Metro’s Convention Center Authority on Thursday approved giving the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau a $300,000 loan to cover funds the agency spent to keep conventioneers in Nashville following May’s historic flood.
Flooding at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center forced the CVB to relocate two groups — the national Moose fraternity and Future Business Leaders of America — to other venues in the city, which required the bureau to dip into its own funds.
The CVB loan is to come from the authority’s reserves. Under the memorandum of understanding approved by the authority, the CVB is to pay back the $300,000 over the next three years.
“It’s not a gift,” Metro Finance Director Richard Riebeling told authority members. “It’s simply an advancement of funds.”
Some Metro Council members have questioned the legal grounds of granting the loan.
Riebeling said on Wednesday he met with Metro Department of Law Director Sue Cain, who helped make some changes in the language within the agreement.