The Nashville Predators have chosen JE Dunn Construction as construction manager for the Bridgestone Arena overhaul, a plan the team priced at $650 million when it unveiled the project in 2025. The November 9 announcement moves the downtown Nashville project from planning into delivery, with the first of three major summer work periods scheduled for 2027.
The team is paying for the work itself, but the price tag depends on who is quoting it. Local television coverage of the contractor news calls it a $1 billion renovation. The Predators’ 2025 plan announcement described a $650 million arena upgrade over five years, inside roughly $1 billion of improvements, including a hotel tower, spread across 15 to 20 years. Sports Business Journal later reported a range of $650 million to $750 million.
What Has Already Started?
Enabling work began this spring, and the team says its first priority is movement through the building. The south entrance on Demonbreun Street is getting escalators to all four public levels, replacing a staircase that served only three. We covered the start of enabling work at the arena in April.
The box office at the SoBro entrance is also being enlarged ahead of Broadway-facing construction due to begin in summer 2027. On the mechanical side, the arena has started modernizing its ice plant controls, the first step of a three-year program. New ice plant equipment is due in summer 2027, followed by a full ice floor replacement in summer 2028.
Work on the ice and the Broadway frontage is therefore pinned to the off-season calendar.
What Is Being Built?
The 2025 plan adds about 170,000 square feet to a building that opened in 1996, roughly the floor area of three football fields. A cover over the main plaza would turn the current entrance into an open-air gateway, and concrete walls would give way to glass and open-air concepts facing Broadway.
Inside, the plan calls for 600 to 700 more seats, wider concourses, new club space, and rebuilt dressing rooms, locker rooms and loading docks on the event level. An office tower and a hotel tower would rise beside the arena.
The team describes the design as still open to fan input, which it is collecting through Broadway2030.com.
Who Is Delivering It, and When?
JE Dunn joins a team that already includes Populous as architect and CAA ICON as a consultant to the Predators. Sean Buck, JE Dunn’s Nashville office leader, said the firm has worked in the city for more than 30 years and recently completed upgrades inside the venue.
Kyle Clayton, the Predators’ chief strategy officer, called the choice of builder “a critical step in bringing this ambitious vision to life.” Neither the team nor JE Dunn has stated a contract value, and the announcement does not say whether the role extends to the two towers.
The stated goal is to finish most of the work by the 2029-30 season, with the full program complete in 2030. The Tennessean reported that the arena will close for two to three months at a time during the summers of 2027, 2028 and 2029.
The timetable follows closely behind another big Nashville build. CRO’s earlier report on the Titans stadium workforce shortage found the $2.1 billion project had recruited only 16% of the workers it needed, with about 1,600 expected at peak. That stadium is now scheduled to finish in February 2027, and the Titans reported daily crews of up to 2,000 in March. The arena’s first major summer work period follows within months, and Turner, a partner in the stadium’s joint venture, also handled pre-construction pricing for the arena, according to Sports Business Journal.
Project Overview
- Project Name: Smashville’s Next Stage: Broadway 2030 (Bridgestone Arena transformation)
- Owner and Developer: Nashville Predators
- Location: 501 Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee
- Project Type: Arena renovation and expansion
- Project Value: $650 million (team’s 2025 figure); roughly $1 billion in improvements over 15 to 20 years, including a hotel tower
- Scale: About 170,000 sq ft added; 600 to 700 additional seats
- Funding: Funded by the Predators, per the team
- Phases: Enabling work in 2026; major summer work in 2027, 2028 and 2029
- Status: Construction manager selected November 9, 2026; enabling work under way
- Construction Start: Enabling phase under way since April 2026
- Target Completion: 2030, with most work due by the 2029-30 season
- Procurement Model: Construction manager
- Construction Manager: JE Dunn Construction
- Contract Value: Not publicly disclosed
Project Team
- Owner and developer: Nashville Predators
- Venue: Bridgestone Arena
- Construction manager: JE Dunn Construction
- Architect: Populous
- Management consultant: CAA ICON
- Pre-construction pricing (earlier phase): Turner Construction
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