Beyond Nashville: Exploring CRE Opportunities in Knoxville, Franklin, and Chattanooga

Nashville gets the headlines. But some of the most compelling CRE stories in Tennessee right now are happening in the markets on its edges.

Knoxville is no longer just a college town. It is an emerging innovation corridor, anchored by one of the most consequential partnerships in American research infrastructure, the joint venture between the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home to some of the world's most advanced computing and energy science capabilities. That ecosystem is generating real estate demand that looks nothing like anything else in the state.

Franklin has quietly become one of the most office-concentrated submarkets in the country, with corporate headquarters tenants, healthcare companies, and high-net-worth relocations turning Cool Springs into a genuine counterweight to downtown Nashville. Mixed-use projects at the scale of the $500 million Aureum development signal that the market is growing up, not just out.

Chattanooga is in the middle of a $2.3 billion urban transformation along its riverfront and Westside, with a manufacturing and logistics base that is stress-testing its resilience against tariff headwinds while simultaneously attracting workforce housing capital, new hotel product, and serious industrial investment.

What these three markets share is the structural story of Tennessee itself: no state income tax, TVA power infrastructure, a business climate that keeps drawing capital from coastal markets, and a workforce pipeline that is straining to keep pace. What sets them apart from each other is the question this event is designed to answer.

Bisnow is bringing together the developers, investors, brokers, and lenders who are putting capital to work in these markets right now, for a first-of-its-kind conversation about where the real opportunities are, what the risks look like on the ground, and why Tennessee's secondary markets deserve a seat at the table alongside every Sun Belt gateway city in the country.

What You'll Learn: 

1. What makes Franklin, Knoxville, and Chattanooga  a compelling investment destination right now, and what are the two or three factors driving that story?

2. Which asset classes are generating the most activity and investor interest, and which ones are still waiting for their moment?

3. Where is the capital coming from, and what are they underwriting that local investors may have been slower to see?

4. How has the profile of tenants and end users shifted over the last few years, and what does that tell us about where the market is headed?

5. For someone who has been focused on Nashville and is now looking at these markets for the first time, what should they know before they write their first check?

6. What are the prevailing design-build trends taking these submarkets by storm?

Questions about your ticket purchase or interested in sponsoring? Reach out to customerservice@bisnow.com for customer support.

For questions, recommendations, comments, or press inquiries please email our Vice President of Production, Elizabeth Baker at liz.baker@bisnow.com.

To request disability-related accommodations, please contact ally.araco@bisnow.com no later than seven business days before the event.

Want to get a recap of everything covered at the event?

Purchase the post-event summary and get the highlights sent to you in a post-event summary. Purchase here.