Garth Brooks offers to help police open a substation in Nashville’s entertainment district

Residents of Nashville may get a new police substation downtown, and the construction won’t cost taxpayers a dime, thanks to Garth Brooks. The country music star is working with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to develop the substation, which is intended to increase safety and decrease traffic congestion in the city’s busy entertainment district.

The substation, as well as a Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) traffic control room, will be in the same building as Brooks’ Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk, which isn’t open yet. He purchased the three-story, 40,000-square-foot property located at 411 Broadway in December 2021.

Brooks announced the bar’s opening in April, posting a time-lapse video of the site where the bar and MNPD substation will go.

“Lower Broadway is an iconic destination for fans of world-class music, sports and a good time, but as Nashvillians know well, it can also create safety and traffic challenges that my office is working hard to tackle across multiple fronts,” Mayor John Cooper said in a statement. “I commend Garth Brooks for stepping up to help make Lower Broadway safer and more enjoyable for everyone. These additional resources will add new tools to reduce traffic and improve community safety downtown while continuing to prioritize other initiatives for neighborhoods and families throughout Davidson County.”

Metro Nashville chief John Drake said the new space will be a mini-hub for the police department’s downtown operations in the busy Broadway entertainment district, where both residents and tourists mingle. The street has been getting busier than ever and experiencing more crime. The city has been closing the road on weekend evenings to reduce congestion on sidewalks as well as streets.

As part of the agreement, Metro will authorize a commonplace condemnation of an alley adjacent to the location. However, Nashville’s Metro Council’s approval is still required.