The Nashville Sports Council has reported a record-breaking $32 million of total economic impact for Nashville from the TransPerfect Music City Bowl.

This sum includes dollars counted from tourism and hospitality as well as sales for many locally owned and operated businesses.

The total attendance was third-highest among all bowl games for the year. Of the 69,489 fans who watched the game live at Nissan Stadium, 69% traveled to Nashville. Additionally, the ESPN broadcast tallied more than 5.6 million viewers with a peak viewership of 8.9 million during overtime.

This was TransPerfect’s first game as title sponsor in a multiyear deal.

5 acres secured for Cedars of Lebanon

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, in partnership with TennGreen Land Conservancy, has added five acres of property adjacent to Cedars of Lebanon State Park and Natural Area in Wilson County.

“This is an opportunity for the state to add a small piece of protected land in a region that has seen increased development,” said Roger McCoy, director of TDEC’s Division of Natural Areas. “It further protects a great natural resource in our state, and we are grateful for the partnership with TennGreen Land Conservancy to make this addition possible.”

TDEC found the property for sale last year and requested TennGreen to work with the department to make the purchase. It was the state’s second collaboration on land acquisition in recent weeks. In February, TDEC, TennGreen and the Open Space Institute announced the acquisition of 358 acres known as Piney River Bluffs in Rhea County to expand the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park.

TennGreen Land Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) environmental nonprofit and the oldest accredited statewide land conservancy in Tennessee.

Endeavor purchases two business magazines

Nashville’s Endeavor Business Media has acquired Buildings and Interior+sources magazines, leading publications for the building and construction markets.

Endeavor’s Buildings and Construction Group already includes Contracting Business, Contractor, EC+M, HPAC Engineering, American School & University and other magazines.

The acquisition also includes outsourced sales operations for BOMA’s digital media content and attendee marketing for BOMA’s annual Conference and Expo.

Buildings magazine serves the building owner and facilities management sectors with advice, best practices and solutions in the areas of building development, ownership and operation.

Interior+sources is exclusively focused on the commercial market, connecting interior designers, owners, principles, architects, corporate executive/general managers, project managers and interior design/architectural students.

Wilder now a division of Parman Tractor

Wilder Equipment will operate as a division of Parman Tractor & Equipment, a subsidiary of Parman Holdings Corp. Both are Nashville companies.

PT&E will continue providing the service and support that the Wilder family has delivered for 85 years. The sales, service, parts and rental departments will represent the Parman brand while continuing to offer products from long-term partnerships such as Gorman-Rupp, Morbark and Rayco.

Parman Holdings acquired Parman Tractor & Equipment three years ago and has experienced significant growth through the diversification expansion into heavy equipment. Charley Crichton, Parman veteran, continues serving as president of Parman Tractor and Equipment with support of Colin Hockenberger as general manager.

S2 Cognition partners with Five Tool Baseball

S2 Cognition, a sports-science company based in Nashville, has announced it has formalized a partnership with Five Tool Baseball, a leading provider of amateur baseball events including travel tournaments, showcases, combines and collegiate leagues.

S2 Cognition offers 30 to 45-minute cognitive evaluations that measure and quantify how athletes process what they see with their eyes, make decisions based on that visual input and their ability to act on that information on the field of play with millisecond-level precision.

The “S2 Eval” is being used by teams in every major conference and in professional sports by Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and MLS.

Investment boosts Vu’s Nashville expansion

Vu Technologies, creator of disruptive virtual production studios for film and video, has closed on a $17 million seed investment from ADX Labs, Topmark Partners and Angel investment syndicates from Tampa, Orlando and Texas.

The investment will fuel the expansion of its existing Tampa-Nashville-Vegas virtual studio network.

Virtual production, a new and burgeoning sector of the professional film and video industry – pioneered by Vu – offers and blends both extended reality and mixed reality technologies in advanced studio facilities. Typically rented by film, TV, advertising, and corporate video producers by the day, week or month, Vu Studios empower directors to shoot their talent in largely enclosed high-definition video projection environments.

Xenia Hotels to buy W Nashville for $328.7M

Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc. has agreed to acquire the 346-key W Nashville for a purchase price of $328.7 million or $950,000 per key.

