Well he may get his wish after all…
Resurfaced comments from Nashville mayor Freddie O’Connell may end up coming back to haunt him as many businesses sound the alarm and warn they may end up having to close their doors due to the city’s outrageous property tax increases.
Of course Nashville has become a hotspot for both tourists and new residents. But one consequence of this boom has been a massive increase in real estate values, and new property appraisals that were completed in 2024 which have raised property taxes so much that business owners are warning that they may have to close their doors.
It’s an issue that business leaders have been warning about for months now. Rob Mortenson, the head of the Broadway Entertainment Association, told FOX17 last fall that the rising taxes could very well spell the end for some of staples of the Broadway scene:
“These are folks that have been there for 40 years on Broadway, and, you know, they can’t pay the taxes. Their option is, I was told, we’re either going to go bankrupt or go to jail, one of the two, because we literally can’t pay the taxes.”
Layla Vartanian, the owner of Layla’s Honky Tonk on Broadway, previously said that it’s the largest property tax increase she’s seen since she opened up her bar in 1997:
“I’ve never seen an increase of any kind of property tax or any kind of tax in such a short period of time. We’re having an increase of 300-400% on these buildings down here, on our commercial buildings. Even on personal properties, residential properties, the increase is 300% and 400%.”
But the issue has seemingly come to a head over the past week or so as we get closer to those increased tax bills coming due, with Acme Feed & Seed owner Tom Morales revealing in comments earlier this week that he may have to close his bar, one of the few locally-owned venues left on Broadway, as well:
“It went from $129,000 a year to $600,000 a year. That’s more than our rent and net profit combined. …
We can’t pay it. It’s punitive.”
Well Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell seemingly made things worse in his response to the local news channel, coming under fire for his seeming lack of concern over whether businesses are forced to close or not:
“It’s not up to me whether he keeps that business open. The market evolves. New businesses start even as beloved old businesses close.”
The mayor responded this week and claimed that his comments were misrepresented, but the news station fired back by standing by their report and releasing the full transcript of their interview with O’Connell.
And despite the mayor’s insistence that he’s concerned about local businesses, resurfaced comments show him going after bars owned by one local owner in particular while he was a member of the city council who was running for the office of the city’s top executive.
During the 2023 mayoral campaign, O’Connell was locked in a bitter feud with Broadway bar owner Steve Smith, who owns several venues in downtown Nashville including Tootsie’s, Rippy’s, Honky Tonk Central, Kid Rock’s Honky Tonk, and The Diner.
Ads funded by Smith attacked O’Connell for seemingly ignoring safety on Broadway during his time representing the district on the city council:
“After eight years of representing Broadway, it’s still the same *bleep* different day. Nashville’s not ready for Freddie.” (The “bleep” was accompanied by an image of somebody pooping on the sidewalk on Broadway).
In response to the commercial, O’Connell took to social media to fire back at the Broadway bar owner:
“If every place owned by Steve Smith closed, the city would be safer, Broadway would be less obnoxious, and the beer would be cheaper.”
The two would eventually bury the hatchet after O’Connell advanced to the runoff, essentially guaranteeing that he would become the next mayor of Music City as the Democrat candidate running against a Republican opponent. O’Connell admitted that he may have missed a message from Smith voicing his concerns during his time on the city council, and Smith backed off his attacks on the future mayor.
But now, his comments wishing for the closure of Broadway bars may end up coming back to haunt him as that very real prospect faces some longtime businesses in Nashville.
It’s not just Broadway bars that may be forced to close though. Earlier this week, Peg Leg Porker owner Carey Bringle shared a video calling for Nashville residents to call politicians to help fight the good fight.
The barbecue restaurant owner says that he first sounded the alarm on this issue five years ago, when former Mayor John Cooper initiated a 34% property tax increase right in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
That knocked out a lot of small, independently-owned businesses… and Bringle believes that history is about to repeat itself in 2026.
The Nashville business owner described the property tax hike as a nonpartisan issue, and warned that if nothing is done about it, the city people have come to know and love will no longer look the same. Bringle believes it’s a spending problem by the government more than anything else:
“If we continue down this road, with the reckless spending from our current mayor and his city council, then this town will lose almost all the things that brought most of the people here in the first place…
This city just isn’t about lower Broadway or the hot areas in town. This is about all around Nashville. These new assessments are devastating to small businesses. They’re unsustainable. This isn’t about a money problem for Nashville. This is about a spending problem.”
Maybe O’Connell will listen to Bringle since he didn’t campaign against him like Steve Smith did.
