Downtown’s Federal Reserve Building listed for $8M

Downtown Nashville's stately Federal Reserve Building has been listed for sale for $8 million.

An LLC associated with Nashville-based entrepreneur and The Johnny Cash Museum owner Bill Miller owns the structure, having paid $4 million for it in April 2018, Metro records show.

The address is 226 Third Ave. N.

As the Post reported in 2020, Miller — who operates a Frank Sinatra-centric restaurant and bar in his nearby Southern Turf Building — proposed adding 16 floors to the 19,944-square-foot building, with the overall complex to offer hotel space.

A multi-page document submitted to the Metro Planning Department at the time showed the tower would rise atop the historic masonry building, which was once a private residence. Nashville-based architecture and engineering firm Greshman Smith was to have handled the design.

The city's original Federal Reserve Building (a later iteration now serves as apartment building Lofts at the Reserve), the three-story building — framed by robust columns with ionic capitals, a pediment and a portico — offers a full basement (with a working bank vault) and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Opened in 1922, the building served as the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta until 1958. A. Ten Eyck Brown of Atlanta and Marr & Holman of Nashville designed the neoclassical structure. Of note, the latter designed the art deco building now home to Frist Art Museum.

The Choi family garnered local headlines in late 2003 when Sung K. Choi purchased the property for $500,000 and moved relatives into what became essentially a freestanding single-family home. At the time, the Chois were believed to have been the only family living in such a structure located within Nashville's central business district.

Marketing material notes Miller — also known for live magic venue and restaurant House of Cards in SoBro — has enlisted Crews Johnston and Sam Johnston with the local office of Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield to handle the sale of the building.