Hoteliers Line Up for Nashville Convention Center Project

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. October 14, 2008

NASHVILLE, TN, February 27, 2006. There appears to be no shortage of hoteliers who would like to develop hotels adjacent to the new Music City Center,the recently proposed $455-million replacement convention facility that may be home to more than one anchor hotel, the Nashville Business Journal reports.

Regional and national companies have lined up to express their interest in building an anchor hotel at the complex, which if built along its present plans would take up 15 acres south of the Gaylord Entertainment Center and open in 2010.

Boosters of the Music City Center plan say the facility would necessitate the building of between 800 and 1,000 hotel rooms in the Central Business District/SoBro area. Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that may mean there would have to be two new hotels near the site, according to the report.

Among the operators who have said they're game is the Peabody Hotel Group out of Memphis, which in late 2003 said it was interested in building a $90- million, 400-room hotel on the formal Thermal Plant site, which is now slated to be the new home for the Nashville Sounds.

Also interested is Highland Hospitality Corp., the Virginia-based REIT that recently signed a $77-million deal to buy the 673-room Renaissance Nashville hotel, which connects to the current convention center north of Broadway.

Additionally, industry giant Marriott International Inc., which runs dozens of convention-oriented hotels around the country, is reportedly interested as is Turnberry Associates, the Florida-based majority owner of the 330-room Hilton Nashville Downtown and the 125-room Union Station hotel, whose Nashville minority owners include Mark Bloom, Ronnie Scott and Larry Papel.

"There has been a strong interest indicated from hoteliers, without knowing what or when," said Spyridon in the report.

Spyridon said it's likely the hoteliers will require some tax increment financing to construct an anchor hotel, but there won't be a need for much public funding.