Questions Arise as Oracle Pushes Forward on $2 Billion Nashville Campus

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Four years after securing one of the largest economic development deals in city history, Oracle Corp. is still navigating hurdles on its long-promised East Bank campus, even as state leaders raise concerns about Nashville’s handling of the project.

 

The tech giant (NYSE: ORCL) has already spent $379 million assembling nearly 80 acres of riverfront property along Cowan Street for its future hub, where it has pledged to create 8,500 jobs by 2031. Plans call for a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar campus that would reshape the East Bank across the Cumberland River from Germantown.

 

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton recently said there have been conversations inside Metro government that suggest the city has tried to “pull back” on pieces of the original deal, including infrastructure and incentives.

 

“I know there’s been conversations [between Metro and Oracle], not the mayor, but others have been in the room and tried to pull back on some stuff, which is never good,” Sexton told the Nashville Business Journal. “I know there’s meetings where Bob [Mendes, Metro’s chief development officer,] was supposed to show up, and he didn’t come,” Sexton added. “The problem is the image you’re trying to portray is not what you show when you go get Oracle.”

 

Metro officials have pushed back, saying they remain committed to the deal. “Metro committed $175 million in the form of tax-increment financing to the Oracle development on the East Bank and nothing has altered, slowed or impacted that commitment,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement. 

 

When the deal was first announced, Oracle estimated the project at $1.35 billion. Now, after four years of inflation and rising construction tariffs, the total cost could approach $2 billion. Construction on the campus itself has yet to begin, and no firm timeline has been announced.

 

The state previously pledged to build road connections linking Oracle’s property to Dickerson Pike, though the status of those discussions between state and Metro transportation departments remains uncertain.

 

Oracle has already invested heavily in Nashville in other ways, leasing more than 200,000 square feet of downtown office space and employing nearly 900 people locally by the end of 2024. However, recent company-wide layoffs have affected Nashville among other locations.

 

For Sexton and other state leaders, the stakes are about more than one corporate project. “Getting Oracle here would be huge, right? We don’t want to be viewed as a state or as a city of Nashville not being able to get deals done, especially after you said you’re going to get them,” he said to the Nashville Business Journal.

 

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison emphasized the significance of the project in 2024 when he declared Nashville would be the company’s future headquarters. With permits now pending, massive site work in motion, and billions at stake, all eyes are on whether Nashville and Oracle can keep the deal moving forward.