Day 14. June 8, 2007.
An early morning and everyone is in suits. We did a dry run of the Gomez presentations. During the 8:00 AM Project Management session, Accelerator teams had their professional photos made for their interview portfolios.
At 10:30 AM, we had our final Accounting session with Dr. Jeter. Following this session, the Owen Master's of Accounting (MAcc) Program hosted an informative session over a working lunch. Amy Johnson, along with Carolyn Clemmings and Kevin Geshke from Ernst & Young led the discussion with several members of the Owen MAcc faculty attending.
Immediately after lunch, we boarded the charter bus and headed downtown Nashville to launch our 7th project. We arrived at the 511 Union Street, the home of Gresham Smith & Partners (www.gspnet.com). We were greeted in the lobby by James Bearden (CEO) and David Powell of GS&P. We arrived at the top floor of the building and were escorted to the Executive Conference Room of Waller Landsden Dortch and Davis (www.wallerlaw.com).
Our project: Gresham, Smith and Partners (GS&P) has been retained to prepare a master redevelopment plan for a property located one mile north of downtown Nashville. The 12-acre site, and adjacent property, has served as a primary manufacturing facility for more than a century. However, new residential and restaurant development in the historic neighborhood surrounding the site, as well as downtown, has prompted area developers to evaluate the site.
GS&P has completed a master plan for the site, showing how the property could redevelop including proposed development yields. To assist GS&P with the decision, evaluate the market characteristics of the property and recommend a course of action. The recommendations should answer the following questions:
- How much is the property worth as is?
- What is the recommended plan and design for the space?
- What will it cost to develop?
- What will it be worth after the development is done?
- What will make it successful / attract customers? How do you know?
After we completed the opening session at Gresham Smith, we toured the Germantown area via bus (it was raining). Following the tour, we returned to Owen for a quick dinner and worked the evening on finishing the National Civil Rights Museum Project. The teams ended the evening with dress rehearsals for Gomez Photography. Tomorrow is the "big day" for these presentations. At 10:15 PM, I turned out the lights at Owen.
