Nashville, with its music scene, and Charlotte, a bank town, compete for convention biz

Although more than 400 miles and the Great Smoky Mountains separate Charlotte and Nashville, the two cities have a lot in common.

For one, they are about the same size. Second, they are examples of progressive “New South” cities.

As Harrison Campbell, associate professor of geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, puts it: “They parallel each other pretty closely.”

But there are key differences between Charlotte and Nashville, which officials say are major competitors when it comes to luring conventions, tourists and corporate headquarters.

Some, like Jeff Michael, director of UNCC’s Urban Institute, say Charlotte should be watching its back.

“Over the last two decades Charlotte has separated itself from the pack of other midsized Southern cities,” he said. “But Nashville seems to be catching up with us. And if Charlotte can’t figure out what’s next beyond banking, Nashville has all the ingredients to overtake us.”

Molly Hedrick, spokeswoman for the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, said Nashville is one of Charlotte’s top competitors for conventions. The Grand Ole Opry and neighboring Gaylord Opryland hotel and convention center give meeting and convention planners a tough act to compete with, she said.

When it comes to having a music scene, Charlotte is hardly a competitor with Nashville, which has a well-established reputation as a music industry hub — its nickname is “Music City” — which attracts hipsters, musicians and celebrities.

“Our brand is our calling card,” said Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Music City is known worldwide and is invaluable.”

Tony Crumbley, vice president of research for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, concedes that when it comes to having a recognizable brand and vibrant nightlife, Nashville has an advantage over Charlotte.

But where Charlotte has an edge is its downtown, he said. Its glistening steel-and-glass high-rises, many shops, restaurants and condominiums and sleek Lynx light-rail system make Nashville’s downtown look and feel small-time in comparison, he said.

“We jumped ahead of them with the redevelopment of uptown in 1980s and ‘90s,” he said.

‘An act of God’

Indeed, Charlotte’s uptown has seen much development in recent years, but Nashville has done a better job of not destroying its older architecture.

Charlotte is often criticized for not doing more to prevent its oldest buildings from being razed to make way for other projects. In 2009, for example, developers tore down the uptown landmark Coffee Cup, built in 1947, to make way for condos.

“To get a building torn down in Charlotte takes nothing. In Nashville, it takes an act of God,” said Tim Davis, 39, who was born and raised in Charlotte but now lives in Nashville.

Older buildings create a sense of place, which adds to a city’s quality of life, Michael said.

Sports and outdoor recreation also add to a city’s quality of life, an area in which both cities earn high marks. Charlotte has more than 200 parks and 33 miles of developed greenways, along with the U.S. National Whitewater Center.

Both cities benefit from having National Football League teams, officials say.

“For both cities, having a pro sports team was a symbol of their arrival on the national stage,” Michael said. “It means a lot from an image perspective.”

Sun Belt growth

Charlotte and Nashville are in the Sun Belt, a region of the country that stretches along the South from North Carolina to California. Crumbley said the cities benefit from the rapid growth that’s happening in that region.

Janet Miller, chief economic development and marketing officer for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said Charlotte is one of the cities that Nashville compares itself with when measuring economic growth, along with Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Indianapolis; and Raleigh-Durham.

In addition to hospitality and tourism and music and entertainment, Miller said health care, supply chain management and manufacturing are Nashville’s main industries, all of which are also important to Charlotte’s economy.

Crumbley said Nashville, because of its central location, is one of Charlotte’s biggest competitors for distribution centers and warehousing.

But Charlotte’s location is more advantageous, he said.

“If you draw a big circle around Nashville, there’s not much there but Nashville,” he said. “It’s an oasis in a dessert.”

In contrast, Charlotte is part of the Piedmont Crescent, he said, a rapidly growing region of North Carolina that stretches northeast from Charlotte through the cities of Greensboro and Winston-Salem to Raleigh.

Going green

Among other areas on which Charlotte and Nashville are focusing: green-energy technology.

Charlotte has companies like Argand Energy Solutions, which since 2008 has been installing solar, electric and wind-energy systems throughout the Southeast. There’s also Raleigh-based Southern Energy Management, which opened a Charlotte office in 2007 and provides consulting on renewable energy and energy efficiency for homeowners and residential and commercial builders.

Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp. is also getting in on the act, as it partnered with Beltsville, Md.-based SunEdison to complete a 17.2-megawatt solar farm in Davidson County in January.

Miller boasts Nashville’s location between the two largest raw material providers for solar energy in the U.S., Hemlock Semiconductor and Wacker Chemie AG.

Scheduled to open in 2012 is Urban Green Lab, which is being touted as Nashville’s first community center dedicated to sustainable living. It will serve as a place to learn about energy efficiency and urban agriculture.

Skilled worker shortage

Nashville and Charlotte also compete for white-collar operations, such as corporate headquarters, back-office operations and data centers, Miller said.

But while Charlotte has UNCC, along with other colleges and universities, it doesn’t measure up to Nashville’s 19 colleges and universities, including Vanderbilt, a prestigious research university. Those schools give Nashville a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining a skilled work force, Miller said.

Still, one of the challenges facing Nashville is a shortage of highly skilled workers, she said. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and other groups released a work force study last fall that predicts the city will have a gap of nearly 24,000 workers by 2019, particularly within fields like information technology.

Although the chamber laments a shortage of skilled workers, Michael said Nashville benefits from being a capital city, as state governments tend to hire those with higher levels of education. Capitals also attract progressive nonprofits, he said.

In the plus column for Charlotte, the city has Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, which is one of region’s main economic generators. Officials say it helps attract companies and their investments and jobs, as well as tourism and convention business.

“You can’t underestimate the competitive advantage the airport gives us,” Michael said.

In January, Charlotte/Douglas opened a fourth runway, which last year helped the airport surpass its largest passenger traffic record, said spokeswoman Lee Davis.

Meanwhile, as Nashville continues to grow, traffic and congestion are causing concern there, Miller said.

At a crossroads

As the two cities grow, racing toward 2 million residents each, they are at a crossroads, each trying to diversify their economies to stay competitive.

Michael said that while Nashville benefits from its identity as a country music capital, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.

“I think what a place like Nashville has wrestled with, particularly as it has struggled to be taken seriously as a center of commerce and business, is to show that it’s about more than just the stereotype of country music,” he said. “The question is: What are they doing to build on their identity that’s contributing to their own success beyond the music industry?”

In the meantime, Charlotte is trying to figure out its second act following the meltdown of the banking industry, which for decades was the bedrock of the city’s economy.

Michael said successful metro areas tend to be those with diversified economies, adding that the competitiveness between the two metro areas is likely to only increase.

He said that while it’s generally accepted that Charlotte’s business climate is stronger and more vibrant than Nashville’s, the Music City continues to develop and capitalize on its strengths.

Davis, a freelance writer, part-time college professor and restaurant cook who has lived in Nashville since 2008, said if Nashville and Charlotte were two women, “they’d be almost exactly the same, but one just has more of a sparkling personality, and that’s Nashville.

“Charlotte is the girl that takes a little bit longer to get to know and love.”

Nashville is hipper than Charlotte, which in turn makes it more of a destination, he said.

“There’s a lot of creative, cool stuff going on in Nashville, and Charlotte doesn’t necessarily have anything that draws people there outside of business,” he said.

“Charlotte will always be home for me,” he said. “I’m a person who is trying new things and trying to grow, and sometimes it’s kind of awkward and I don’t know what I’m doing. And I feel like Charlotte is the same way.”

Sam Boykin can be reached at [email protected].