Fort Nashborough demolition, reconstruction delayed

Demolition of Nashville's aging Fort Nashborough visitors site on the riverfront is likely for the summer, and its more contemporary replacement might not be constructed and open until 2017.

Both dates are delays from what was originally projected to be a 2014 demolition and a reopening this year.

The drawn out time line, according to Metro Parks and Recreation Director Tommy Lynch, is in order to fold the $1 million project into Mayor Karl Dean's flood wall and protection plan, a $100 million endeavor that Dean announced earlier this year.

This plan, which Metro Water and Services would lead, requires considerable work underground below First Avenue, a process that would compromise the condition of the new Fort Nashborough structure if it were standing.

"We're going to do the demo, but as far as rebuilding it, we're going to wrap it into the (flood) project, so that it all kind of gets opened at the same time," Lynch said, adding that it would have made no sense to rebuild the fort only to have blasting from the flood mitigation project damage it.

"It will delay the opening at least a year," he said, to either 2016 or perhaps 2017.

Construction on the downtown flood mitigation system, pending Metro Council approval, would begin by the end of the summer and take 30-36 months.

The Fort Nashborough historical site is a riverfront representation of a fort built by some of Nashville's settlers that has been a destination for generations of Middle Tennessee students. The first representation of Fort Nashborough was built in 1930, followed by the current facility in the early 1960s.

The current site, which has shown some dilapidation, mimics the original Fort Nashborough, built in the 1780s just north of where the existing, smaller structure sits. The original fort's construction came after James Robertson founded Nashville in 1780 and was used by early settlers to defend themselves from Native Americans until battles ceased in 1792.

Dean's administration has already allocated $1 million for the new fort, which has been billed as a more interactive site with interpretive elements such as touch screens rather than an enclosed structure.

Chris Koster, a planner at the parks department, said that Metro is still in the process of receiving price proposals on the fort's demolition. He said he believes it could be torn down within the next couple of months.

"It made a lot of sense to make sure these two projects were tied together, because as the flood wall project moves forward, the (entire) front of Riverfront Park will be under construction at that time," Koster said.

In other work, construction crews are in the process of completing a $52 million new West Riverfront Park and amphitheater to the south of the Fort Nashborough site. The park and music venue is to open this summer.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.