The Factory at Franklin is a complex of 11 Depression-era factory buildings that have been renovated and reimagined as shopping, dining and entertainment venues. There, the 10,000-square-foot Jameson Hall can seat up to 450 people for banquets, and the 14,400-square-foot Liberty Hall has banquet seating for up to 800 guests. Groups can also use the 2,250-square-foot Heritage Room or the 125-seat Little Brick Theater.
In downtown, the 1937 Franklin Theatre is an Art Deco movie theater with 296 seats and a 1,100-square-foot multipurpose room.
Hotel development in Williamson County is booming. Ten hotel properties with 1,273 guest rooms are now under construction countywide, York said. The new full-service, 224-room Hilton Franklin Cool Springs is slated to open in September with 6,000 square feet of meeting space. A new 115-room Hilton Curio will be Franklin’s first downtown hotel when it opens in spring or early summer of 2020.
Northeast of Nashville, the suburbs of Gallatin and Hendersonville are “a well-kept secret,” and the area is rich in both scenic beauty and music heritage, said Barry Young, executive director of Sumner County Tourism.
“Johnny and June Cash lived here on Old Hickory Lake. Conway Twitty lived here,” Young said. “The Oakridge Boys still live here, and Taylor Swift moved here when she was a teenager.”
Rivership Cruises offers private yacht charters and cruises of Old Hickory Lake, and Cumberland River Cruises takes groups out on pontoon boats to see the homes of famous country-music stars.
A new Hilton Garden Inn is being built in Gallatin. It will have an adjacent conference center when it opens later this year. Also in Gallatin, Volunteer State Community College offers facility rentals, and the Epic Event Centre has several event spaces in a historic industrial building. There, the 8,100-square-foot Jackson Ballroom can hold up to 500 people, and the 4,130-square-foot Johnson Hall can accommodate 250 guests.
At Long Hollow Gardens and Vineyards, a covered greenhouse-style event space can seat up to 235 guests for meals, and Bagsby Ranch is a farm with a 10,000-square-foot, climate-controlled lakefront event center.
In Hendersonville, the Bluegrass Yacht and Country Club is remodeling its event spaces, and Our Lady of the Lake has an event center that can hold up to 600 people for meals, Young said.
