamin and Max Goldberg, to help execute his vision.
Next month, Brooks wraps the three year tour with five sold out shows in Dublin, Ireland. Four hundred thousand tickets sold out within four hours, marking a new milestone for the country star who hasn’t performed in the city in 25 years. Brooks last played Dublin in May 1997, three months before the Central Park show.
Since the tour began in March 2019, Brooks has broken at least two dozen attendance records and has sold an average of 95,000 tickets in each city. His largest single show so far on this trek is Baton Rouge with a sell out of 102,000 ticket sellout in two hours which registered as a small earthquake during “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
The country superstar is prepping to release The Anthology, Part II: The Next Five Years on November 15th. Brooks picks up where he left off in The Anthology, Part I: The First Five Years in 2017, telling his story in his own words and offering fascinating insights to his career and personal life from 1996-2001. Completing the Anthology, Part II is a six disc set of musical highlights from albums released during that time — all of which will be heard in a new way after reading about the inspiration for the song and how the magic was created in the studio — plus two previously unreleased recordings — a studio recording of “Tearin’ It Up (And Burnin’ It Down)” and a duet version of “To Make You Feel My Love” with wife Trisha Yearwood.
