Topping Out The Motley: Drone Video of a Nashville High Rise at Full Height

Every tall building has a moment when it stops growing. For The Motley, the first residential tower on Church Street in Midtown Nashville, that moment arrived this September when crews finished the concrete at the top of the structure. The tower is not finished. Windows, mechanical systems, interiors and amenity spaces all still have to happen. But the frame now stands at its full height, and Nashville Drone Co documented it from the air.

We have been flying regular construction progress for Axiom Builders and IPB Properties on The Motley, so the topping out was less a one-off shoot and more the next chapter in a record we have been building for months. This article walks through what the milestone means, what the project looks like on paper, and what developers and general contractors should expect from drone video that is made for construction rather than for show.

What topping out actually means

In construction, topping out marks the point when a building's structure reaches its highest level. On a concrete high-rise like The Motley, that means the final floor has been poured and the frame is complete. The ceremony that usually follows is a thank you to the crews who got it there. REJournals reported that the project team and trade partners held a topping out ceremony for The Motley on Sept. 3, with a barbecue lunch for the workers who helped raise the tower to its full height.

It is worth being clear about what topping out is not. It is not completion. A tower at this stage still needs its exterior envelope, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, elevators, interior finishes, retail build out and amenity spaces. Connect CRE reported a late 2027 completion target for the project, and REJournals reported that the tower is expected to welcome its first residents in 2027. That makes the months ahead some of the most visually dramatic on the schedule, as a gray concrete frame turns into a finished building. It is also why documentation at this stage matters so much.

The Motley at a Glance

The Motley sits at 1401 Church St., on the former Country Delite Farms property. IPB Properties is the developer, Axiom Builders is the general contractor, and Nashville-based Hastings Architecture led the design. According to REJournals, Charter Construction is providing the structural concrete services.

The first phase is the 26 story north tower. Nashville Post reported the tower at about 300 feet tall, and REJournals put this phase at 326 rental residences with ground floor retail and a full amenity package. The complete project is planned as three towers. Nashville Post cited roughly 1,194 residential units across all phases, along with about 70,000 square feet of retail and a public plaza, while REJournals described the finished community as nearly 1,200 residences.

The project has drawn attention beyond the construction trades. ULI Nashville scheduled a hard hat tour at the site on Sept. 1, 2026, with speakers from Axiom Builders, IPB Properties and Hastings Architecture, to talk through the design vision and the challenge of turning an industrial site into a walkable destination.

Why Axiom and IPB brought in Nashville Drone Co

Axiom Builders and IPB Properties engaged Nashville Drone Co to record regular construction progress on The Motley. The reason a developer and a general contractor want that kind of coverage is simple. A project this size changes every week, and memory is a poor record. Drone video and photography fix the condition of the building at specific moments, from the same vantage points, so anyone on the team can see what happened and when.

Our approach comes from experience on Nashville high rises. Our founder, Keith Stancil, brings over two decades of professional entertainment marketing experience to the way we plan and cut video, and he holds an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate. We have documented tall construction in downtown Nashville, including the Paramount Tower project, where one of our aerial images became The Billion Dollar Drone Photo. For progress work we rely on the DJI Mavic 3 Pro and most recently the DJI Mavic 4 Pro, both cameras we are using for construction documentation, music videos and marketing film alike.

That mix matters. Construction progress work sits between filmmaking and field operations. The footage has to look good, but it also has to be accurate, repeatable and safe to capture on an active site.

What topping out looks like from the air

A topping out flight is different from a typical progress pass. The building reaches its maximum height for the first time, so the questions we ask about framing change. We are no longer only showing a tower rising out of a site. We are showing how it sits against the Midtown skyline, how it relates to the streets around it, and how the full mass of 26 stories reads from the angles that residents, neighbors and passersby will actually see.

Our approach to a milestone like this is the same discipline we bring to every visit. We return to established camera positions so the new footage lines up with earlier flights. We fly at a consistent time of day so changing light does not distort the comparison. We include slower orbits and rising reveals that show the top of the structure and the surrounding site in one continuous move. And we shoot in the same sequence each time, so the clips cut together cleanly into a timeline.

There is a storytelling side as well. A topping out video is often the first piece of project media that works for more than one audience. The construction team uses it as a record. The owner can use it with investors and lenders. Leasing and marketing teams can use it to show the tower's presence on the skyline while residences are still months from move in. One well planned flight can serve all three.

Why progress video does more than occasional photos

Still photos are valuable, and we deliver them on every visit. Video adds context that stills cannot. Motion shows how a site is organized, how traffic moves around it, where materials are staged and how the structure relates to its neighbors. Over the life of a project, a library of consistent progress video pays off in several ways.

Communication

Owners, lenders and partners who are not in Nashville can understand the state of a project in a couple of minutes. The Motley is a good example. Nashville Post described IPB Properties as a Seattle-based subsidiary of Vancouver-headquartered Bosa Properties, with Vancouver-based Axiom Builders as general contractor. When the people funding and managing a project are far from the site, regular aerial video closes the distance.

Record keeping

Dated footage captures site conditions and sequencing over time. If questions come up later about how and when work progressed, there is a clear visual reference.

Marketing

Developers and builders often wait until a building is nearly done to think about media. By then the most interesting chapters, the foundation, the rise of the frame, the topping out, are gone. Progress footage collected along the way gives marketing teams real material to work with.

Logistics and Safety

Aerial views make laydown areas, access routes and neighboring activity easy to see in ways ground-level photos do not.

Flying near downtown Nashville takes more than a drone

Commercial drone work around a tall downtown building is governed by rules that are easy to underestimate. Anyone flying for compensation needs a Part 107 remote pilot certificate. Under 14 CFR 107.51, the general altitude limit is 400 feet above ground level, with an allowance to fly higher only while staying within 400 feet of a structure and no more than 400 feet above its uppermost limit. That exception is relevant on a tower, but it comes with conditions and does not remove any other requirement.

Airspace is the other piece. Downtown and Midtown Nashville sit in controlled airspace associated with Nashville International Airport, which typically means flights need FAA authorization before takeoff. The FAA's LAANC system provides near real-time authorization in many controlled areas, and some requests need additional coordination. Then there are site rules. Every active construction site has its own safety plan, and flights have to be coordinated with the general contractor's team so the crew knows when an aircraft is in the air.

None of this shows up in the finished video, but it determines whether footage can be delivered on schedule and without disruption. When owners ask what separates a casual drone photographer from a progress documentation partner, this is a large part of the answer.

What comes next at The Motley

With the concrete complete, the character of the work shifts. The exterior skin, interior framing and finishes will change the building week by week, and the footage will change with it. Nashville Drone Co will keep flying. The aim is a record that runs from early site work through completion, and the topping out video is one anchor point along the way.

Construction progress drone video across Middle Tennessee

Nashville Drone Co provides construction progress drone video and photography for developers, general contractors and concrete contractors across a 15 city service area in Middle Tennessee. If you are planning a high-rise or a large site and want a documentation program that runs the length of the project, we would like to talk. Visit nashvilledrone.co or email us at info @nashvilledrone.co