Opryland Repairs Will Cost Millions

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 4th 2010 at 12:01AM

With the devastation of the oil spill in the Gulf dominating the news in the past few weeks, the story of the floods that occurred in Nashville, Tennessee have gotten a little bit lost. But hotel operator Gaylord Entertainment has revealed the total cost of rebuilding the Gaylord Opryland Resort, the Grand Ole Opry and its other local properties damaged in the floods on May 2nd and 3rd..Colin Reed, chairman and chief executive officer of Gaylord Entertainment says that the total may run between $215 million and $225 million.

At Gaylord Opryland, the Cascades Lobby, Cascades Restaurant, sushi bar, and Cascades Terrace lobby bar will require complete renovation. The Garden Atrium, Volare's Restaurant and Jack Daniel's Restaurant will require renovation and will be redesigned to enhance the guest experience. Only 117 guest rooms were flooded and will require complete renovation but the ground floor exhibition space requires extensive cleaning. At the Grand Ole Opry the majority of the ground floor was damaged and items such as the stage, pews, the artists' dressing rooms and the retail store will need to be replaced.
The repairs are likely to take at least five months and so Gaylord has announced that it is releasing over 1,700 employees from their contracts as of June 12. The resort will be closed until the middle of November.

Tags: nashville, nashville flood, nashville flood relief, nashville floods, OprylandHotel, OprylandResort, tennessee