A rebranded, rebooted Ad Hoc East Bank Committee will meet Thursday for the first time this term. Formerly focused on providing council oversight to then-Mayor John Cooper’s dealmaking with the Tennessee Titans, the committee plans to help Metro steer the area’s looming development boom.
Vice Mayor Angie Henderson reconstituted the body with five first-term councilmembers and two committee veterans — District 2’s Kyonztè Toombs and District 5’s Sean Parker — who will chair the committee this term. The other members include District 18’s Jacob Kupin, a real estate broker whose district includes the East Bank, along with Clay Capp, Terry Vo and Jeff Gregg, who represent adjacent and abutting districts. Also joining is Councilmember At-Large Quin Evans Segall, a real estate attorney and formerly a member of the city’s Industrial Development Board.
“We dropped ‘stadium’ from the name — the primary task of the previous term’s work was to look at the stadium subsidy, which is now a settled matter,” Parker tells the Scene. “This committee will be focused on upcoming development agreements, what gets built on the East Bank, what infrastructure decisions are made, connectivity and how this area gets built out.”
The East Bank was a central focus for the development-minded Cooper throughout his term as mayor. He left office with a freshly inked $2.1-billion-dollar agreement with the Tennessee Titans, granting the struggling football team a 30-year lease and plans for a state-of-the art domed arena. State lawmakers and city lobbyists helped the Titans carve out tax streams to support the project and rally support in a split Metro Council, which approved the deal in April.
After opening remarks from Parker, the committee’s Nov. 8 agenda will include briefings from director of planning Lucy Kempf and the mayor’s chief development officer Bob Mendes. Mendes led the East Bank Committee last term and frequently scrutinized city negotiations under Cooper as the stadium deal took shape. Mendes joined his current boss, Mayor Freddie O’Connell — then a councilmember — in opposing the new Titans lease as the deal moved through the council in the spring.
Boston-based commercial developer the Fallon Company will help oversee the city’s buildout of the East Bank, though the two parties have not yet reached a contract.
