text: Guests at the first hotel fronting Lower Broadway's strip of honky tonks will check in at a bar rather than a front desk when it opens early next year.
  
  The Moxy-branded Marriott property is transforming a 7-story office building into a party-minded hotel with 168 rooms, a bar and restaurants on two lower levels, and another bar on the roof.
  
  "Our front desk clerks will be bartenders," said Matthew Daniel, regional manager with his family's Daniel Hospitality Group in Kentucky, which is developing the site. "There will be a free drink at check-in so we get you started right."
  
  The bar will also serve beverages made with OSA Coffee, a local roaster.
  
  The building is sandwiched between Kid Rock's soon-to-open 4-story honky-tonk and a cowboy-themed clothing shop. It also has frontage on Third Avenue across from the Johnny Cash Museum.
  
  Sound-proofing materials are used throughout the building, including on windows, to create a buffer from the busy country music strip.
  
  Cash flooding Lower Broadway
  
  Nashville's tourism boom, which nearly doubled the amount of visitors coming to town in the past decade to 14.5 million people a year, initiated a hotel-building boom and a flood of investment on Lower Broadway.
  
  Honky tonks on the strip are now raking in tens of millions of dollars a year.
  
  Daniel Hospitality Group paid $5.9 million for the prime downtown property in 2014 that encompasses about one-third of an acre.
  
  For years, the family pursued a boutique hotel called Barkley Lake Inn that didn't come to fruition. They run three hotels in Kentucky, along with restaurants and shops.
  
  "When we met with Marriott, we really liked the concept of Moxy for the property," Daniel said. "We were able to get a few more rooms put into it."
  
  Rooms on three floors will have Broadway views.
  
  'Made so you can play'
  
  Moxy is a relatively new global hotel brand targeted at young people looking for a fun-filled stay.
  
  It features small, modern rooms, Instagram-ready photo ops and hip attractions such as a visiting tattoo artist and soft-serve ice cream machines. Amenities vary at each location.
  
  "Moxy is made so you can play," the company's website states. "Sorry not sorry — we break hotel rules. It's more fun that way."
  
  Daniel said the Moxy brand fits perfectly with Lower Broadway's culture.
  
  BROADWAY:How Nashville's honky-tonk barons created an empire
  
  Passersby will have access to the rooftop bar and lower-level restaurants. The family hasn't yet decided which restaurants or shops will be included.
  
  DOWNTOWN:Why Nashville's Lower Broadway isn't closed to traffic like Beale Street or Bourbon Street
  
  "I couldn’t be more excited about a property," Daniel said. "It's the right project for the brand."
  
  Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.