Carl Icahn Selling Nashville Scarpyard for $225 Million

Billionaire Carl Icahn is set to sell his East Bank scrapyard in Nashville this month for $225 million.

Icahn Enterprises disclosed details of the transaction in its latest earnings report, confirming that an agreement to sell the 45-acre industrial site was signed last quarter and is expected to close by the end of this month, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

A local investment group led by veteran investors J. David Byerley and Sam Lingo are acquiring the property at a price well above its previous $25 million book value. The investment group initially targeted $350 million for the acquisition.

Icahn initially assigned a much lower book value to the land at 710 South First Street, but as demand for prime urban property increased, the site’s market potential far exceeded its earlier valuation.

The scrapyard sits along the Cumberland River, near the bridge crossing Korean Veterans Boulevard, a key route in downtown Nashville, and roughly a mile from the Country Music Hall of Fame. It is also near Oracle’s 70-acre campus in River North and a $2.1 billion stadium for the Tennessee Titans.

Icahn Enterprises had planned to auction the property in September but opted for a traditional transaction instead. The company reached an agreement to sell the property in November.

The transaction represents one of the largest real estate moves for Icahn’s investment firm in recent years and is a key factor in its rising asset valuation. The deal contributed to a $300 million increase in the company’s reported real estate assets last quarter, with executives attributing approximately $200 million of that gain to the scarpyard sale.

— Andrew Terrell