Much will change on Nashville’s East Bank over the next few years, but one thing will remain the same.

The Tennessee Titans and Nissan North America have reached an agreement on a 20-year, exclusive naming-rights partnership that brands the new Titans home venue as ‘Nissan Stadium.’

Slated for completion in 2027, the new Nissan Stadium will host Titans home games, Tennessee State University football games, concerts, large-scale events and other community events.

The partnership will feature dedicated areas in the new stadium for brand experiences and displays, innovative technology integration, and involvement in Titans broadcast platforms.

Nissan also will support a to-be-determined program in the Titans’ ONE Community philanthropic platform, which reaches Nashville’s most underrepresented and marginalized communities with a focus on three areas – Opportunity, Neighborhoods and Education.

Nissan’s ever-growing footprint in Tennessee includes vehicle and powertrain manufacturing facilities in Smyrna and Decherd respectively, along with its North American headquarters in Franklin. Nissan is home to more than 11,000 employees across all three locations.

Features of the new Nissan Stadium will include: a circular translucent roof; exterior porches with panoramic views of Nashville; improved sightlines for all spectators through a range of diverse seating experiences; and a 12,000 square foot community space available for use year-round.

TN’s public universities launch joint campaign

For the first time in state history, 10 public universities in Tennessee are coming together to launch a campaign aimed to increase public awareness of the value of a four-year university degree in Tennessee.

The “Four the Future” campaign is a multiyear, coordinated effort that will engage community and business leaders, prospective students, and Tennesseans in all 95 counties around the value of higher education from a public university.

Participating schools include: Austin Peay, East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Tech, UT-Chattanooga, UT Health Science Center (Memphis), UT-Knoxville, UT-Martin and UT-Southern.

Cannery Hall unveils inaugural show slate

January will mark a new era for Nashville’s music scene as Cannery Hall opens its doors, becoming the city’s largest independent music venue and a pivotal cultural destination within the vibrant Station District.

“We’re cultivating a sanctuary for diverse musical talent and fans alike,” says Brent Hyams, general manager of Cannery Hall.

“Our eclectic opening lineup is a testament to the breadth of artists we will support, spanning genres from country to pop, and EDM to folk. There’s a stage for every story and a sound for every soul at Cannery Hall.”

The first wave of acts announced include Colorado-based funk/EDM outfit SunSquabi, dance unit Walker & Royce, indie pop artist Chance Peña, country/disco/dance pop party Western Dreamland, and local singer/songwriter Lilly Hiatt, who was the final artist to play the room in its Mercy Lounge incarnation.

The major investments to modernize and upgrade Cannery Hall have been done while preserving the unique character of a 140-year-old building and highlighting Nashville’s musical history. Cannery Hall will host a grand opening event in the spring, after the first wave of shows.

Cannery Hall’s multiple stages can host musicians and audiences of many different sizes. Row One Stage will hold audiences of up to 300. The Mil can play host to audiences of 625.

The Mainstage will comfortably allow for audiences of up to 1,275. The top floor of Cannery Hall is home to Amaranth, a unique special events space for up to 380 people, which is now accepting booking inquiries for 2024.

O’More fashion programs named among top schools

O’More College of Architecture & Design, part of Belmont University, has been ranked in the Top 50 fashion design programs in the U.S. and in the Top 10 programs in the South for 2023 by student resource site Fashion-Schools.org, taking into consideration things like graduation success rates, reputation and admissions data.

Stacking up against hundreds of schools in the country, O’More came in at 35th nationally and sixth regionally. This is O’More’s second year on the list, ranking two places higher nationally than in 2022.

“This achievement is a testament to the expertise and dedication of our faculty and the talent of our students,” says Jamie Atlas, chair of the fashion design and fashion merchandising programs. “We are proud to exemplify a mission-based approach that places purposeful design at the heart of the curriculum.”

O’More students graduate with years of elevated design training under their belt, aligning with industry standards and allowing them to be competitive and thrive in the global business landscape.

They begin by developing their foundational skills and segue to digital design which incorporates leading 3D prototyping software programs such as Optitex and Browzwear, with many of Belmont’s design courses focusing on underserved markets.

