Nashville’s growing both physically and economically.
It’s gone from a small up-and-coming city in Tennessee to a booming metropolis.
It’s a place where pedal taverns roll through the streets, bachelorettes party from bar to bar and honkytonks blare songwriters’ self-proclaimed “next big hit.”
The sounds of Music City broadcast all across the country.
But here the sound heard is a cover of the original.
Small businesses forged the city’s identity but now are being priced out because of the work they’ve put in to make the city great.
Grimey’s New and Preloved Music, a Nashville staple in selling vinyl for over 25 years, has moved three times from its original location.
The store is successful and makes a profit every year, but even it can’t find affordable spaces in Nashville.
“We chose to leave and upgrade to a bigger space where we grew the business to maturity on Eighth Avenue South, and then we faced the national real estate market,” said Doyle Davis co-owner of Grimey’s. “If I had to do it all over again, getting in the real estate business would have been a priority earlier on, and owning our own building so we could control our destiny.”
The store’s fate is in the hands of rapidly rising rents and puzzling property prices.
Grimey’s lucked out on its current location in East Nashville, but Davis isn’t sure if it can stay there longer.
“It's a great spot, but I'm going to have to renegotiate my lease in a few years, and I'm worried about the price going up so high that we might not be able to stay here anyway,” said Davis.
And Grimey’s isn’t the only one.
All across the city stores have closed their doors for good.
It shouldn’t be this way.
These stores are the hallmark of any town or city, including Nashville.
They are a city’s lifeblood and are being cast aside because of inflation, rising rents and the growing popularity of cities like Nashville.
Local stores are being squeezed out by large corporations, according to a Bank of America Institute report from 2024.
Even though these locations are the ones that made the cities so popular from the beginning.
For spaces like Serendipity, a Nashville boutique that transformed 12th Avenue South into a must-see tourist destination over the last quarter century, it’s been difficult to outright own a space.
“A lot of us rent our spaces, and I think for us, we've just tried to use our uniqueness to our advantage,” said manager Emily Gartz. “Because I think if we didn't…I don't think that we would have this continued success in a time when things are changing so much.”
These stores pivot away from what once made them special and are now forced to blend in, in order to compete with the brand appeal of corporations.
But they don’t have the pocket books to do it.
“You have to be a corporate chain with those kinds of deep pockets to afford the rent, you’ve got to be a business that has multiple locations,” said Davis. “It's harder than ever for the little guy, to make a go of it, and that’s kind of is what small business is all about.”
Local businesses have had to navigate a 19% spike in rent prices, according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance in a 2016 report.
These stores need protections.
New York can serve as a great example.
The Small Business Jobs Survivial Act was introduced in New York to give small businesses a fighting chance to extend their leases, according to the Institute for Local Self Reliance in a 2016 report.
While it hasn’t been signed into law, it's a move in the right direction.
Nashville should take note, because local stores aren’t able to purchase properties here.
So what are these places going to do?
A city has to be willing to address this issue, and Nashville is taking steps to save its identity with its newly announced East Bank Development.
The proposed project, a section of downtown Nashville that would be developed with the community in mind, is still in early development and has lofty ambitions including addressing “small, minority, women-owned businesses and enterprise targets.”
It’s a mixed-use space that blends community with business.
It will house the national headquarters for computer supercompany Oracle, the Tennessee Titans football team and a handful of Nashville small businesses.
It’s a great first step, but the city needs large strides to stop the conversion from Music City to Bachelorette Party Central.
At some point, a city has to choose between people and profits.
“It just is what it is,” said Davis. “I'd like to see Nashville be more friendly to its citizens than it seems to be, and not just chase the money and the tourism and corporate culture and the NFL and all of that stuff, which brings in a lot of cash flow.”
That’s why the city needs to throw these small businesses a lifeline - and soon.
Without these businesses, a city isn’t the same.
They’re the deli making your favorite sandwich.
They’re the mom-and-pop shop giving great book recommendations.
They’re the ones selling you on a local artist’s new album.
There are actionable steps and only the city can decide how many it wants to take towards saving its culture and the small businesses that built it.
Make it easier for small businesses to extend their leases through legislation.
Create a tax credit program nudging landlords in the right direction.
Start to recognize more of these locations as national landmarks.
There’s a saying that goes that a house is only as strong as its foundation.
Nashville’s foundation is crumbling.
It has been for a while, and it’s time the city started to give more concrete solutions to save it.
Otherwise, there may not be anything left to save.
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This article was written by Braden Simmons