Nashville Office Towers Lose $400 Million in Taxable Value

Nashville’s pandemic-era office boom is in the rear view.

The city’s biggest office towers have collectively lost nearly $400 million in appraised value, a painful correction from the pricing peak of the pandemic boom, reshaping how owners, buyers and city officials value the downtown commercial core.

Davidson County’s reappraisal dropped values for 14 of the city’s largest non-government office towers — excluding those built in the past four years — by an average of 18.7 percent, with some icons faring far worse, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

To name a few: Bridgestone Tower, a 30-story skyline anchor ranked as the 10th-largest office building downtown, saw its value plunge nearly 33 percent from $213 million in 2021 to $142.7 million. Symphony Place, which is undergoing renovations after recent tenant losses, fell by $43 million, or 23 percent. Fifth Third Center and Amazon Tower I also saw declines in the tens of millions.

The reassessment comes as downtown Nashville office vacancy hit 24.4 percent, above the national average of 20.8 percent the first quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield, as distress sales ripple across the market. The $17 million sale of Philips Plaza, an 85 percent loss from its last trade at $39 per square foot, set the tone in December, followed by steep losses on Parkway Towers and Court Square.

With leasing demand and sales activity subdued from the hot market of 2020 to 2022, brokers say pricing expectations are resetting, and some landlords are preparing to challenge their tax burdens.

As office values shrink and commercial owners appeal aggressively, Metro Nashville could lose as much as $100 million in annual property tax revenue from downtown towers alone, the outlet projected.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell proposed a new tax rate of $2.22 per $100 of assessed value, a 27 percent increase over the “equalized” rate that followed the reassessment. That would still only generate $177.9 million annually from the 14 most-affected buildings, down from $278.8 million just four years ago, a drop of over 36 percent.

The last reappraisal in 2021 came during pandemic-era relief and record-low interest rates. At the time, office buildings were trading at unprecedented highs. And not just offices. Hotel, retail and residential properties in the urban core saw similar spikes.

That’s changed, but while commercial property lost significant value, particularly downtown office, residential growth inflated the county’s overall assessments. The median sales price of a single-family home in Davidson County rose nearly 43 percent, from $346,500 in March 2020 to $495,000 in March 2025, according to listing sites. That surge played a central role in the county’s ultimate 45 percent median property value increase.

With few office trades taking place, a handful of distressed sales may disproportionately shape perceptions of value and tax burdens for years to come.

— Judah Duke