Sony’s Space For Sale By: Chris Lewis, clewis@nashvillecitypaper.com January 12, 2005 A historic Music Row building that once housed the famous recording studio of Owen Bradley and has long been the headquarters office of Sony Music Nashville has been put on the market. The move follows the merger of Sony and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) in August and signals the shift of Sony’s label operations this spring into the BMG Entertainment Complex at 1400 18th Ave. S. Located at 34 Music Square East, the 23,443-square-foot building was listed this week by real estate brokers The Blonder Group of Brentwood and CRESA Partners of Memphis. “We’ll definitely have an offering price, but we’ve not yet determined that,” Ira Blonder of The Blonder Group said. The property was last appraised four years ago at $2.08 million by the Davidson County Office of the Assessor. Sony assumed the property in 1988 when it purchased Columbia/CBS Records, which had acquired the building from Bradley in 1962. Inside the Sony building is the original Quonset hut that Bradley built in 1954 as the recording center for the style of country music that became known as “the Nashville sound.” “This is ground zero. This was the first production recording studio on the Row, and the reason there is a Row,” Blonder said. He said although the hut now houses Sony’s art department, the acoustics are still tremendous. “I mean, you can go in there and stand right where Patsy Cline stood when she sang “Crazy” and you could hear the acoustics,” Blonder said. Jeff Allen, vice president of operations and finance for Sony Music Nashville, said the planned move of employees will happen sometime in the Spring, when BMG finishes reshuffling some offices to make room. He said Sony is going to maintain separate label operations in the BMG building.

Originally Published In the Nashville City Paper On January 12, 2005







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