Council approves $14 million water park incentive package for Opryland Resort
Ryman Hospitality will get an estimated $13.8 million in city incentives as part of the company’s plans for a new private water park at its Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center after Nashville Metro Council action Tuesday.
The council voted 30-6 to approve a plan to keep Opryland’s property tax payments flat through 2025 after this year’s reappraisal. As a result, Metro won’t take in about $1.63 million in expected annual property taxes the city would typically collect from the water park.
The deal also extends $1 million in annual hotel-tax rebates that Ryman began receiving from Metro after the city’s devastating 2010 flood by six years to 2031. In addition, Ryman will donate two parcels, providing Nashville’s parks department new land for public boat access to the Cumberland River.
The total value of the incentives is subject to fluctuate after future reappraisals.
In January, Ryman announced plans for a $90 million 217,000-square-foot water park called SoundWaves. The water park will be open to hotel patrons only, a caveat some council members struggled with, but not enough to derail the proposal.
Councilman Jeff Syracuse, whose district includes the Opryland area, said Ryman has been a major part of Nashville’s economic growth for decades and that the water park would be a “grand addition to the Nashville experience.”
“Metro has always been a partner in supporting Ryman as a key employer and tax generator with a brand that is uniquely Nashville but known worldwide,” he said. “I do believe this deal is measured, it’s limited and it falls within the tradition of Nashville supporting Ryman and the resort.”
Councilman Scott Davis spoke for the project as well, calling it an important economic development driver and saying incentives like these should be duplicated in other parts of Davidson County.
Council members who voted against the incentives were John Cooper, Jim Shulman, Kathleen Murphy, Colby Sledge, Sharon Hurt and Mike Freeman.
Cooper said the city’s lost property tax revenue from the Ryman incentives would come at the expense of neighborhood projects down the road.
“Every time that we need something in the future for our districts — a reading instructor for children, a policeman, a body camera or a stormwater drain — you will know where to find it,” Cooper said. “You will find it in an Opryland swimming pool.”
A spokesman for Ryman said the company is grateful for the mayor and council’s support and that the project “will greatly enhance the Nashville tourism landscape.”
SoundWaves, in the works for a couple of years, is to include year-round indoor attractions as well as seasonal outdoor features. Elements include a lazy river, a wave pool, an adult bar area, multiple slide towers, live music, private cabana rentals and theater-sized television screens. The project is targeted for what is now self-parking on the side of the hotel where visitors would arrive from McGavock Pike. Hotel guests will be able to access SoundWaves from inside the hotel.
Colin Reed, CEO of Ryman, has said the purpose of Ryman’s SoundWaves is to create something that doesn’t exist today to appeal to tourists wanting to spend more time in Nashville while also attracting a new type of convention business that caters to families. He said visitors who used to spend 24 hours in Nashville are wanting to spend four or five days, and they want more options.
“This really, truly will be the first luxury water park of its kind in the United States of America,” Reed told the council last month. “This is a water park on steroids.”
Reed has also committed to providing the necessary easements and working with architects to jump-start a long-discussed, Opryland Greenway connector, which would connect the Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge and the Opryland footprint. Several council members have sought to use the discussion on the incentives to advocate for the greenway.
As part of the agreement with the city, Ryman is to achieve substantial completion of the water park by the end of September 2019.
An economic impact study conducted by University of Tennessee economist Bill Fox and commissioned by Ryman found that Gaylord has an annual economic impact of $866.5 million and that the new water park would increase that sum by $185 million annually. State and local taxes generated by the water park will bring in $4.6 million annually, according to the same study.