Tucy wrote:Addison wrote:Tucy wrote:
Perhaps. But the other attractions in the downtown Nashville area are also on a whole 'nother level.
Those "other attractions" have been there since forever.
Conversely, the hotel boom in particular didn't happen until after Music City Center came to fruition in 2011.
The Music City Center didn't open until 2013, and as I said above, the Country Music Hall of Fame had a huge addition around the same time. And, as we have seen in Dallas, many downtowns experienced booms in downtown hotels in this same general time frame; even those who had not built convention centers. Also, again, Nashville built a new center that was several times the size of their prior center. Dallas is not proposing any such leap, mostly just more shininess. All in all, Nashville's explosion of downtown hotels (which continues 9 years after their new convention center opened) has a lot more to do with the city exploding in popularity generally, sort of like Austin.
I know Music City Center didn't open until 2013. But it was under construction in 2011.
You keep saying that downtown Dallas experienced a hotel boom as big as Nashville. I know Downtown Dallas is seeing a bit of a boom currently with the Four Seasons and JW Marriott coming online, but I'm still skeptical and will need to see evidence that its hotel boom since 2011 has been on par with downtown Nashville. From 2011 to 2019, 25 *NEW* hotels have opened in downtown Nashville.
As far as the new convention center, it's quite an understatement to say it'a merely addressing "shininess." Besides the fact that would cost a 1/2 billion dollars just to address deferred maintenance for the existing facility, it's still lacking in ballrooms, sufficient storage space, connectivity between buildings is poor, the cargo elevators are poorly located, the kitchen space is inadequate, there are no service corridors, the dock area is exposed, the fixtures/systems are dated and the number of meeting rooms are well below industry standards (nor do they meet the industry standard size/layout).
Those issues go well beyond just look pretty, and any serious organization seeking a city to host an event would be turned off by them.
As far as your Austin comparison, that's really Apples vs. Oranges. I think it's generally agreed upon that the massive influx of tech industy dollars is what's igniting the growth in downtown Austin, not tourism unlike in Nashville.