While Lower Broadway bar owners seek lower property value assessments via a slow-moving appeals process, two properties — Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville and Jon Bon Jovi’s five-story club — could vastly beat their appraisals, setting up a billion-dollar contradiction downtown. Both properties list for well above their most recent valuations from Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite, who became the subject of a formal review by the Tennessee comptroller of the treasury specifically for Broadway property values in recent weeks.
Downtown bar owners are seeking appeals after a 2025 reappraisal in at least 18 cases, according to information shared with the Scene. These bars include Honky Tonk Central, Chief’s, Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock 'n' Roll Steakhouse, The Twelve Thirty Club and Garth Brooks’ Friends in Low Places, among others. In many cases, this year’s reappraisal raised values three or four times their 2021 estimates, resulting in six-figure tax bills — Kid Rock’s, for example, might owe an annual $880,000 in property taxes according to the assessor’s online calculator. Knocking property values down even 10 percent could save owners cash, a prudent business move for those willing to wade through real estate bureaucracy at the local and state level.
‘There are two versions of Broadway: the one that white people get to experience and the one that people of color experience.’
But current commercial listings price Lower Broad bars far higher than Davidson County’s reappraisal. Jon Bon Jovi’s, for example, lists for $130 million — exactly double its total appraised value of $65 million. Jelly Roll’s Goodnight Nashville could cost more than $100 million according to comparative price-per-square-foot measures against its $67.2 million appraisal.
Two recent blockbuster sales, Jack’s Bar-B-Que ($4,206 per square foot in August 2025) and Margaritaville Nashville ($2,870 per square foot in December 2024) shaped the high-end commercial market with massive sticker prices that each pushed the upper bound for Lower Broadway real estate. Some bar owners believe these are outliers that unfairly apply astronomical per-square-foot prices to their property, while others list their assets with this price as a benchmark.
Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower will specifically look into Lower Broadway real estate with a formal review, as reported by multiple outlets earlier this month. Some in the business believe it’s a precursor for more direct legislative action from the state to regulate Davidson County property assessments (and the associated tax revenue). For now, appeals pending in 2026 could send substantial city tax revenue back to bar owners, who appear to want it both ways — low values from the city and high values from the market.
