The Nashville Convention Center Authority announced today that the Metro Codes Department has issued a certificate of occupancy for the Music City Center — one week before the construction completion deadline of the soon-to-open 2.1-million-square-foot convention facility.

The certificate of occupancy, which certifies compliance with all local and state codes and regulations, was issued following 250 final inspections and approvals by the State of Tennessee and Metro Nashville agencies and departments.

“I applaud the project management team and its crew for finishing construction of the Music City Center ahead of their deadline,” Mayor Karl Dean said in a release. “It is no small feat to finish construction on time, but to do so for a project of this scale is truly remarkable. I look forward to our grand opening festivities on May 19-20 when members of the public can see for themselves the size and beauty of this magnificent building.”

The contracts for architects TVS Design and construction management firm Bell/Clark, a joint venture, specified construction of the SoBro-based center be finished by April 30. With the certificate of occupancy now in place, the project and development, construction, and design leaders can progress with the contractual documentation of substantial completion.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Convention Center Authority must release the addresses of contractors who have worked on the $600 million Music City Center. An official with the International Union of Operating Engineers had taken the Metro entity to court in late 2011 in an attempt to find out just how much of the work on the city's new convention complex has been done by local workers.

In their opinion, Judge David Farmer noted among other things that, "Taken to its logical extension, the CCA’s contention that the employees in this case are 'public employees' would render any employee working on a construction project for which a public entity is ultimately responsible, or which is supported by public funds, a public employee entitled to the benefits and subject to the restrictions thereof." View the full opinion here.

With a goal of booking one million rooms prior to its official opening later this year, the Music City Center has sold 829,574 “room nights,” according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“Surpassing 800,000 room nights is a great milestone and further validates Nashville as a destination and the Music City Center as a catalyst for economic development,” Mayor Karl Dean said in a release. “As the second largest industry in the city, the hospitality sector is a significant economic engine in our city, and that role will only grow when the Music City Center opens.”

According to the NCVB, the 829,574 room nights for the soon-to-be-finished convention center represent 101 individual meetings. The average size of a group being booked for the Music City Center is 6,800, almost three times what the Nashville Convention Center is now hosting.

“I continue to be impressed – but not surprised – by the market’s response to Nashville. The city is an incredible meetings destination and has one of the most unique convention campuses in the country,” said Butch Spyridon, NCVB president. “I am confident we will reach our million room night goal. Then it’s on to fulfilling our ongoing goal of booking a million room nights for the entire city annually.”

The meetings booked for the Music City Center range from its opening year of 2013 to 2026 and include multi-year agreements for many groups. The most recent groups to commit include the National Emergency Number Association booked for 2014 and the International Reading Association, booked for 2015.

The National Association of Music Merchants will offer 74 first-time exhibitors to its annual Summer NAMM musical instrument and products trade show, to run July 12-14 at the Nashville Convention Center.

The new-to-Summer NAMM companies, many of which represent multiple brands, will comprise 20 percent of the total number of exhibitors. 

Twenty of the 74 exhibitors represent strings — including acoustic and electric guitars, basses and violins — and the accessories that go with them. This follows an uptick in 2011, when single year sales of fretted instruments and related products advanced 8.2 percent to $1.54 billion in retail.

NAMM officials say 149 companies are new or returning to Summer NAMM after a brief absence. In all, more than 10,000 music industry professionals from some 20 countries plan to attend the convention.

David Osborn, general manager of the proposed Nashville Medical Trade Center, tells News 2's John Dwyer he has signed or is close to signing leases that would account for 40 percent of the space at his ambitious project. Work on the NMTC, he says, will start once commitments reach 60 percent. The rehab of the Nashville Convention Center now is scheduled to open in early 2014, a year later than originally planned.

Just a couple months after hitting the halfway mark on its room-night goal, the Convention and Visitors Bureau announces another major bunch of bookings.

“The enthusiasm for Nashville is at an all-time high in the marketplace,” said Butch Spyridon, president of the CVB. “Having reached this point, and contracted 100,000 room nights in two months, speaks to the continued high demand for Nashville.”

The number of total room night booked for the Music City Center is 601,180 representing 65 individual meetings, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. The NCVB established the self-imposed one million room night goal for itself at a time when the project included an adjacent headquarter hotel with 1,000 rooms that would open simultaneously with the new center. Since establishing the goal, the headquarter hotel project has been designed with 800 rooms and is planned to open nine months after the center.

Further details can be found here.

Bass Pro Shops will this August bring to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center a three-day outdoor activities expo that will also include seminars on smart land management, bringing together Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Quality Deer Management Association, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Safari Club International Foundation. The real fun, though, will be had in the parking lot.

Outside, 105 acres of private land adjacent to Opryland will become an outdoor playground with ATV and UTV test tracks, tractor pulls, food plot and crop demonstrations, classic truck and tractor exhibits and a Kid’s Village featuring activities for all ages including a zip line and treestand safety demo, a shooting trailer presented by NWTF JAKES Take Aim and an archery range presented by the National Archery in the Schools Program.