Another international nonstop route will soon be added to Nashville International Airport’s portfolio with Air Canada beginning service to Montreal in June. The service will begin twice weekly June 2 and grow to three times weekly June 25.

The new route will be operated by Air Canada Express on a 76-seat Embraer E175 aircraft featuring business class and economy class cabins. It complements existing year-round service from Nashville to Toronto.

Saint Thomas offering drive-thru COVID tests

Ascension Saint Thomas is offering drive-thru COVID testing at the Ascension Medical Group Midtown clinic, 1911 State Street.

Tests are for those who have a known exposure or who have mild symptoms that don’t require a doctor or nurse visit.

The clinic site is operating Monday-Friday, 10 a.m-2 p.m. Testing is open to the general public ages 2 and older.

Preiss Company to build Signature Music Row

The Preiss Company, a privately held, student housing owner-operator, has started development of Signature Music Row, a 105-unit multifamily housing project in Nashville.

TPCO partnered with Speedwagon Capital Partners on the development, and First Horizon provided additional loan contributions.

JLL Capital Markets acted as the debt broker.

Units will include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom configurations. Residential square footage will total 74,837 in 101 units, in addition to 3,000 square feet of class A clubhouse, leasing, fitness and amenity spaces, as well as a sky lounge overlooking Music Row.

Study: New Nashvillians have more to spend

A new Redfin report says the average out-of-towner moving to Nashville in 2021 had $736,900 to spend on a home, 28.5% higher than the $573,400 average budget for local buyers.

The report adds Nashville has the biggest budget gap among the cities included in its analysis.

Next comes Philadelphia, with an average out-of-town budget of $559,200 – 28.4% higher than the average local budget.

The influx of out-of-towners with big budgets is contributing to the rise in home prices in popular migration destinations, pricing out many locals. Nashville home prices remain lower than many expensive coastal cities, but were up 22.6% in December from the year before.

So while Nashville may be a good deal for someone coming from Los Angeles, many locals are stuck renting.

Report: Talent shift includes Nashville

Heartland Forward has released a new research report identifying a marked shift in the geography of talent over the past decade away from coastal cities to heartland metros such as Nashville.

“Heartland of Talent: How Heartland Metropolitans are Changing the Map of Talent in the U.S.,’’ was written by Heartland Forward Senior Fellow Richard Florida, along with side researchers at Heartland Forward.

The report attributes this shift to the work these metros have done to bolster their amenities to appeal to talent and predicts that this shift is likely to accelerate with the dramatic rise of remote work, offering talent a much greater choice of locations.

Talent has been concentrated in coastal superstar cities and leading tech hubs like California’s San Francisco and San Jose, Washington D.C., Boston and New York, but in addition to Nashville, is now moving to Austin, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Des Moines, Omaha, Columbus, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Iowa City, Auburn, Alabama, and Fayetteville, Arkansas.

MAPCO introduces checkout-free shopping

Grabango, a provider of checkout-free technology for existing stores, has partnered with MAPCO to add checkout-free operations at its Tennessee locations.

Grabango’s checkout-free services will be available for shoppers in two Tennessee stores by fall 2022, one of which will be MAPCO’s newly designed format that presents a holistic “store of the future” experience. This marks the first time shoppers in Nashville can save time with checkout-free technology.

MAPCO operates more than 330 convenience and fuel retailing stores across Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi.

High-end, single-family rental homes planned

Kinloch Partners plans to build high-end single-family rental homes in Nashville.

The company has completed three homes in Nashville and will also begin construction in on homes in Georgia and South Carolina in the first quarter of 2022.

The homes will be between 2,400 to 3,600 square feet, with monthly rent between $2,400 and $4,000.

“Single-Family Rental homes continue to be a growing segment, with retiring Baby Boomers driving growth in the upper end of the market,” says Bruce McNeilage, Kinlock’s co-founder, CEO.