A Nashville studio where Elvis recorded more than 240 songs rents for one dollar a year.
The Mike Curb Family Foundation bought Historic RCA Studio B on Music Row, then gave the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum a perpetual lease at that annual rate. The foundation owns the building; the museum keeps its musical history open to the public.
Across Nashville, fortunes connect to shopping centers, sports teams, apartments and museums through ownership, shareholdings and philanthropy. These eight fortunes helped shape places Nashvillians recognize. They are not ranked by wealth; available estimates cover different individuals and family groups, with reliable totals missing for several.
The Curbs: A Dollar a Year to Preserve Music History
At Historic RCA Studio B, the familiar songs include “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and “It’s Now or Never.”
The studio opened in 1957. Elvis recorded there extensively. Other artists also helped make the studio—and Nashville—a recording capital.
The museum dates the foundation’s purchase to 2002. Its perpetual $1 annual lease lets museum staff run tours and school programs without paying typical commercial rent.
Mike Curb’s business background is in records. His label’s artist connections include Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Wynonna Judd and Hank Williams Jr.
His Nashville commitments also reach into music education. In April 2024, Belmont announced a $58 million lead gift to expand its Mike Curb College’s Music Row facilities.
The new facility broke ground in spring 2026. The expansion remains underway.
The Hills: Grocery Stores Became a Real-Estate Business
The Hill name connects generations of Nashville shopping trips. The lasting business story is about the ground beneath those stores.
According to H.G. Hill Realty’s history, grocery success beginning in 1896 helped H.G. Hill buy store sites and other investments. The realty company was incorporated in 1926.
Beginning in 1993, store operations were sold to independent owners and operators. The real-estate portfolio continued.
Today, the company describes itself as family owned and operated across six generations, managing more than 2.5 million square feet.
Hill Center Green Hills is one recognizable example. H.G. Hill develops and manages the property, while individual shops and restaurants lease space for their separate businesses.
The Freemans: Apartments and the Publications Covering Nashville
Some family-business connections show up on a concert ticket. This one may show up on your lease.
Bill Freeman and Jimmy Webb founded Freeman Webb in 1979. The company says it owns and/or manages more than 18,000 apartments and approximately 1 million square feet of commercial space.
That portfolio includes properties managed for other owners, rather than 18,000 apartments personally owned by the Freeman family.
Bill Freeman died in November 2024. Bob Freeman is now listed as company president.
One recent acquisition is the 166-unit Flats at Laurel & Pine, at 901 Cherokee Avenue in East Nashville. In August 2026, Freeman Webb announced that it had acquired the property and taken over management.
The company also owns FW Publishing, whose publications include the Nashville Scene, Nashville Post and Nfocus. The Scene’s 2026 disclosure says Bob Freeman does not exercise editorial oversight.
The Adams Family: The Titans and Their Publicly Owned Stadium
Amy Adams Strunk became the Titans’ controlling owner in March 2015. Her father, Bud Adams, founded the franchise long before it arrived in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Oilers played in Memphis in 1997, then at Vanderbilt Stadium in 1998. The Titans name and the team’s new Nashville stadium followed in 1999.
Forbes estimated Adams Strunk’s personal wealth at $2.8 billion on November 12, 2026.
The team and its stadium have separate owners. Nashville’s Sports Authority serves as owner and landlord for its professional sports facilities.
For the new enclosed stadium, the original approved $2.1 billion financing framework included $500 million from Tennessee, $760 million from Sports Authority bonds and $840 million from the Titans/private side.
That made the original public contribution $1.26 billion. The Titans are responsible for construction overruns; the approved framework is not a final project-cost figure.
The team targets a 2027 opening. For games at the current stadium, use its transportation guidance: East Bank construction can change familiar routes. Our guide to the Titans’ game-day train explains another option for reaching home games.
The Haslams: From Pilot to the Predators
The Haslam fortune grew from Pilot, the truck-stop business founded by Jim Haslam II. The family has since sold it.
Berkshire Hathaway’s filing documents purchases in three stages, ending with the remaining 20% in January 2024. Pilot is now wholly owned by Berkshire.
The family’s Nashville sports connection runs through Bill Haslam. He became Predators chairman in July 2024 and majority owner in July 2025, with minority owners remaining.
