Figment to reality? U.S. Senate endorsing $182M courthouse for Nashville

A powerful U.S. Senate committee is poised to approve $181.5 million to build a new federal courthouse in Nashville, another key step toward revitalizing a vacant and prime development site downtown. That is the expectation Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is setting in advance of a scheduled July 23 vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which he is a member. The vote wouldn't guarantee that Nashville finally will succeed in its 23-year quest for a new courthouse — but the languishing…