Nashville’s East Bank Development Authority Gets CEO

The East Bank Development Authority has a leader.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell appointed Ben York, a longtime engineer with the Nashville Department of Transportation, as the first CEO of the newly created authority, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

York will oversee a 500-acre swath of riverfront real estate that includes Oracle’s planned $1.35 billion campus, the $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium and the Carl Icahn-owned former scrapyard now under contract for sale.

York rounds out the authority’s nine-person leadership team, which includes board chair Emily Lamb and vice chair Jimmy Granbery, plus Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Cameron Sexton and H.G. Hill Realty CEO Brian Reames O’Connell.

Urban planner Anna Grider is the authority’s chief operating officer.

The East Bank is poised for years if not decades of coordinated development, calling for extensive infrastructure and heightened negotiations for complex public-private partnerships.

The local government’s arrangement with Boston-based Fallon Company for a 30-acre mixed-use project is already underway. Five residential buildings and three hotels are in the East Bank pipeline, and the authority will manage future development agreements and design infrastructure throughout the district.

York has worked for the Nashville Department of Transportation since 2011, most recently as senior engineer. His background in infrastructure was cited as a critical factor in the appointment. Council member Bob Mendes emphasized the need for technical expertise to deliver on the East Bank’s ambitious public works plan, valued in the hundreds of millions.

The authority is meant to outlast any single mayor’s administration for what’s set to be one of the largest civic transformations in Nashville’s history. It will have oversight not only of development pacing and partnerships but also of how the area is stitched into the broader city, from roads and green space to transit and zoning.

— Judah Duke