The nation’s tallest office tower outside of Chicago and New York will be developed in Nashville. After a series of design changes, Nashville’s planned Signature Tower is slated to become a 1,057 ft. tall skyscraper by 2009. Giarratana Development’s 65-story tower is slated to break ground early next year at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Church Street in downtown Nashville.

San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group has agreed to operate the 200-room hotel this past summer. Kimpton will also provide housekeeping and other services to the building’s residents.

Initially planned as condos, office space and a ground-level grocery store, the 1.5 million sq. ft. building is now planned to stack 400 residential units over 10 floors of hotel space and nine levels of subterranean parking.

City planners rejected an early design for the $275 million project on the grounds that the project was too similar to older Nashville buildings. Forced to be creative, Giarratana hired architects from Atlanta-based Smallwood Reynolds Stewart Stewart to revamp the project. The resulting plans incorporate more glass, a thinner footprint and an artistic, 200-foot spire.

Earlier this month, the developer scrapped plans for the grocery store as incompatible with Kimpton’s hotel. Instead, Kimpton will introduce a ‘chef-driven’ restaurant in an adjoining building. Other hotel amenities, including a spa, outdoor pool and fitness center, will be available to condominium residents.