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Articles
"New
Convention Center Project Seeking to Fight
Industry Trends", (c) Nate Rau, Nashville City
Paper, 22 September, 2008
Across the country, cities have seen new
convention center projects and their attached
publicly financed hotels come in over-budget.
At the same time, the country’s dark economic
climate has taken a bite out of business travel.
Despite this, the predevelopment phase of
Nashville’s new Convention Center project races
ahead, while overseers issue assurances Music City
Center will avoid the landmines found in places
like Philadelphia, Charlotte, Dallas, Baltimore
and Portland.
In those cities, the price tag for building a new
convention center or the attached hotel, which has
become a virtual prerequisite for such projects,
has risen over time or the business of booking
conventions has lagged behind projects.
On the issue of cost, Metro Development and
Housing Agency Director Phil Ryan said the process
laid out for designing and building Music City
Center will help the project stay with its
yet-to-be-determined budget. The most recent
estimate for the project was $635 million.
As a point of reference, Philadelphia is building
a new convention center, which initially came with
a $700 million price tag. In August, Pennsylvania
Governor Ed Rendell issued doubts about whether
the project was still worth it after the estimated
cost soared to nearly $790 million.
The design team for the project is Atlanta-based
Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, the
same company in charge of Music City Center. The
$90 million increase came before ground was even
broken on the convention center.
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