Calling on the state to take action to save Broadway.
There’s been a lot of concern from bar owners in downtown Nashville about their ability to survive after being hit with a massive increase in their property tax bill.
The city has experienced a massive boom in popularity over the past decade or so, drawing record numbers of both tourists and people moving to Music City. (I moved here myself in 2016, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much things have changed just in the past 10 years).
One of the most visible signs of the city’s growth has been Lower Broadway, the strip of bars in downtown Nashville that serves as a tourist destination and draws in millions of tourists every year to the dozens of bars located in a 5 block stretch.
Even when I moved to Nashville 10 years ago, Broadway was a fun place to go on weekends that was filled with small honky tonks and musicians playing mostly country music, with the occasional Journey or Paramore cover thrown in there.
But starting around 2017, things began to change. Those small honky tonks gave way to massive, multi-story entertainment venues owned by giant hospitality corporations and named after some of country music’s biggest stars. Six-story bars with bands on every floor became the norm, and as the bars grew so did the crowds.
Of course with that came a changing culture, from people who came to Nashville for gritty dive bars and live country music to a younger crowd looking to get drunk and party to top 40 hits, rock music, and DJs spinning EDM in the corner of fancy bottle service rooms.
And another consequence of all that growth is now turning into a full-blown crisis for many bar owners.
Property values in downtown Nashville have skyrocketed, with Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville recently setting the record for price per square foot when it sold to Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves for a staggering $75 million.
Prices are being driven higher by out-of-state investors and hospitality companies eager to capitalize on Nashville’s growth. But with skyrocketing property values also comes the corresponding property tax increases – something that’s threatening to put many of the bars on Broadway out of business.
New property appraisals were completed in 2024, meaning that 2025 was the first year for the new tax bills that in some cases have quadrupled in just one year.
The issue first came to light last year when Rob Mortenson, the head of the Broadway Entertainment Association, told FOX17 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, also 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%.”
And Tom Morales, owner of Acme Feed & Seed, recently made headlines when he warned that he may have to close his bar after his property taxes went from $129,000 to $600,000 per year overnight – which he says is more than his rent and net profit combined:
“Everything we work for this year is going to pay property taxes for next year, and we don’t even know where the economy is going. We’re scared shitless. We’re on the front lines of the economy.”
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, meanwhile, has been criticized for his seeming indifference to whether businesses are able to stay open.
In response to the warning from Morales, the mayor basically said it wasn’t his problem:
“It’s not up to me whether he keeps that business open. The market evolves. New businesses start even as beloved old businesses close.”
So yeah, it’s safe to say that there’s no help coming from the city. So country singer – and Broadway bar owner – John Rich is asking the state to step in and provide relief for struggling bar owners at risk of losing their businesses.
Rich, who opened his Broadway bar Redneck Riviera in 2018, says that the mayor’s “aggressive leftist policies” have created a full-blown crisis:
“Well, we have a little situation going on in our town where a mayor was elected who is probably the most aggressive leftist policy mayor in the history of Nashville. And he and his team have decided to not only elevate what they think everybody’s property’s worth, they did that first. Once they did that, then they slammed those taxes through the roof and make it virtually impossible for business owners around Nashville to stay in business.
It becomes impossible, unsustainable. And that is actually happening right now to some of the most legendary honky tonks and country music establishments of all time, downtown in Nashville.”
As Rich points out, Nashville is set to host the Super Bowl in 2030, and by that point many downtown favorites could already be out of business. But he’s calling on the Tennessee government to step in and take action:
“This is a 911 kind of situation for our town, but actually for the state because those tax dollars find their way into the school system, first responders, all kinds of things that citizens of Tennessee need.
A lot of that money gets generated right downtown in Nashville. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, you know, that’s the math.
Now, fortunately in Tennessee, we have a supermajority in the House and the Senate of Republicans. It’s not even close. And we have a Republican governor, Bill Lee. So today we had a meeting, business leaders from all around came in and met with Cameron Sexton. He’s the Speaker of the House here in Tennessee, very powerful man. kind of sets the agenda. “
Rich says that he asked the Speaker of the House to ask the governor to call a special session of the Tennessee legislature to address the pressing issue facing Broadway bars:
“You can’t let the music die, the live music scene die in downtown Nashville.”
He says he received assurances that the legislature would be requesting a special session, and ended with a plea to outgoing Governor Bill Lee:
“So, Governor Lee, I know it’s your last few weeks, months as our governor, your final term, but I would ask you to consider one thing. Be a honky-tonk hero. Be a honky-tonk hero. Save the music, the live music in downtown Nashville. Have that meeting. Answer that call. Have that special session. Bring them all in. The business leaders will show you the math. We’ll show you what’s happening and how unsustainable and crushing it is. It is absolutely brutal what is happening to some of these businesses.
Please take that meeting. Please have that session. And please come with a solution. Keep Music City Music City. We’re counting on you, Governor. Be our honky-tonk hero. I know you can do it.”
There’s been no word yet on when or if the governor will in fact be calling a special session, but it’s clear that something needs to be done sooner rather than later to keep Broadway not only open, but from becoming run entirely by large out-of-state hospitality corporations.
