This feature is in our weekly Monday Morning Report newsletter, which showcases our highest-level members. Leaders You Should Know highlights community leaders who are making a notable impact in the Nashville region.
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Tell us about yourself?
I am a managing partner at Boyle Investment Company with more than 40 years’ experience in commercial real estate. Sixteen of those years were spent at Trammell Crow Company as its area director. Just over 20 years ago, I opened Boyle’s Nashville office with my business partner Phil Fawcett.
We considered many options when we decided to leave Trammell Crow Company. After competing against Boyle for many years, we had great respect for its integrity, reputation and long-term vision. We wanted to build a team and a business in Nashville that centered around that culture of integrity, community and family. We have approached all of our projects with those values in mind and aim to create projects that bring communities together and add value to their neighborhoods.
Family is by far the most important part of my life. My wife, Lucy, and I have four children: Campbell, Furman, Benjamin and Carrie. They are grown now; but at the time we started Boyle Nashville in 2001, they were very young and inspired us to create a company that prioritized work-life balance while focusing on quality, integrity and excellence in our projects. We love to travel, and in fact, I recently returned from an incredible hiking trip to Patagonia with Carrie.
Tell us about your business/industry?
Boyle was founded in Memphis in 1933 and is now the largest owner and operator of office space in Tennessee. Over the last 23 years, the company has grown locally to become one of the largest private developers in Nashville as well.
We opened the doors to our Nashville office in 2001. Today we are one of the foremost commercial real estate firms in Middle Tennessee in part because our reputation as a master developer with innovative design and extensive planning experience dates back nearly 100 years. The key to our success in the Nashville area has been our commitment to building community and creating high-end, mixed-used communities that blend walkability, livability and workability. Our partnerships with local landowners, investors and businesses enable us to create valuable, long-lasting relationships.
Over the course of 20-plus years in Nashville, our portfolio has seen steady growth. Boyle’s Nashville office has assembled more than 3 million square feet of office and retail space, as well as several exciting projects in the development and planning stages. Our Nashville portfolio includes mixed-use, office, retail, residential, hotel and undeveloped land properties. Residential (single- and multi-family) development plays a critical part of my involvement in projects.
Our projects, which include Berry Farms, Capitol View, CityPark Brentwood, McEwen Northside and Southside, and Meridian Cool Springs, among others, have received such awards as the 2021 ICSC Global Design and Development Award and the 2019 NAIOP Developer of the Year Award.
To this day, Boyle Investment Company is family-owned and -operated. Boyle is committed to expanding all aspects of the company while staying true to its history and family roots.
What should we know about you?
In addition to serving as a managing partner of Boyle, I was an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University’s prestigious Owen School of Business for a Real Estate Development and Investment course for five years. I am a member of ULI and NAIOP and a current board member at The Salvation Army. Additionally I am a former member of the Nashville Planning Commission and the Nashville Parks Board, and I served as an elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church. While my career and community involvement are a huge part of who I am, I am very family-oriented and make sure to prioritize a balance in work and life.
How did you get to your current position?
Nearly half of my career in commercial real estate was spent with Trammell Crow Company. In 2001, my partner Phil Fawcett and I took a leap of faith and opened Boyle’s Nashville office with no business on the books and no other employees. But we had a vision for building a company centered around a culture of integrity, community and family. Today we have 34 employees in our Nashville office and are a leading real estate company in Middle Tennessee and throughout the state.
What value do you see in Chamber involvement?
The Chamber is a fantastic vehicle for connecting local leaders. Whether your company is new or established in Nashville, it is always helpful to know and gather with other business leaders. To move the city forward, we need business leaders at the table to understand the challenges we face as a community and come up with a plan to address those challenges. The Chamber provides a way to stay in touch and build valuable peer-to-peer relationships. We are honored the Chamber relocated to Capitol View in 2020 with the goal as a regional chamber to be centrally located and remain a part of Nashville’s downtown core to best serve its members.
How is your company recruiting and retaining talent?
Boyle was founded by brothers Bayard Boyle Sr., Snowden Boyle and Charles Boyle in Memphis, Tenn., in 1933. Today we are still a family-owned and -operated business.
