REAL ESTATE

Vanderbilt buys historical building from Sony Music

Lance Williams
lwilliams@tennessean.com

Vanderbilt University has purchased the historic Sony Music Entertainment building at 1400 18th Ave. S., school officials announced Wednesday.

The school paid $12.1 million for the building, according to public documents.

The building will be used for academic space close to campus and allow the university to consolidate administrative staff from office space it currently leases near campus, officials said.

It sits on 2.7 acres directly across 18th Avenue South from The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. The property also includes a parking structure with 222 parking spaces. Vanderbilt currently occupies 27,000 square feet of the building ,and Sony and its affiliates occupy the rest.

Sony will lease space in the building from Vanderbilt for a flexible period of time after closing.

The historic castle-like structure was built in 1916 by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order that cared for thousands of elderly, poor Nashvillians before folding in 1968. After 1968, the building served as a home for a handful of nursing homes until 1998, when it converted into office space. Since then, it has been primarily used by the music industry.

Meanwhile, Sony is in talks to lease office space at developer Eakin Partners’ planned office tower at 1201 Demonbreun in the Gulch.

The music company is said to be looking to consolidate offices at several locations around Music Row. Sony currently has a record label at 1400 18th Ave. S. and its music publishing division has an office at 8 Music Square West.

Already, two tenants have been announced for 1201 Demonbreun ahead of the expected start of the $95 million construction this summer.

Talent agency William Morris Endeavor and law firm Neal & Harwell will each occupy a floor with 26,000 square feet of space.