Long-time real estate family name comes off brokerage firm

Firm replaces family name with Nashville as part of rebranding

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

05-05-2006 12:21 PM — Long-time real estate firm NAI Mathews Partners has decided that Nashville indeed is a hot name.

So, the firm has changed its name to simply NAI Nashville in a modest rebranding. And along with that comes a new web site.

The name change doesn’t signal any less involvement for Bert Mathews, a principal in the firm and a son and grandson of the firm’s namesakes -- Bob Mathews, a developer who has helped shape Nashville’s skyline over the years, and his late father, Robert C. H. Mathews Sr., who started the family's contracting firm in 1938. These days Bert is focused, among other things, on getting the Stahlman Building's conversion to apartments completed and leased up.

Nate Greene, the firm’s managing partner, said the change reflects the firm’s focus on Greater Nashville area as well as the benefits and resources of its affiliation with NAI Global. NAI Global is a network of 300 offices in 40 countries. Greene noted that people outside Nashville aren't familiar with the Mathews name, but they do know Nashville.

Other firms within the NAI network use their city's or area’s name as the identifier – NAI San Diego, NAI Knoxville, NAI Long Island, NAI Houston and NAI Miami. Those cases also involved shifting away from a family name, Greene said. Most firms affiliated with NAI haven’t made the switch.  In one case, there could be downright confusion if the city's name became part of the firm's name. NAI Portland could be Portland, Maine or Portland, Ore., since both have affiliate firms and the Maine office handles more than one state.

For NAI Nashville, there is no such confusion unless you are from Nashville, Ark., Nashville, Ill. or Nashville, Ind.