Cool Springs

Project: Cool Springs

Hines and SVP Bob Voyles conceptualized, financed and closed the 1,050-acre award-winning Cool Springs project over an 18-month period beginning in 1992. The development team negotiated a complex purchase agreement with Resolution Trust Corporation, secured zoning entitlements in a hostile community environment and negotiated a seven party road agreement with state agencies, community officials and the Governor of Tennessee, thus securing $25 million of government infrastructure improvements for the project. The project team adjusted the development plans at numerous points during the decade-long development to respond to changing market conditions and unique user requirements.

Today, Cool Springs is one of the country’s premier suburban commercial and residential submarkets. In its first 12 years, the development absorbed nearly 60 percent of all new space in the entire Nashville office market and was chosen by both national and international companies as their U.S. headquarters (Nissan and Ford Motor Credit – Primus). Cool Springs encompasses a myriad of single and multifamily housing, office, hotel, conference center and retail space, and has added over $1.5 billion of ad valorem value to the City of Franklin tax digest.

  • Developed and executed financing and acquisition strategy to acquire 1,050 acres of land from RTC and outparcel owners over 18-month period during the recession in the early 1990s.
  • Completed challenging entitlement process in strong anti-development climate.
  • Maintained flexible land use planning to address dynamic land market changes.
  • Executed lot sales plan at both higher prices and velocity than original pro forma; returned capital in three years and achieved 29 percent IRR returns to investors with a four-to-one equity multiple over a ten year development horizon.
  • Created a Lasting Public/Private Partnership with City of Franklin, Tennessee, adding over $1.5B to its ad valorem tax digest.
  • Negotiated $25 million in TDOT state funds for infrastructure improvements.

Gary T. Baker, CEO, Baker Enterprises, LLC
“I first met Bob in the fall of 1993 when we were trying to restructure the capitalization of our land venture. Bob was intense, creative and diligent throughout the 18-month process, and ultimately successful in capitalizing a new land development venture in a difficult capital market. Bob and his local team then worked tirelessly with local officials to entitle our land in an openly hostile community environment, and ultimately made friends with the opposition and the local government by under promising, but over delivering the finest Class A mixed-use project in Nashville. Despite numerous obstacles along the way, Bob had the vision to see this project through from start to finish and to deliver his investors a superior return over a ten year horizon.”