Bringing Equity Into Affordable Housing: Discussing The East Bank At Bisnow’s July 31 Nashville Event

Developers and advocates in Nashville’s East Bank neighborhood have been working to create a mixed-income community and provide more affordable housing for residents. Their strategies include encouraging development while making sure community members are involved in the neighborhood’s redevelopment.

Aron Thompson, vice president of housing and economic development at Urban League of Middle Tennessee, said that the organization advocates for diversity within the East Bank development discussions. Additionally, through its Real Estate Developers Academy program — also known as R.E.D. Academy — ULMT provides training and education for BIPOC real estate developers who will contribute to Nashville’s continued growth.

“There needs to be more unique voices at the table who can speak to what their community needs,” Thompson said.

Thompson will attend Bisnow’s July 31 Nashville State of the Market event and moderate a panel called Rise of the East Bank, which will dive deeper into the neighborhood’s growing developments.

Click here to buy tickets and register.

Bisnow spoke with Thompson about transit-oriented design, how people of color can get involved in enhancing their communities and his vision for the future of the region.

Bisnow: What are some of the trends that have stood out to you in the Nashville commercial real estate market?

Thompson: The current trends have to do with multifamily and mixed-use development being in proximity to transit hubs. With transit-oriented design, we’re seeing a lot of change around the corridors — the Gallatin Pike, Dickerson Pike, Murfreesboro Pike. Growth in those pikes is going to be high-volume. The transportation off of these main corridors gets people to and from downtown, the airport and any high-traffic-volume areas that people need to move in and out of quickly. 

Also, when it comes to the continued growth in Nashville, equity in the urban core and equity in growth has to be strategic. I commend Davidson County for seeing that Nashville has a great opportunity that other major metropolitans may not have in 2024. To be able to have the bandwidth and the foresight to see development happening that close to the urban core — on a traffic corridor within the interstate and major thoroughfares, as well as within a transportation hub near the river — is extremely impactful. 

Bisnow: How does R.E.D. Academy contribute to economic development?

Thompson: R.E.D. Academy has been around for almost three years. In that time, we have trained multifamily, mixed-use, mixed-income and single-family developers in Nashville as well as Davidson County and middle Tennessee. Everybody who has participated in the Academy is a resident of middle Tennessee and is looking to do sizable projects in Nashville. Our goal is to create equity for minority developers.

Training more people who focus on affordable housing not only puts more housing back into the market, but it also puts responsible, community-driven housing back into the market. Helping the people of this community identify potential opportunities and resources so that they can develop more housing is extremely valuable. ULMT understands that when we can get people into quality housing, they can also find quality careers, which can help solve other ails that people deal with, such as housing security, healthcare, childcare and transportation needs.

We encourage the people taking our courses to do three things: to show up, to do the work by engaging in a committee or identifying the people you need to connect with, and to be specific about what you want to do within a particular neighborhood and the type of housing you want to work with.

R.E.D. Academy is also an economic driver by way of workforce, community and economic development. When you get a chance to help small businesses scale up, it has the effect of trickling down in that people in the community are going to work with people in the community. As the city experiences economic development and growth, it acts as a spur to the community. 

Bisnow: Can you explain more about ULMT’s work in Nashville and the East Bank neighborhood?

Thompson: At ULMT, we think about what this development looks like for people of color. What role can we play in that space? What are the opportunities to engage in those spaces so that people have a voice and they’re not left out of the decision-making for the development? We want them to not just identify what that development looks like for them but to also be a part of it.  

In the East Bank, we are one of those voices. We want to be present at the table to talk about what the development can be and then advocate for diversity within what's getting done and how it's getting done. We're not just there for the photo ops, we're also on the equity side so that when it's done many years from now, we can talk about the innovative people who were part of that opportunity on the East Bank.

Bisnow: What about Nashville’s future most excites you?

Thompson: I’m looking forward to seeing Nashville 10 or 15 years from now, when the college students who are in Nashville now can compare the region from when they first got here to how it looks after they’ve been in the workforce for some time. I get excited about these young adults participating in the expansion of Nashville. 

I’m also excited for Nashville to be the shining star in the Southeast. I think other major Southeast cities are going to look at our region and wonder, “What’s their secret to growth and economic development?”

Knowing that there's going to be so many voices that are going to be represented, we're going to feel like people are not just going to remember us for our country music, they're going to remember us for the work we did over the last decade or so.

ULMT’s R.E.D. Academy hosted “Housing On The Horizon: R.E.D. Academy Summit,” from Monday, June 17, through Thursday, June 20. Follow R.E.D. Academy on LinkedIn to learn about upcoming events.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to attend Bisnow’s July 31 Nashville State of the Market event. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Urban League of Middle Tennessee and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.