Joey Garrison

jgarrison@tennessean.com

Three and a half years after the opening of Music City Center, Nashville's $623 million convention center is poised for its first major upgrade and expansion.

Metro is moving ahead with plans to build a new food and beverage outlet on the side of the building near Demonbreun Street and Eighth Avenue; a new registration area and concourse space fronting the building's main exhibit hall; and a new concourse and reception area for the facility's Davidson Ballroom.

All told, the upgrades will cost $19.9 million, pumping more enhancements into a facility that is already the most expensive municipal-financed civic project in Tennessee history. They also will alter the look of the north side of Music City Center while extending the facility's outer wall closer to Demonbruen Street.

The Nashville Convention Center Authority's board of directors voted unanimously to approve funding for the project at its monthly meeting Thursday. Construction is to begin immediately and is expected to finish by the end of the year.

Dollars will come entirely from the authority's surplus revenue, which now stands at about $30 million after Thursday's vote.

This surplus includes revenue that the authority has collected after already paying off its annual debt obligations for the center's construction as well as incentives that go to the next-door Omni Hotel. The pool includes collections from Nashville's hotel/motel tax and funds generated by Music City Center itself.

Charles Starks, president and CEO of Music City Center, said the upgrades are a response to "customer feedback" with an eye toward improving Nashville's ability to compete for convention business. He said talks began months ago.

"As we continue to be competitive around the country and we look at what our competition is doing and what our customers are telling us what they need, we're going to always continue to look at that," Starks said. "It's not going to very often be a $20 million renovation/expansion/enhancement, but we're responding to what our customers are telling us."

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Music City Center, pushed by former Mayor Karl Dean, opened in May 2013 after the Metro Council voted 29-9 in early 2010 to approve its financing.

The new upgrades hadn't been previously announced by Mayor Megan Barry's administration, but had been discussed by the authority and were listed on the agenda of Thursday's meeting.

“This expansion will be a welcome addition to the Music City Center, as it will create jobs and make for an even better experience for visitors and residents in the downtown neighborhood,” said Barry, who voted for the center's financing during her stint on the council. "This news goes to further show that we made the right choice to invest in the Music City Center, which has helped to expand our national profile and make Nashville a destination city for conventions and tourists.”

The planned space for patrons to buy food and beverages is getting billed as a "retail market" that also would sell convenience store items. The 4,350-square-foot market is slated to be built on the building's northwest corner.

The goal is to bring more activity to the Eighth Avenue side of the building, which has attracted several hotel projects: the Westin Nashville, which recently opened, and a J.W. Marriott Nashville and Cambria Suites that are both under construction. The center's existing food and beverage options, a Dunkin Donuts and Al Taglio Pizzeria, are on the opposite side.

The convention center's culinary team will operate the new market, which will be on the third floor inside the building but ground level outside. Patrons will be able to access it from inside and outside.

"When the building was designed, we didn't focus as much effort with food and beverage activities on that side of the building because at the time there was nothing there," Starks said. "Now, we're getting more and more people coming out of that area."

Designs also call for 5,000 square feet of concourse space to be used as a registration area next to the market on the Demonbreun Street side of the building.

There also are plans for 2,000 square feet of additional space for the Davidson Ballroom, which is on the south side of the center that borders Korean Veterans Boulevard. New space is meant to accommodate "pre-function" activities such as registration and receptions.

Because of the purse power of the convention center authority, the project does not require approval from the council.

"I'm certainly glad they have a surplus and I'm glad that any more money apparently isn't coming from the Metro taxpayer," the council's Budget and Finance chairman, John Cooper, said.

Former Councilwoman Emily Evans, an outspoken critic of the center who voted against its financing while on the council, said she believes the surplus funds should be used to pay for other things to support the "expensive undertaking that is being a tourist destination downtown."

"But they have a right to do what they're doing," she added.

Though the final price tag of Music City Center was $623 million, Starks noted that the Dean administration had project engineers reduce the overall cost by $50 million before the council's 2010 approval of the project.

He said that decision eliminated some of the items that the authority is now undertaking.

"These big concourse expansions — we wouldn't be talking about them (if not for the $50 million cut)," Starks said.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.