Oracle Moves to Clear Nashville Land for $4B+ Campus

Oracle appears to be preparing its site on Nashville’s East Bank for a long-awaited transformation.

The Fortune 100 tech company filed permits to demolish roughly 515,000 square feet of industrial buildings across its nearly 80-acre East Bank assemblage, a move that would wipe out most remaining structures on the property, according to the Nashville Business Journal. Oracle began submitting the demolition applications just before Christmas, with the latest filings dated Jan. 12.

Under Metro rules, demolition must begin within 30 days of permit issuance and be completed within 60 days, or the permits expire. While the filings don’t guarantee construction will follow, seeking permission to level buildings — including some that have remained occupied during Oracle’s ownership — is one of the clearest signals yet that the company is gearing up for its planned $4.5 billion riverfront campus, the outlet reported.

The demolition requests add to a growing list of local and state permits Oracle has pursued for site infrastructure and early construction work. They also coincide with final zoning tweaks still moving through the city, including an amendment to the site’s design overlay scheduled for consideration by the Metro Planning Commission on Feb. 12.

Oracle’s East Bank plans date back to before the pandemic, when Tennessee officials began recruiting the company. The state and Metro approved the deal in 2021, anchored by Oracle’s pledge to employ 8,500 workers in Nashville by the end of 2031 — one of the largest corporate job commitments in the city’s history.

So far, Oracle has built a local workforce of about 900 employees and leased more than 200,000 square feet of office space at the Capitol View development west of downtown. Company executives have said the hiring pace is expected to accelerate starting next year.

Chairman Larry Ellison has previously described Nashville as the future world headquarters of Oracle, which is currently based in Austin after relocating from California. Even so, Oracle has not announced a construction start date for the East Bank campus, and the demolition permits alone do not lock in the project.

The campus design team includes London-based Foster + Partners, Nashville’s Hastings Architecture and local landscape architect Hawkins Partners, alongside engineering firm Thomas & Hutton and geotechnical consultant Terracon. Hendersonville-based Environmental Abatement is listed as the demolition contractor.

— Eric Weilbacher