When a team of developers announced in 2021 they would build a two-tower Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences in Nashville, local tourism leaders saw the potential ultra-luxury hotel as a sign of a continuously rising global profile for Music City.
But Tim Morris, one of the project’s principal developers, has been hit with seven lawsuits since October — and the development has been at a standstill. The lawsuits allege he misappropriated funds and failed to pay back loans, rent and other expenses. One bank has already secured a $6 million judgment in federal court against Morris. Former business partners, contractors and others claim Morris should be ordered to pay them more than $16.7 million combined in unpaid debts and damages.
Once representing himself to his business partners Jared Bradley and Steve Armistead as a wealthy investor with a luxury car collection who was able to secure a $10 million line of credit with just the stroke of a pen, Morris now says his assets look very different, according to a lawsuit filed by Armistead and several business entities belonging to him and Bradley.
“Not a car, not a lawn mower, nothing,” that lawsuit quotes Morris as saying.
As for the site of the proposed hotel, the small piece of land near Nashville’s Music City Center has been left dormant for years. The parcel recently changed hands in a foreclosure sale.
The future of the Ritz-Carlton project, which would have cost half a billion dollars, is unclear, at best.
At worst, it’s doomed.
Several other real estate development projects are mired in Morris' legal battles, including multiple apartment buildings in the Nashville area at various stages of development.
Morris did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
A Ritz-Carlton in Nashville? Before the project stalled
When it was initially announced in May 2021, the Ritz-Carlton was viewed as another key pillar in Nashville’s tourism strategy, coming on the heels of the Four Seasons property breaking ground in 2019.
For several years, the city’s developers have been feverishly building luxury hotels, which are ultimately filled with attendees of the many conferences, concerts and high-profile events that come through the city.
Nashville’s chief tourism executives are positioning the city to attract a Super Bowl when the new Nissan Stadium is complete, and ample luxury hotel rooms are necessary to attract events of that caliber.Other events on the wish list include the Grammy Awards, NCAA Final Four basketball games and ACM Awards.
Butch Spyridon, former CEO of theNashvilleConvention & Visitors Corporation, at the time of the announcement said the proposed Ritz was an “important and strategic addition.”
Spyridon said in 2021 the hotel would further elevate Nashville’s international appeal, which has been a key goal for the NCVC to increase tourism in recent years.
Other nearby Southern cities with Ritz-Carlton hotels include Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte, North Carolina, and there are 10 of the branded hotels in Florida. Nashville’s Ritz-Carlton would be the first in Tennessee.It was originally scheduled to open in early 2025.
Development team joins forces for Nashville residential projects
In 2018, Armistead and Bradley, two longtime Nashville developers, were introduced to Morris, a Florida real estate investor, through Electrical Capital Advisors, according to the lawsuit filed by Armistead and business entities owned by Armistead and Bradley in Davidson County Chancery Court.
Bradley and Armistead were working on several residential development projects in Nashville and were looking for financial investors and development partners. According to the lawsuit, Electrical Capital Advisors is a pension fund based in Washington, D.C.
Morris was seemingly the perfect investor, the complaint suggests. A 1982 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, Morris represented that he had access to significant financial backing in addition to great personal wealth.
Also involved in several of the developments was Angela Marriott, who was married to John Marriott III until their public 2015 divorce, which drew attention to the affairs of the Marriott family.
Morris and Angela Marriott were partners in many of the business ventures created for the Nashville developments, including the Ritz-Carlton. Brent Patrick, an attorney representing one of Bradley's companies in a lawsuit against Morris, said it is his understanding that Angela Marriott and Morris are married. Two newspaper reports reviewed by The Tennessean also suggest they are married. Marriott International owns the rights to Ritz-Carlton.
Angela Marriott is not named in any of the lawsuits against Morris. She declined to comment for this story.
By late 2019, the development team had formed limited liability companies for three different residential projects: Linden Row, a collection of townhomes in Belmont-Hillsboro, Clay Street Commons, a 63-unit development, and 17th and Patterson Street, a 139-unit development, according to the complaint.
Morris controlled the day-to-day affairs for all three projects, according to the lawsuit.
Development team makes plans for Ritz-Carlton
After working together on the residential developments, the group set their sights on a much bigger project.
In June 2019, Morris told Bradley and Armistead that he had obtained the rights to develop Ritz-Carlton locations in the U.S., including in Nashville; Austin; Savannah, Georgia; Vero Beach, Florida; and Charleston, South Carolina, their lawsuit states.
Representatives of Marriott International did not reply to repeated requests for comment.
The development team, consisting of Morris’ company M2 Development Partners and other groups, picked a vacant piece of land bordered by Korean Veterans Boulevard in the SoBro area of downtown.
