Boring Co. envisioned apartments, retail and a Music City Loop station at downtown Nashville site

The downtown Nashville parking lot where The Boring Company is currently digging the Music City Loop could have a much different future above ground.

Newly revealed state records show TBC previously proposed transforming its Lot 16 construction site into a mixed-use development featuring approximately 400 apartments, ground-floor retail, an 800-space parking structure and a Music City Loop station.

The proposal, first reported by the Nashville Business Journal, was submitted as part of Tennessee's 2025 request for information seeking ideas for redevelopment of several state-owned properties around Capitol Hill. Four firms responded to the state's request.

TBC's response stands out for another reason: the company is already pursuing a strikingly similar idea in Las Vegas.

What TBC proposed in Nashville

The Nashville concept centered on Lot 16, the state-owned property along Rosa L. Parks Boulevard that currently serves as The Boring Company's downtown tunneling site.

TBC proposed replacing the surface lot with an 800-space parking structure, with retail at ground level and a Music City Loop station incorporated into the project.

Approximately 400 apartment units would accompany it.

TBC described the concept as transit-oriented development and said the parking structure could serve as a Park and Ride, allowing people to drive to the property, park and continue their trip through the Music City Loop. The company said that combination helped make the development economically viable.

In other words, the Loop station would not simply be added to a development. It would help shape the development around it.

Las Vegas offers a preview

TBC pointed Tennessee officials toward Las Vegas when explaining the idea.

Its Nashville submission specifically referenced a mixed-use development at 4300 Paradise Road, where TBC said it was working with a local development partner on a project incorporating apartments, retail and a Vegas Loop station.

That project has since moved considerably closer to reality.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Clark County Commission approved land-use permits for the development in September 2025. Plans call for a six-story, 132-unit apartment building with a Vegas Loop station directly connected to the property.

Clark County planning materials describe the 1.33-acre project as a 132-unit multifamily development with accessory retail and restaurant uses and a station, with the residential building totaling about 153,300 square feet and the station about 18,588 square feet.

Plans also include a ground-floor bodega and drive-thru coffee shop, along with resident amenities including a lounge, game room, gym and courtyard.

132 apartments. Just 24 parking spaces.

A development of that size would ordinarily require 189 parking spaces under Clark County requirements.

TBC plans just 24.

That's an 87 percent reduction from the usual requirement, and the Loop station is central to the justification.

Project representatives told Clark County that residents would be able to use the Vegas Loop, nearby bus service and pedestrian connections rather than depending primarily on personal vehicles. The county ultimately approved the reduced parking plan.

The connection between the apartments and the Loop is so fundamental that Clark County attached a condition tying occupancy of the apartment project to approval of the attached Loop station.

That effectively ties the two projects together. The apartment building isn't simply located near the Loop. Its approval is structured around having the Loop available to residents.

Nashville's proposal is bigger, but different

There are important differences between the two concepts.

TBC's Las Vegas project calls for 132 apartments and only 24 parking spaces. Its Nashville submission contemplated roughly 400 apartments and an 800-space garage.

The Nashville garage was intended to serve more than apartment residents. TBC specifically envisioned it functioning as a Park and Ride for the Music City Loop.

That could make the Nashville property both a residential development and a point of entry into the larger transportation network.

The common thread is the station.

In both concepts, underground transportation isn't treated as something separate from the real estate above it. Housing, retail, parking and the Loop are planned together.

Nashville already has another example of residential development connecting directly to the system. The Boring Company and Nashville developer Giarratana have publicly identified a planned Music City Loop station at PRIME on Church Street that would serve residents of PRIME, Alcove and Paramount.

The Lot 16 documents suggest TBC has considered going a step further by participating in development around a station itself.

Don't expect 400 apartments just yet

The distinction between a proposal and a project is important.

TBC submitted the Lot 16 concept in response to a 2025 request for information, not the state's current procurement process. The documents reveal what the company was interested in building at the time, but they do not establish that the 400 apartments, garage or retail space will actually be built.

Tennessee has since moved forward with a broader redevelopment process involving multiple state-owned properties.

The state's newer request calls for 1,315 replacement parking spaces across the redevelopment sites and contemplates residential, retail, hospitality and office uses. It also leaves open the possibility of incorporating a Music City Loop station somewhere within the redevelopment if a location has not already been determined.

The Business Journal reported that TBC had not responded to its request for comment about whether the company intends to participate in the newer process.

So the future of Lot 16 remains unsettled.

But the documents provide something we haven't previously had: a detailed look at how The Boring Company itself has envisioned building around a Music City Loop station in Nashville.

More than what's underground

Music City Loop began publicly as an underground connection between downtown Nashville and Nashville International Airport.

It is already becoming considerably larger.

TBC now says its Tennessee authorization covers nearly 25 miles of tunnel, and more than 40 Nashville stations are in various stages of planning and design with property owners.

The newly revealed Lot 16 proposal raises another question about what that expansion could eventually mean above ground.

In Las Vegas, TBC is moving toward a development where 132 apartments and a Loop station are effectively one project.

In Nashville, the company previously envisioned something larger: 400 apartments, retail, 800 parking spaces and a station sitting directly above the Music City Loop.

Whether that particular concept ever leaves the drawing board remains to be seen.

But the Las Vegas project shows that the underlying idea already has moved beyond the drawing board.