SoBro hotel approved to add Bar None, 3-towers plan for former Deja Vu site deferred

Getahn Ward |
Source: Tennessean

The owners of SoBro Guest House plan to add two new structures to the existing hotel, which respectively will house a bar with a rooftop deck plus offices and storage space.

On Aug. 1, Jack and Ann Waddey and SoBro Guest House’s developer and operator BNA Associates won conceptual approval from the Metro Development and Housing Agency’s design review committee for the additions sought at 310 Peabody St. 

With approval, construction should start by early next year with what’s being called Bar None targeted for opening on the west side of the 24-suite hotel late next spring.

Plans created by architect/general contractor Powell Architecture and Building Studio call for an 800-square-foot, ground-level enclosed bar that will serve cocktails and small plate food items plus a 900-square-foot rooftop deck that will also offer full beverage services.

“We are excited to enhance the guest house experience with an intimate bar setup for both hotel guests and locals alike,” said Ethan Orley, a principal with BNA Associates.

A flexible communal courtyard that will be used for music concerts and other functions is planned in front of the addition for the bar and the existing SoBro Guest House hotel. A planned new stairway will allow access from Fourth Avenue to the bar and courtyard.

On the east side of the existing hotel, plans call for 700 square feet of storage space and another similar size space that will house offices for the SoBro Guest House staff. 

Under SoBro Guest House’s business model, guests are able to make reservations and check into rooms by using cell phones. The hotel opened for business last September.

Elsewhere in the downtown Nashville area, BNA Associates is developing the Fairlane Hotel at Fourth Avenue North and Union Street with opening targeted for later this fall. 

Also on Aug. 1, the design review committee approved a request from the Higgs family to add 2,600 square feet of enclosed space and a 2,100-square-foot open air deck to the roof of the five-story building they own at 209 Third Ave. N. That’s where French-inspired seafood restaurant Sea Salt occupies the ground floor. 

The committee, however, requested a minor change in the roof height of the finished area of the Printers Alley side of the building.

Dawson Higgs, whose parents own the building that also was once home to deceased legendary saxophonist Boots Randolph’s dinner club, said the two planned spaces including the enclosed one on the alley could be connected on good-weather days to create 4,700 square feet of space. That space will be marketed to one potential tenant

Austin, Texas-based Endeavor Real Estate Group, which has three acres under contract including the former home of strip club Deja Vu Showgirls, meanwhile, deferred its appearance before the design review committee. 

Endeavor, which plans three towers on that property, wants the maximum height of 28 stories allowable under the Downtown Code at the key intersection of 12th extended to a greater portion of the site between 12th and 13th avenues south and Demonbreun and McGavock streets.