Old motels offer adaptive reuse answer to workforce housing crisis

Two motel-to-housing adaptive reuse projects recently opened in Nashville offering solutions for the city’s affordable housing shortage.

Both of the projects were built in North Nashville, a developing community of black and lower-middle class residents near downtown. The Wilder, a former Super 8 motel, is now a renovated three-story building with 97 studios that restricts 40% of its units for tenants earning at or below 75% of the area median income (AMI).

Across the street sits its sister structure, the Perch at the Wilder, a former King’s Inn Motel, that is now a 55-unit workforce housing building with 20% of units set aside for tenants at or below 50% of AMI. The two projects could serve as a template for other adaptive reuse projects in Nashville and beyond.

The advantages of renovating old structures, including often lower costs than building comparable new ones, along with a willingness of more cities to ease zoning restrictions and extend tax credits to curb housing crises makes such projects more likely. A Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) was a key player in these projects. CDFI’s bridge the financial gap between developer equity and traditional banks, which often shy away from these projects.