NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — For the past several months, discussions about the Titans’ stadium deal have remained in the spotlight. However, when it comes to the East Bank riverfront, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said connecting our parks through the new Oracle pedestrian bridge and greenways have been overshadowed

News 2’s Kendall Ashman sat down with Cooper on Friday, June 23 for an exclusive interview about the development of the East Bank.

“This idea has been a vision of yours for quite some time. Once you leave office, how do you make sure this idea still comes into fruition?” Ashman asked.  

“I think we’re in good shape. The dome is going to be built, Oracle is coming, they’re putting in the infrastructure, we’re not having to finance, we’re not putting any of our money into the East Bank. The East Bank is really going to pay for itself,” Cooper said, making it clear that Oracle is paying for the bridge, not taxpayers.

 During the interview, the mayor showed News 2 the conceptual design of the Oracle pedestrian bridge that is expected to connect East Nashville to Germantown.  

“This plan, created only because we’re able to do the dome and get on with planning the East Bank correctly, adds more than 50 acres of public parks on the riverfront, and then about 10 miles of greenways,” Cooper explained.

Despite pushback on the Titans’ stadium deal this year, the Oracle deal was passed unanimously by Metro Council back in 2021.  

“But we haven’t heard from Oracle yet, so we don’t really know the timing of when it’s going to happen,” explained Metro Councilmember At Large Bob Mendes. “I think one of the things people are going to have to look for in the mayors race this summer is the mayor’s going to have to be ready on day one to deal with Oracle and everything on the East Bank [because] it’s such a big project.”

According to Cooper, this big project is only possible with the Titans’ stadium deal.  

“This is how you do live-work-play in Nashville, that all of Nashville is participating in a live-work-play strategy. This allows the connectivity to the two halves of the city, and ultimately to almost every neighborhood in Nashville,” Cooper said.  

Even though there’s no word on the timeline for when construction will begin, Cooper told News 2 he hopes the Oracle bridge will be complete by 2026, as well as the dome by 2027.

News 2 reached out to several people on the Oracle communications team for a comment, but we have not heard back yet.