Our “family-first” mentality has helped us maintain a deep bench of long-tenured experts on our team while remaining nimble and adjusting as the market changes. We have seven employees who have worked at Boyle for more than 20 years, three of whom have been with us for 50-plus years.
Phil Fawcett and I chose to partner with Boyle in 2001 with a goal to balance our aspirations to make an impact in the Middle Tennessee market with our growing families. We were able to make that balance work, and it’s important to us that our employees have that same balance as our business has grown over the years. We are proud to be a destination workplace where our employees can grow and thrive. Boyle’s mission is to build community, and that includes the 34 employees in our Nashville office.
What makes Nashville a great place to do business?
Boyle’s mission is building community, and I am proud and honored to work alongside some of the best and most talented designers, architects and engineers who share our vision. Nearly 100 years in business means we have nearly 100 years of expertise in building those strong relationships.
Nashville has also benefited from tremendous economic and population growth. With that growth, we’re seeing new people coming to our city from different areas all over the country. They bring with them different backgrounds and experiences. These different perspectives and expectations of where they want to live, work and play blend together to make our city a better one.
Through this growth, Nashville has still maintained much of its “big city, small town” feel. We are still a community that works and comes together for the greater good of our city and its residents. There is a spirit of unity and collaboration here that helps growth and positive change thrive.
While it’s not our ultimate goal or marker of success, we are proud of the national and global recognition our projects have received, including:
-ICSC Global Design and Development Gold Award, the highest honor possible
-LEED-certified buildings
-Green Globes® certification
-ULI Nashville’s Excellence in Development award
-Recipient of NAIOP Office Lease of the Year, Developer of the Year and Development of the Year awards
What is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the best part of working in your field?
Building community is more than just a slogan for us; it’s our mission and drives our business. We understand that real estate has the power to shape lives, foster communities and create lasting memories.
At Boyle, we are committed to increasing the quality of life for the people who live, work and visit a Boyle community. A few ways we’ve done that over the years are bringing the first full-service grocery store to downtown Nashville, ending the Gulch’s long-running park desert by developing Frankie Pierce Park and Trolley Park through a public private partnership with the Nashville Parks Department, and supporting local nonprofits through our Boyle Cares initiative, donating time and financial assistance to form relationships with these nonprofits and make a lasting, positive impact in Nashville.
All of our communities lead with a people-centric design. Everything we design has our users and their experiences at the forefront, from wide sidewalks and restaurant patios to free parking and ease of access, to ample green space conducive to community events and gatherings. Those can range from major events like the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon and Hot Diggity Dog Fest to ongoing community events like Nashville SC watch parties, movies in the park and cornhole/pickle ball leagues. It is so rewarding to see our visions and plans come to life in communities where families flourish, where businesses thrive, and where our neighbors want to live, work and play.
It is a privilege to support small and locally owned businesses at our projects. We are also passionate about supporting our local creative economy and supporting local artists and their art. That commitment is especially evident with the murals at Capitol View and McEwen Northside. These murals, many of which are interactive, give local artists an opportunity to make connections by showcasing their art and beautifying public spaces.
We also get to bring first-to-market businesses and amenities to Nashville – from the jewel box designs at McEwen Northside to retailers and restaurants opening their first location in Tennessee at one of our projects, to the multitude of corporate headquarters relocating to our city and choosing to call a Boyle community home.
We are committed to helping Nashville grow in a way that best serves all of our neighbors. We are intentional and strategic about what amenities and businesses would be an asset to a project, and also to the broader neighborhood. It is a joy to see projects come to life and our communities utilize our communities the way we envisioned, and even in ways we didn’t specifically plan for.
What do you like to do in your spare time outside of work? Where will we find you on the weekends?
Outside of work, you can find me spending time with my family – which often takes the form of traveling. In fact, I recently took the hiking trip of a lifetime to Patagonia with my daughter. I am also actively involved in the community, and a member of ULI and NAIOP. I served on the Nashville Planning Commission from 2011 to 2023 and on the Parks Board from 2017 to 2023. I was previously an elder for the Westminster Presbyterian Church and loved getting to chair the campus’s renovation from 2015 to 2018. I also enjoy water skiing on Old Hickory Lake.
