Sources: Company eyeing space that could house thousands

Nashville’s technology sector looks set to get another massive shot in the arm courtesy of one of the titans of the software and IT platform industries.

Sources have told the Post that Oracle, the Bay Area-based company that last year had revenues of nearly $40 billion, is seeking about 800,000 square feet of office space in the core of Music City for inside sales, marketing and sales support teams.

The Post has yet to determine details about the exact number of jobs in question and the future office building(s) in which Oracle eventually will operate. But, based on other recent ECD wins such as global investment firm AllianceBernstein, the number of workers could top 3,000.

Oracle officials declined to comment.

The company has several high-profile options for a downtown hub:

• One option could be to take the entire 500,000-square-foot, 21-story Broadwest office tower under construction at the former West End Summit site. Huntsville, Alabama-based Propst Development is undertaking that project, which also will include a taller high-rise to offer luxury condominiums and a Hilton hotel.

Officials with Propst could not be reached for comment.

• At Nashville Yards on the western edge of the Central Business District, San Diego-based master developer Southwest Value Partners has started constructing a 225,000-square-foot, 10-floor office building at 1001 Church St. on the south side of the Church Street viaduct. It also plans to have constructed a 15-story, 470,000-square-foot office tower positioned adjacent to and south of the 10-story structure.

• Nearby, the Fifth + Broad project that is overhauling the former Nashville Convention Center site includes an office tower that will house the headquarters of the aforementioned New York-based AllianceBernstein, which is bringing 1,000 jobs to the city. That 25-story, 860,000-square-foot structure has room for several hundred Oracle workers should the company choose to split its local presence among several buildings.

• Another option would be the 165-acre River North site on the east bank of the Cumberland River, where Chicago-based Monroe Investment Partners envisions a cluster of office, residential, hospitality and retail buildings.

• In addition, Austin-based Endeavor is now underway with the office component of its Gulch Union, a three-building development to anchor the northwest corner of the intersection of 12th Avenue South and Demonbreun Street. The 20-story building will offer 330,000 square feet of Class A office space and 6,000 square feet of retail.



• And a little farther afield, real estate investor and developer Edward Ewing has ambitious plans to redevelop a section of West Trinity Lane with large-scale buildings that would overlook the Cumberland River and downtown Nashville.

By any measure, Oracle is a global giant. The company employs nearly 140,000 people, 39,000 of whom are in sales and marketing. The company’s headquarters in Redwood City, south of San Francisco, alone spans 2.1 million square feet. Oracle leases another roughly 26.8 million square feet elsewhere in the United States and abroad. Last year, the company opened a large campus in Austin that could grow to house 10,000 workers.

Oracle would join a growing list of major players who are or will be establishing significant presence in Nashville. At Nashville Yards, Seattle-based Amazon will house its 5,000 Operations Center of Excellence employees in two future 20-plus-story towers in what will represent a $230 million investment. And in addition to AllianceBernstein, professional services firm Ernst & Young will create more than 600 jobs in Midtown during the next five years by taking space in soon-to-open mixed-use tower 18th & Chet.