The group, under the name RC Nashville Development Partners, bought the triangular-shaped property for $35 million in March 2020.
Plans for the development called for the construction of two towers. One would be home to 242 hotel rooms and 165 branded condominium units. Another tower on the property would feature 185 Ritz-Carlton rental apartments.
The team set a tentative timeline to begin construction on the project in the first quarter of 2022.
Throughout this time, Morris continued presenting a wealthy image to his business partners, according to Bradley and Armistead’s lawsuit. In January 2022, he represented that he was considering purchasing a private jet. He suggested he owned $500,000 worth of luxury cars, according to the lawsuit.
But nine months later, Electrical Capital Advisors audited the Clay Street Commons and Linden Row projects. The group discovered that Morris had misappropriated more than $1 million, according to Armistead and Bradley’s lawsuit.
Within a year of the audit, the plans for the Ritz-Carlton were threatened by several additional lawsuits.
Lawsuits pile up against developer
Armistead and Bradley’s lawsuit, filed July 15 in Davidson County Chancery Court, is seeking more than $4 million in damages. They say Morris misappropriated more than $1.5 million when working on the residential projects alone. They are represented by attorneys Nader Baydoun and Stephen Knight.
Patrick, the attorney who represents one of Bradley's limited liability companies in a separate lawsuit claiming Morris owes him an additional $240,000 he failed to pay back, said he’s never seen a case like this one.
“It's one thing if, you know, the project just runs out of money or interest or that sort of thing. But, you know, my suspicion is this one goes deeper than that,” Patrick said. “I just don't know enough of the facts yet to say unequivocally what went wrong.”
A separate complaint filed by Alabama-based Oakworth Capital Bank alleges Morris failed to pay back more than $10 million in loan money. That's in addition to a lawsuit filed by the bank regarding a $6 million loan. The court sided with the bank in that case, which was closed in June.
Morris, in court filings, attests he spent the money from Oakworth Capital on pre-development expenses for the Ritz-Carlton project, including paying salaries for Armistead and several other employees of M2. In a letter to the court, Morris said his development company was negatively impacted by a lack of investors after the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Armistead and Bradley’s lawsuit says, “Morris has further stated that he has been insolvent since at least 2010.”
In total, the complaints filed against Morris include:
In two lawsuits, Oakworth Capital Bank alleges Morris and his business entities owed the bank a total of approximately $17.5 million. One of the two cases is closed, and the court ordered Morris to pay $6 million to the bank.
A self-storage facility in 100 Oaks claimed Morris failed to make payments on a storage space he began renting in 2022. That lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by 100 Oaks Self Storage in April.
Fifth + Broadway accuses Morris and his companies M2 Development Partners and RC Nashville Development Partners of failing to make rent payments for their office beginning in 2023. Fifth + Broadway says it is owed $184,955 in rent, plus additional damages.
Armistead and several business entities owned by Bradley and Armistead claim they are owed more than $4 million for three different projects not related to the proposed Ritz-Carlton.
Bradley Projects, a company owned by Bradley, claims Morris and a company of his owe $240,000 in loan payments and interest.
Most recently, architectural firm EDI International sued Morris and one of his companies on July 18, alleging he failed to pay more than $750,000 for work performed.
Morris does not appear to have hired an attorney in any of these cases.
Representatives of Fifth + Broadway declined to comment for this story. Oakworth Capital Bank did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Who owns the land where the Ritz-Carlton was proposed? What happens now?
Morris in letters to the court in an Oakworth Capital Bank lawsuit claimed his Ritz-Carlton development deal was still viable due to interest from potential financiers, despite the fact that he no longer owns the land.
He would need to find new partners, as Bradley and Armistead are no longer involved in the Ritz-Carlton project, Patrick said.
According to deeds and legal documents regarding the 2020 sale of the SoBro land, RC Nashville Development Partners borrowed the money to purchase the property from a group called R Squared Properties, tied to Randall Isaacson of Gallatin-based company ServPro.
R Squared Properties in April 2024 moved the parcel of land into default after the development team allegedly failed to make payments on the loan. R Squared bought the land back in an open foreclosure auction for $35 million — the exact amount RC Nashville paid for the land about four years earlier.
Isaacson did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
As construction activity continues across downtown Nashville, long grass and weeds grow uninhibited on the small piece of land adjacent to SoBro's Korean Veterans Boulevard roundabout. Signage surrounding the dormant plot used to promise the arrival of the towering Ritz-Carlton.
Now, the chain-link fence wrapping the parcel is blank.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him atemealins@gannett.comor follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter,@EvanMealins.
Reporter Molly Davis covers growth and development in Nashville. Reach her at mdavis2@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Is Nashville still getting a Ritz-Carlton? Lawsuits may torpedo hotel
