Committee approves amended lease with Powers Management, adds protections for legacy users
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Summary
The Arts, Parks, Libraries & Entertainment Committee on Dec. 16 approved BL2025-1118, an amended license and lease with Powers Management LLC for space at 222 25th Avenue North, adding a contractual exhibit to protect legacy users, a rate freeze through July 2027 and a 3% cap on year-over-year increases.
The Arts, Parks, Libraries & Entertainment Committee approved an amended ordinance (BL2025-1118) on Dec. 16 authorizing a license and lease agreement between the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and Powers Management LLC for space at 222 25th Avenue North. The bill, as amended, passed 5-0.
The amendment, moved by Council Member Taylor, requires the contract to include an exhibit that codifies continued access and public-use provisions for legacy organizations that have used the space. Taylor said the amendment "protect[s] the legacy owners as legacy users of the space" and would "allow the same rate they have as today until July 2027," after which increases would be limited to no more than 3% year over year.
During public comment, Steve Ritter urged the committee to defer the item, arguing the ordinance's language — which he read aloud as referring to "use of space" — obscured that operations and maintenance are part of the arrangement and called the current draft "legally deficient." Ritter said letters of commitment that the operator had offered to legacy groups were not sufficient contractual protections and asked the council to ensure those protections appear in the contract rather than in nonbinding letters.
A Metro Legal representative responded to Ritter's concern, saying the document includes "a lease agreement as a part of this" and that "part of the payment of the lease is the operations and management," indicating legal staff views the arrangement as including both lease and operations elements.
Council Member Benedict, who spoke although not a member of this committee, praised the Predators' role in the proposal and said he will seek to add contract language requiring the Parks Board to review annual price changes to ensure transparency and preserve public access. Benedict said he expects to seek a rules suspension at a future meeting to add that language.
The committee first voted to adopt the amendment (5-0) and then voted to pass the bill as amended (5-0). The amendment binds the successor tenant or operations manager to the exhibit language and sets the pricing protections described above. Committee members said the exhibit and contract language will be used to hold the operator to commitments on community access and programming.
The ordinance now moves forward with the approved amendment; council members indicated they expect related contract language and any additional pricing-review language to be finalized ahead of third reading or later committee action.