Forbes estimated Bill’s individual wealth at $6.3 billion on November 12, 2026. Its broader Haslam family estimate was $16.4 billion on June 29, 2026. Those overlapping figures should not be added together.
Preparatory work for Bridgestone Arena’s renovation began in 2026.
The project’s official FAQ projects summer interruptions in 2028 and 2029, potentially reducing concerts and other non-hockey events. The goal is to have most work ready by opening night of the 2029–30 season, with construction phased around the Predators’ season. Before attending, review the bag restrictions at Bridgestone Arena and Nissan Stadium.
The Ingrams: Books, Barges and Nashville Soccer
The Ingram name connects businesses that rarely share a sentence: book distribution and river freight.
Privately held Ingram Industries includes interests in both fields. Orrin Ingram is identified as CEO and John Ingram as chairman. The barge business grew out of petroleum distribution and became a major inland operator.
Martha Rivers Ingram, who died in August 2026 at age 90, was a major Vanderbilt benefactor.
In 1998, she gave 20 million Ingram Micro shares to the Ingram Charitable Fund. Vanderbilt says the stock gift was valued at more than $300 million. The fund’s charter directed 40% of its income and assets to the university.
John Ingram’s sports connection brings the story to the fairgrounds. Nashville Soccer Holdings acquired a majority interest in the city’s USL club ownership company in 2017, before the later MLS franchise award.
GEODIS Park opened in May 2022, with the Sports Authority as owner and Nashville SC as tenant and operator.
The club won its first trophy, the U.S. Open Cup, on October 1, 2025.
Larry Ellison: Oracle’s Future Headquarters
Larry Ellison’s Nashville connection comes through Oracle, the public technology company he co-founded.
Forbes estimated his personal wealth at $168.9 billion on November 12, 2026. Oracle’s corporate property is separate from his personal holdings.
The company held its future global headquarters groundbreaking on November 10, 2026.
Announced plans cover approximately 78 acres, including a 120-room Nobu hotel, restaurant and retail space. Oracle expects the first buildings to open in 2030.
Residents may encounter the project through its planned pedestrian bridge, park, greenway connections and street improvements, tied to an announced $175 million infrastructure investment.
Metro’s arrangement reimburses eligible infrastructure costs through part of the development’s property-tax growth, subject to a cap and time limit.
The public jobs plan calls for 8,500 positions by the end of 2031. That remains a target, just as the park and hotel remain planned features of a construction project.
The Frists: Hospital Shares and a Public Art Museum
The Frist fortune is tied to Nashville’s healthcare industry.
Thomas Frist Sr., Thomas Frist Jr. and Jack C. Massey founded Hospital Corporation of America in 1968. Today, HCA Healthcare is publicly traded and headquartered in Nashville.
Forbes estimated Thomas Frist Jr. and family’s wealth at $40.7 billion on November 12, 2026, and reported a family HCA stake of around 32%.
HCA’s September 30, 2026 quarterly count listed 189 hospitals. Its 2025 revenue was $75.6 billion: company revenue pays operating costs before profit and is separate from family income.
The company’s history also includes a major federal investigation. The Justice Department’s concluding 2003 announcement put cumulative recoveries at $1.7 billion through criminal, civil and administrative settlements.
That record distinguishes subsidiary criminal pleas from civil allegations; it does not establish a personal conviction of a Frist family member.
The family’s civic connections include Belmont’s Thomas F. Frist Jr. College of Medicine and its role in creating the Frist Art Museum, housed in Nashville’s former main post office.
Visiting Studio B and the Frist Art Museum
Historic RCA Studio B: Tours depart from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum downtown, not the studio door. Book the museum-and-studio visit in advance, arrive 15 minutes early and use the included transportation.
Powered wheelchairs and scooters cannot travel on the shuttle because of lift weight limits, according to the museum’s accessibility page. Call 615-416-2001 before purchasing if this affects your visit.
Frist Art Museum: At 919 Broadway, adult admission is $20 and visitors 18 and younger enter free. Two adults with two children under 19 would pay $40 in admission. Two hours in the museum lot adds $6 if the posted parking validation applies.
The museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, plus Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
These fortunes meet Nashville in different ways: a storefront lease, a team on the field, an art exhibition or a recording room preserved for another generation. The familiar places become more interesting when you can trace the business or gift behind them.
