Past MDHA Wheelings and Dealings May Cost Nashville during Convention Center Land Acquisition

CM Mike Jameson tells the City Paper that in order to acquire some Downtown parcels for the Mayor's convention center, Metro will be buying back land it once held, and at much higher prices:

District 6 Councilman Mike Jameson said there are other previously owned MDHA properties in the footprint and asked MDHA Director Phil Ryan to provide a list last month. Jameson estimated that the agency would have to spend significantly more than $14.7 in order to re-acquire the land.

He also worried that the property values would plummet if Council ultimately didn’t approve the financing for the new convention center and was forced to find another use for the land.

“We could own land that is depreciating in value because we aren’t using it for what we originally thought,” Jameson said.

It would be interesting to follow the profits off MDHA's original sale of the land to see where they went. If the money went into their interest-bearing reserve fund, then essentially they are still enjoying returns on money garnished from their own old property, which they'll now reacquire by spending someone else's funds. That has to be a sweet line of work to be in. MDHA executive Phil Ryan is a veritable catbird.