Dolly Parton Turned Whitney Houston Royalties Into a Nashville Office Complex

In the 1990s, Dolly Parton earned $10 million in royalties from Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You.” The sum gave the song’s original writer a rare chance to turn royalty earnings into a tangible property investment.

Parton invested the money in an office complex in a majority-Black neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee. The decision tied the song’s success to a specific place in the city, rather than leaving it as a purely financial windfall.

“the house that Whitney built.”

Parton later used that phrase to describe the project, capturing how a cover version became more than a recording: it helped fund a piece of Nashville’s urban landscape.