Opryland Announces $400 Million Expansion
By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 2/26/2007
The Opryland Resort & Convention Center will expand to the tune of 400,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, 400 hotel suites — and $400 million.
The expansion of Gaylord Entertainment's Nashville facility will include two exhibit halls with 100,500 sq. ft. adjacent to the existing facility. It could open as soon as 2010, giving Opryland a total of 3,281 hotel rooms and more than 1 million sq. ft. of convention and meeting space.
To help fund the project, Gaylord will ask the city of Nashville and the state of Tennessee for $80 million in tax-exempt bonds, to be paid back with future tax revenues generated by Opryland.
Colin Reed, Gaylord president, chairman and CEO, said the expansion was necessary because of high demand and a lack of space. He said Opryland had to turn away business worth more than 2 million room nights in 2006.
The expansion announcement came as a contentious relationship between Gaylord and forces pushing for a new downtown Nashville municipal convention center eased. The Music City Center Coalition is heading an effort to build a new 1.2 million sq. ft. facility with 375,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space — three times that of the current Nashville Convention Center — and a luxury hotel.
The city has no plans to expand the existing Nashville Convention Center, said Charles Starks, its executive director. Research, he said, has indicated that the city needs a brand new facility to replace the NCC. Starks said that if and when the Music City project gets off the ground, the old building would eventually be demolished and its downtown site redeveloped.
Some proponents of the Music City Center project have not looked favorably on Opryland's plans to expand. However, according to Reed, Gaylord recently reached an understanding with the coalition. He said the Opryland expansion wasn't an attempt to negatively impact the proposed new convention center and that Gaylord has coordinated its efforts with coalition leaders to structure financing that allows their plans to proceed.
Plans for a new downtown convention center are moving forward, said Dave Chaney, account supervisor for coalition public relations agency McNeely, Pigott and Fox. He said the coalition felt that Gaylord's efforts were good for the city, but would remain focused on a new center.
Starks also said the coalition and Gaylord do not oppose each other's efforts. The coalition's effort to seek legislation approving the new center is separate from Gaylord's proposal, he added.
Chaney said the coalition and Gaylord had a very amicable working relationship. The two entities agreed that both the Opryland expansion and a new convention center would be good for Nashville, because they would appeal to different markets and bring new business to town, he said.
Gaylord also plans to develop a 105-acre lot across a parkway from the Opryland hotel, but has not yet decided what type of development to put there. Opryland's current three-year, $125-million hotel improvement project is scheduled to be completed this year. It includes the renovation of 2,297 rooms, the addition of a spa, indoor pool and exercise facility, and new entertainment and dining venues.
