Convention Authority Could Transfer to New Board

Tuesday night the Metro Council will vote on transferring oversight of a proposed convention center to a new board.

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency has supervised the construction of LP Field, Sommet Center and other large city-funded construction projects. But the largest building project ever tackled by the city could move to a 9-member board of citizens named by the mayor.

Metro finance director Rich Riebeling says a recent lack of scrutiny on a PR contract by the MDHA board accelerated the transfer of oversight to a new body.

“We’ve sort of let the project down a little bit and now we’ve got to regroup the public support for it. And there will be a role for MDHA, but really I think the idea of being a nine-person citizens group, that really reflects the community, to oversee the project going forward is probably the best thing at this time.”

The Metro Council will vote tonight, but Metro Finance has already asked for MDHA to return $1.8 million that was to pay this month’s expenses related to the project.

The new convention center authority would have the ability to borrow money for construction, which is estimated to go well above $600 million.

For full disclosure, Rich Riebeling is a member of the WPLN board of directors.