The company expects to close the transaction by the end of the first quarter and fund the acquisition with available cash. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

W Publishing teams with Magnolia, Gaines

W Publishing Group, an imprint of Nashville’s Thomas Nelson Publishing, has announced a partnership with Magnolia Publications, a new publishing imprint from Chip and Joanna Gaines.

The first book to release through the new venture, “The Road to J.O.Y.: Leading with Faith, Playing with Purpose, Leaving a Legacy,’’ is a narrative by Scott Drew, head coach of the defending NCAA national-champion Baylor Bears men’s basketball program, with New York Times bestselling author Don Yaeger.

Conrad Nashville announces restaurants

Conrad Nashville, which is scheduled to open in May, will introduces three highly anticipated restaurant and lounge concepts in partnership with James Beard Award-nominated hospitality industry veterans and husband-wife business partners, Elizabeth Blau and chef Kim Canteenwalla.

Blau and Canteenwalla are opening Blue Aster, The Lounge at Blue Aster and Thistle & Rye.

Blue Aster, Conrad Nashville’s mainstay restaurant, welcomes seafood-centric American cuisine and innovative Southern flavor with modern sophistication, style and world-class hospitality. Adjacent to the restaurant is The Lounge at Blue Aster, featuring stylish classic cocktails and a luxurious afternoon tea service.

Thistle & Rye, located on the third floor of the hotel, is a vibrant, beverage-centric concept featuring shareable, globally-inspired small plates. Award-winning design firm Champalimaud has brought to life all three concepts, featuring intricate, bespoke architectural elements as well as opulent textiles, fusing modern luxury with natural simplicity.

Joining Blau and Canteenwalla, Conrad Nashville brings in executive chef Dwayne Edwards, with over 30 years of experience to the kitchen and formerly serving as executive chef at multiple Ritz-Carlton hotel locations throughout the United States. Jean-Christophe LeVarrat, director of food and beverage, has 35 years of experience at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Hotel Casa del Mar and, most recently, leading the food & beverage team at Shutters on the Beach hotel in Santa Monica.

Metro Water adds online bill payment

Nashville Metro Water Services has partnered with InvoiceCloud, an EngageSmart solution for online bill payment services, to launch an enhanced online billing and payment system for Nashville Metro Water Services customers.

The new online payment portal launched Feb. 23.

Metro Water Services chose InvoiceCloud so that customers can pay their water bills as intuitively and seamlessly as making payments when shopping online. The new InvoiceCloud system offers the ability to securely make payments via text, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo, in addition to the city’s previously offered credit card options. Paying online via eCheck will continue to be a free service.

The new InvoiceCloud portal will also allow for improved communications between Nashville Metro Water Services and customers, with customers having the ability to sign up for paperless billing or text notifications.

KLAS honors Pivot Point again

Brentwood-based IT services firm Pivot Point Consulting has been recognized for the seventh consecutive year as a top performer by KLAS research.

Each year, KLAS publishes the Best in KLAS report ranking health care IT software and services vendors across numerous market segments.

This year, Pivot Point ranked as the No. 2 Best in KLAS: Overall IT Services Firm by KLAS (after being 2020 #1 Best in KLAS Overall IT Services Firm), No. 2 in Partial IT Outsourcing and No. 2 in Overall IT Advisory Services.

Other accomplishments include No. 4 Software & Services, No. 4 HIT Implementation Leadership, No. 7 for Health Implementation Leadership (Small), No. 7 Technical Services and No. 7 in HIT Advisory Services.

GreenState Credit, Built form partnership

Nashville’s Built Technologies, a construction finance platform, has announced it is partnering with GreenState Credit Union to help it better scale its $2 billion commercial portfolio in the Midwest and support existing members more efficiently and effectively.

As GreenState expands into key regional markets, including Chicago, it adopted Built’s platform to move past time-consuming legacy lending processes, paperwork and spreadsheets, in order to provide a better experience for their members. GreenState, Iowa’s largest credit union, is leveraging Built’s cutting edge platform to modernize its commercial lending business and streamline multiple components of portfolio management, including pipeline tracking, draw requests and inspections.