$189M Flood Repair Price Tag for Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort and Grand Ole Opry

June 3, 2010
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

The devastating floods that hit Tennessee in early May wreaked havoc across the state, severely damaging scores of properties including Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center and the iconic Grand Ole Opry. Gaylord Entertainment Co., owner of the two properties, is busy repairing the damage and just revealed that restoration costs will be as much as $189 million.

Gaylord Opryland, developed in 1977, features 2,881 guestrooms and suites, and 600,000 square feet of meeting space. The convention hotel accounts for 10 percent of Nashville’s entire pool of hotel rooms and generates approximately 25 percent of the city’s total hotel tax revenue. Gaylord estimates that it will have to spend between $165 million and $172 million on a variety of repairs, including the replacement of the property’s mechanical and information technology infrastructure.

At the renowned Grand Ole Opry, home to the famous weekly showcase of new and established country music performers for the last 80 years, the floodwaters ravaged the ground level. Gaylord will dole out between $16 million and $17 million for the redevelopment of the stage, the artists’ dressing rooms, the retail store, and other remediation and restoration efforts.

Gaylord, while it will eventually benefit from some offsets, is footing the bill for the restoration of Gaylord Opryland, the Grand Ole Opry and Gaylord’s other flood-damaged Nashville properties, including the Wildhorse Saloon, and the company’s administrative and warehouse buildings. The aggregate cost for all restoration activity at the company’s facilities will be $215 million to $225 million. Gaylord will rely on cash-on-hand–it had $189.7 million in its pocket as of the end of May–to partially finance the restoration projects. Additional funds will come from borrowings and cash flow generated by the company’s three other hotel destinations. Gaylord can also access approximately $291.1 million under its credit facility.

If all goes as planned, Gaylord will reopen Gaylord Opryland on November 15 and the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House on October 1 of this year.