First Impressions Count: How Airport Growth Runs Parallel with Nashville Real Estate Development

Have you ever left an airport with the feeling of unexplained curiosity for the city in which it sits? What about confidence in your decision to know that you’ll never, ever want to return? Have you ever formed a similar opinion despite never having left the airport you’d arrived in? Sometimes long-lasting opinions are formed during our time spent in-between exiting an aircraft and speed-walking to baggage claim. But how could our minds jump to such conclusions about anything in such a short amount of time?

I like to think of every airport as each locality’s front door. Whenever a leisure or business traveler exits a plane, an impression is made… even if said traveler’s only concern is locating the nearest Cinnabon (or if you’re me – the nearest restroom). Sure, such impressions may be positive. Some, negative. But studies clearly tell us that time spent in an airport helps shape an individual’s overall perception of a destination.

Like many Americans, I travel to a handful of airports each year, and by that I mean I spend a lot of time in long check-in lines, browsing overpriced food stands with subpar offerings, and desperately searching for an electrical wall outlet. In my experience, the first impression is generally less than great.

In 2016, Nashville International Airport officials announced a design expansion to the tune of $1.2 billion dollars; one which includes fund allocations for retail, entertainment, and both residential and office space funding. And that’s just the beginning. So why would an airport, one which happened to be named one of seven most entertaining airports in the world by CNN, need a “design expansion”?

According to the New York Times, Nashville’s entire skyline has been and continues to be reshaped by a building boom, one which includes a burst of hotels, office buildings, and residential high-rises to meet the demands of the men and women who make their way through the city as either tourists or new residents every single day. And as a city named “top housing market for 2017” by real estate listing company Zillow, Nashville’s relatively affordable housing market and, interestingly enough, growing healthcare community are huge driving factors in the growth of Middle Tennessee’s ever-changing city.

Sometimes in business, it really is true that you never (or seldom) get a second chance to make a good impression. When travelers pass through our airport and see good, strong images of both the leisurely and business climates of Nashville, it’s a return of investment. And when such impressions lead to additional growth and expansion, the general value of property and space increases… and with such an increase, the environment for investing becomes both strong and manageable.

While I’m unsure of what such growth means for the future of Nashville’s infrastructure, I can be sure of one thing: first impressions do count. Why else would a community invest billions into expanding its immediate impressionability upon new visitors? And as either a homebuyer, real estate agent, or investor, why wouldn’t you follow the lead of the Nashville International Airport and invest in something that can only grow along with the continuing development of the city itself.

Not only do first impressions bring in new tourists and residents, they bring an increase in property value and growth probability.