By bobbyfoster - October 1st, 2012, 2:27 pm
- October 1st, 2012, 2:27 pm
#50208
Dolly Parton pulled out of a plan to build a $50 million snow and water park in Nashville, citing concerns about Gaylord Entertainment’s move this week to sell management rights for its Opryland Resort & Convention Center to Marriott International.
“Gaylord makes decisions that they feel are good for their company and their stockholders, and I have to make decisions based on what is best for me and the Dollywood Company,” Parton said Friday in a prepared statement. “I think everyone knows I love Nashville, and I hope the work we’ve already done will spark more family entertainment in Nashville.”
Parton’s announcement came three days after Gaylord shareholders voted to allow the Nashville hospitality and entertainment company to convert to a real estate investment trust. That plan calls for selling the Gaylord hotel brand name and management rights to Gaylord’s four resort hotels, including the Opryland resort, to Marriott for $210 million.
The snow and water park was a 50/50 joint venture between the Pigeon Forge, Tenn.-based Dollywood Co. and Gaylord. Gaylord Chief Executive Officer Colin Reed said Friday that his company intends to find another partner to carry out the plan.
Gaylord’s conversion changed Dollywood’s agreement with the company to build the water park attraction, said Pete Owens, a spokesman for Dollywood Co. Owens said Dollywood officials negotiated the deal with Gaylord officials and had expected that the company would oversee the future operation.
“We looked at the change in the day-to-day operations of the property and that, in Dolly’s view, fundamentally changed the program we were planning,” Owens said.
Next week, Gaylord will become Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc., and the company’s focus will shift away from running large convention hotels on a day-to-day basis to acquiring smaller hotel properties with no more than 700 rooms. The move is designed, in part, to improve the company’s share price.
“We are deeply disappointed in today’s news that Dollywood will no longer partner with us to build a family attraction,” Reed said in a prepared statement. “We have enormous admiration for Dolly Parton and her company, and respect their decision.”
Tom Marder, a spokesman for Marriott, said the company had no comment.
Hints of move Parton had hinted at trouble in August while at a news conference celebrating her latest gold album. She said the project was “kind of in a holding pattern right now,” WKRN-Channel 2 reported at the time.
“Gaylord is actually involved at the moment with some changes of their own,” she said. “So we are just kind of waiting until they get their things straightened out before we go forward with that.”
Gaylord was quick to dispel any notion that the development plan was not moving forward, saying then that it remained “100 percent” committed to the plan.
Dollywood executives started discussions with Gaylord after the announcement, Owens said, but did not move to end the relationship with the hospitality chain until the stockholder vote confirmed the restructuring.
Owens said the company intends now to place its focus on Dollywood properties in East Tennessee, as well as on upcoming expansion plans for Dollywood’s existing sites.
The Nashville water and snow park had been set to break ground early next year and open by the summer of 2014 across Briley Parkway from Opryland Hotel. The park was supposed to be the first phase in the development of and serve as an anchor for a “family entertainment complex.”
The attraction would have been the country’s first hybrid water and snow park, Gaylord and Dollywood executives said in announcing the plan in January.
The development had been touted as a boon for the Nashville area. Reed said in February that the project would generate 2,000 construction jobs. In April, the Metro Council approved a 60 percent tax abatement, valued at $5.8 million, for the project.
“I am disappointed with this news, but I am happy to hear that Gaylord still plans to pursue the possibility of a water park,” Mayor Karl Dean said. “I think the world of Dolly Parton, who has been wonderful to both Nashville and the entire state of Tennessee.”
_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120 ... water-park
“Gaylord makes decisions that they feel are good for their company and their stockholders, and I have to make decisions based on what is best for me and the Dollywood Company,” Parton said Friday in a prepared statement. “I think everyone knows I love Nashville, and I hope the work we’ve already done will spark more family entertainment in Nashville.”
Parton’s announcement came three days after Gaylord shareholders voted to allow the Nashville hospitality and entertainment company to convert to a real estate investment trust. That plan calls for selling the Gaylord hotel brand name and management rights to Gaylord’s four resort hotels, including the Opryland resort, to Marriott for $210 million.
The snow and water park was a 50/50 joint venture between the Pigeon Forge, Tenn.-based Dollywood Co. and Gaylord. Gaylord Chief Executive Officer Colin Reed said Friday that his company intends to find another partner to carry out the plan.
Gaylord’s conversion changed Dollywood’s agreement with the company to build the water park attraction, said Pete Owens, a spokesman for Dollywood Co. Owens said Dollywood officials negotiated the deal with Gaylord officials and had expected that the company would oversee the future operation.
“We looked at the change in the day-to-day operations of the property and that, in Dolly’s view, fundamentally changed the program we were planning,” Owens said.
Next week, Gaylord will become Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc., and the company’s focus will shift away from running large convention hotels on a day-to-day basis to acquiring smaller hotel properties with no more than 700 rooms. The move is designed, in part, to improve the company’s share price.
“We are deeply disappointed in today’s news that Dollywood will no longer partner with us to build a family attraction,” Reed said in a prepared statement. “We have enormous admiration for Dolly Parton and her company, and respect their decision.”
Tom Marder, a spokesman for Marriott, said the company had no comment.
Hints of move Parton had hinted at trouble in August while at a news conference celebrating her latest gold album. She said the project was “kind of in a holding pattern right now,” WKRN-Channel 2 reported at the time.
“Gaylord is actually involved at the moment with some changes of their own,” she said. “So we are just kind of waiting until they get their things straightened out before we go forward with that.”
Gaylord was quick to dispel any notion that the development plan was not moving forward, saying then that it remained “100 percent” committed to the plan.
Dollywood executives started discussions with Gaylord after the announcement, Owens said, but did not move to end the relationship with the hospitality chain until the stockholder vote confirmed the restructuring.
Owens said the company intends now to place its focus on Dollywood properties in East Tennessee, as well as on upcoming expansion plans for Dollywood’s existing sites.
The Nashville water and snow park had been set to break ground early next year and open by the summer of 2014 across Briley Parkway from Opryland Hotel. The park was supposed to be the first phase in the development of and serve as an anchor for a “family entertainment complex.”
The attraction would have been the country’s first hybrid water and snow park, Gaylord and Dollywood executives said in announcing the plan in January.
The development had been touted as a boon for the Nashville area. Reed said in February that the project would generate 2,000 construction jobs. In April, the Metro Council approved a 60 percent tax abatement, valued at $5.8 million, for the project.
“I am disappointed with this news, but I am happy to hear that Gaylord still plans to pursue the possibility of a water park,” Mayor Karl Dean said. “I think the world of Dolly Parton, who has been wonderful to both Nashville and the entire state of Tennessee.”
_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120 ... water-park
Welllll....