TN unemployment below national average

Tennessee’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October 2023 came in more than half a percentage point below the national average, new data from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development reveals.

The state rate was 3.3% in October, 0.6% lower than the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate of 3.9% for the month. Tennessee’s all-time low unemployment rate is 3.1%, last reached in August 2023.

The October rate is 0.1% higher than the rate from the month before but is 0.2% lower than the October 2022 statistic.

During the last 12 months, Tennessee employers added 40,100 jobs to the state’s workforce. The education and health services sector saw the most growth, followed by the government sector, and then the other services sector.

In a month-to-month comparison, the three sectors with the most reduction in workforce included the leisure and hospitality sector, the mining, logging and construction sector, and the manufacturing sector.

The national average for seasonally adjusted unemployment in October inched up 0.1 of a percentage point when compared to September’s rate. The U.S. rate is 0.2% higher than it was this time last year.

Redfin: Mortgage applications tick up

Mortgage-purchase applications are rising and pending home sales have posted one of their smallest drops in more than a year and a half, according to a new report from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

That marks the second straight week of increases. And while pending home sales were down 8% year over year during the four weeks ending Nov. 12, that’s one of the smallest declines since April 2022. House hunters are coming off the sidelines because mortgage rates are dropping from their peak: Average rates have declined from a two-decade high of 8% to the 7.4% range in the last month.

Mortgage rates are declining partly because this week’s CPI report shows that inflation is easing. That means it’s almost certain the Fed won’t hike interest rates again this year – and they may start cutting rates earlier than expected.

New listings of homes for sale are up 3% from a year earlier, the biggest increase in two years and just the second increase since July 2022 (the first was last week). The total number of homes for sale is near its highest level since the start of the year.

There’s a variety of reasons why more homeowners are putting their homes on the market: Some are noticing the small uptick in homebuyer demand, some are worried home prices are going to decline if they wait any longer, and others are ready to give up their low mortgage rate after realizing rates are unlikely to drop back to pandemic-era levels anytime soon.

BehaVR, Fern Health merge, form RealizedCare

BehaVR, a pioneering force in digital therapeutics (DTx) experiences, and Fern Health, a virtual chronic pain management program, announced the signing of an agreement to merge their businesses and create a new digital care management solution for chronic pain.

The new offering will be branded as RealizedCare, and strives to meet the increased demand for evidence-based, more scalable, impactful and economically viable solutions for a range of mental and behavioral health burdens, beginning with chronic pain.

RealizedCare introduces an advanced care management platform powered by DTx technology. The platform’s approach, which combines DTx with traditional wraparound services, will unlock value-based chronic pain management at scale. Grünenthal, a global research-based pharmaceutical company and parent company of Fern Health, has partnered with RealizedCare as a strategic investor, delivering on its shared vision of a world free of pain.

RealizedCare will work with health plans, employers and value-based providers to identify, assess and engage members with chronic pain via a fully managed solution. With RealizedCare, members and patients are guided through a personalized care journey, receive digital interventions, are connected to a community with lived experience of chronic pain and can be referred directly to clinicians when necessary.

Community Health’s safety efforts profiled

More than 10 years ago, hospitals affiliated with Community Health Systems, Inc. embarked on an important safety journey to deliver better outcomes for patients, reduce risk and liability and build trust in the communities they serve. Since then, the hospitals have achieved and maintained an 89% reduction in their Serious Safety Event Rate.

NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, a peer-reviewed journal from the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine dedicated to the latest innovations, big ideas and practical solutions for health care delivery transformation, recognized CHS’ accomplishments in an article published in its December issue.

The article chronicles the deployment of specific high-reliability leadership methods, human-error prevention behaviors, and a structured approach to cause analysis that directly resulted in reductions in medication errors, patient falls, health care-associated infections, procedural errors and other serious safety events.

CHS was one of the first health care organizations in the nation to create an AHRQ federally listed Patient Safety Organization, or PSO, to enable ongoing conversations and data analysis in a legally protected environment to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.