Convention center coalition reforming

Council critics and Gaylord concerns have cadre of business leaders regrouping to revive Music City Center effort.

By Richard Lawson

The Music City Center Coalition – formed more than three years ago while Bill Purcell was still mayor – has regrouped to continue the push for building a new center downtown.

Business and civic leaders came together with time and money to make the pitch when the coalition began. Purcell responded by pushing the project off to the next mayor. Where Purcell wouldn’t act, Karl Dean did and picked up the mantle to build a new convention center.

The coalition went dormant once the process began moving forward. But the group is apparently picking up where it left off to make sure the center doesn’t stall amidst shots from several Metro Council critics and perhaps renewed opposition from Gaylord Entertainment.

Ron Samuels, chairman and chief executive officer of Avenue Bank, Belmont University’s Bob Fisher, Sunset Grill owner Randy Rayburn, former AT&T President Marty Dickens along with others from the original group have started to meet again.

With Gaylord in particular, there’s continuing chatter the company is getting more active behind the scenes to stir up some opposition to the new convention center. Apparently, Gaylord has hired Saint Consulting Group to assist.

That would make for some interesting bedfellows. Early on, Saint Consulting did some work on the May Town Center proposal, drawing fire from opponents who view Saint’s work as close to sinister. Some of those May Town opponents also are critics of the convention center.

There’s also word that Colin Reed, Gaylord’s chief executive officer, has been wining and dining select business owners in the Music Valley Drive area, namely John Hobbs who has long been a power broker and promoter in that area. The pitch is that a new downtown center could hurt Gaylord’s business, which would affect Music Valley business as well.

Gaylord announced its own expansion plans two years ago as the downtown project started gaining momentum. Gaylord shelved the plans when the economy and debt markets soured.

If Gaylord indeed is mucking around, that would seem to break an agreement made two years ago with downtown proponents as both sought state legislation to use tax dollars in construction of their respective projects. Both sides put on united faces and the legislation was passed for both.

Observers say Gaylord may be ramping up opposition for another reason – Marriott. The city selected Marriott for the 1000-room convention center headquarters hotel. With that and Gaylord stalled on its own expansion, Marriott would have more rooms collectively in Nashville than Gaylord.

For his part, Mayor Dean may have made move to counter Gaylord by hiring Alexia Poe as the new director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Community Development. Poe served as Gaylord’s director of public affairs from August 2005 until this February. Sources say Poe knows how Reed thinks and perhaps has some dirt that could be used strategically.

Tags: Bill Purcell, Karl Dean, Marty Dickens, Metro Council, Music City Center Coalition, Randy Rayburn, Ron Samuels

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Business, Commercial Real Estate, Politics, The Archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.