Nashville’s “up and coming” neighborhoods tend to follow a recognizable pattern: industrial or underinvested areas adjacent to already-expensive neighborhoods, with enough raw building stock to attract developers and enough cultural history to attract early residents who give the area identity before the prices catch up.
Wedgewood-Houston (WeHo)
Wedgewood-Houston, just south of downtown, has been Nashville’s most-watched emerging neighborhood for several years and now has enough development that “emerging” undersells what it’s become. Geodis Park (Nashville SC’s soccer stadium) anchors the area. SoHo House opened here, which is a reliable indicator that a neighborhood has crossed from emerging into arrived. Art galleries and studios occupy former industrial buildings. Bastion, one of Nashville’s most talked-about restaurants, operates here. The neighborhood is evolving rapidly, apartment complexes and new construction homes continue replacing former lots, but it still has the raw mix of uses that gives it energy. Young professionals who want proximity to downtown without paying downtown prices have been a primary driver.
The Nations
The Nations, in West Nashville, transformed faster than almost any other neighborhood in the city. It was a working-class industrial corridor with a large silo that grain company Gillette operated for decades; that silo is now a landmark bearing a massive 200-foot mural depicting a neighborhood legend named Lee Estes. The neighborhood now has boutique shops, restaurants, colorful new housing, and a bar scene. The growth has been fast enough to generate genuine community conflict: longtime residents, many of whom lived in The Nations for generations, have felt squeezed by rising rents and the arrival of wealthier newcomers who can afford the new construction.
North Nashville
North Nashville is the most complicated emerging area in Nashville. The neighborhood has a deep history: Jefferson Street was once one of the most thriving Black cultural districts in the South, before the construction of I-40 in 1968 cut through it and displaced thousands of residents. The new NFL stadium development, plus the continued proximity to downtown, has accelerated investment interest. Fisk University, TSU, and Meharry Medical College all anchor the area. Buchanan Street has new shops and bars. The displacement concern here is more acute than anywhere else in the city: longtime Black residents who stayed through decades of disinvestment are now facing a development wave that tends to price them out.
Charlotte Park
Charlotte Park, in West Nashville, is following the path of Sylvan Park and The Nations before it. Lower land prices have attracted development, and the neighborhood’s access to Charlotte Pike and its adjacency to more established areas has made it appealing to buyers priced out of Sylvan Park. Food and retail development is early but present.
The Pattern Worth Understanding
A 2025 report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition identified Nashville as the most intensely gentrifying city in America for the 2010 to 2020 period. The neighborhoods on this list are all part of that pattern. “Up and coming” in Nashville’s context is inseparable from displacement, the communities that gave these areas their character are often not the ones who benefit from its recognition.
Sources
- Felix Homes, “2025’s Top 5 Up And Coming Neighborhoods in Nashville”: felixhomes.com
- WKRN, “The Nations Nashville: gentrification” (August 2024): wkrn.com
- Save Our Nashville Neighborhoods, citing NCRC 2025 report: sonninc.org/gentrification
- Nashville Guru, Moving to Nashville Guide: nashvilleguru.com
- NASHtoday, Murals of Nashville (The Nations silo mural): nashtoday.6amcity.com