Flood, Opryland Hotel closure contribute to Gaylord loss in second quarter

Gaylord Entertainment Co. reported a second-quarter loss on Tuesday after the temporary closure of the Opryland Hotel after the May floods, but it said convention bookings at the Nashville resort are up substantially for 2011.
For the second quarter ending June 30, Gaylord posted a $22.7 million loss, compared with a $10 million profit for the same period a year ago. Gaylord CEO and Chairman Colin Reed also weighed in on the discussions about a downtown convention center hotel and downplayed its impact on Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

The company reported a net loss of 48 cents per share, much higher than analyst estimates of just 25 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

On the upside, the Nashville-based company raised its full-year revenue per available room outlook for its other three resorts to grow 3 percent to 4.5 percent from earlier forecasts of 2 percent to 4 percent.

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"This is a sign that customers are beginning to spend again, and we're continuing to see the hospitality industry improve," Reed told analysts Tuesday morning.

Excluding Opryland, but including the Gaylord-owned Radisson hotel in Music Valley, revenue per available room increased 5.1 percent compared with a year ago.

The Opryland Hotel is slated to reopen Nov. 15, while the iconic Grand Ole Opry House will open on Oct. 1. Both buildings were heavily damaged during the floods, but construction work is on track, the company said.

"What looked like a disaster area now looks like a nearly completed resort," Reed said.

During the second quarter, 45,000 room nights were booked in advance at Opryland for 2011, he said.

Omni isn't a concern

Reed said he's not worried about Omni Hotel possibly running a new 700 to 1,000-room hotel to complement the city's proposed convention center.

Omni owner Robert Rowling also happens to be the single-biggest investor in Gaylord Entertainment Co.

"We don't look at the downtown convention center as a major competitive threat to our business," Reed told analysts. Opryland has nearly 2,900 guest rooms on a 172-acre resort that includes 9 acres of garden-filled atriums.

The types of conventions that tend to go into downtown convention spaces are groups like industry associations at lower rates, rather than the corporation conventions Gaylord goes after, Reed said.

At some point, Reed said, the Gaylord board will need to hear from Rowling and his TRT Holdings, which is Omni's holding company, about how they plan to compete in Nashville.

"We will need to talk about … whether there is a conflict of interest or not," Reed said.

Often, associations prefer downtown so they can offer their members a range of room rates at various hotels and a range of prices at eateries, said Butch Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Corporations and high-end professional associations prefer being under one roof, like at Opryland, so everyone is booked at the "headquarter" hotel, Spyridon said.

Contact Bonna Johnson at 615-726-5990 or bjohnson@tennessean.com.

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Pulaski carport taps into solar power for TVA, autos

A shaded parking area will turn into a mini-power plant today at a Pulaski manufacturing plant, in a move that solar advocates say represents the future of parking lots.
The carport-like facility, which has a roof made of solar panels, is a charging station for electric vehicles and will generate electricity for the grid.

It's touted for allowing property owners to take advantage of wasted space that potentially can generate power and revenue.

"You can park 12 cars under it," said Wilson Stevenson, president of Outpost Solar LLC, which built the facility.

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This project at Richland LLC manufacturing, 75 miles south of Nashville, is a small version of others the firm plans to build for businesses in Pulaski and Knoxville. Those will have spots underneath for 30 cars, Stevenson said.

A public ceremony with local, state and TVA officials is planned for 9:30 a.m. today at the site at 1905 Mines Road.

The 20 KW solar cell system could provide enough energy to power four homes, officials say. The components are American-made in the project that involves the state of Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pulaski Electric System and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The power generating charging station will be pumping out electricity, which TVA will buy, but won't, for the time being, service actual cars. Road-worthy electric vehicles, including the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, aren't out but are expected soon.

Network is needed

A network of charging stations at the ready like this first one in Pulaski are important to the cars' success, Stevenson said. Such facilities also could help reduce TVA's costly peak demand power by providing electricity to offset an electric car's need during summer days when use is high for air conditioners.

The highest demand times cause TVA to have to turn to more costly sources of electricity, which ultimately costs all ratepayers.

Jim Greene, Richland president, said this is an example of how "American small business and manufacturing are growing in the new 'green economy.' "

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Blackberry takes fight to iPhone

SAN JOSE, Calif. — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion — aiming to stay ahead of manufacturers of rival devices such as Apple's iPhone — on Tuesday unveiled its new BlackBerry 6.0 software and Torch smart phone.
The software includes features such as a new touch screen and track-pad interface. RIM described the operating system as easy to use for BlackBerry loyalists, who often depend on the keyboard for quick e-mails.

"BlackBerry 6 is the outcome of RIM's ongoing passion to deliver a powerful, simplified and optimized user experience for both touch-screen and keyboard fans," co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a statement Tuesday morning.

The Waterloo, Ontario, company and wireless carrier AT&T on Tuesday also announced the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smart phone, the first device to run the new operating system.

AT&T and RIM are marketing the Torch 9800 to workers who want to stay in touch with the office and their friends on social-networking sites. In what AT&T mobility and consumer CEO Ralph de la Vega described as "a true generational shift in hardware and operating system," the Torch includes both a full 3.2-inch touch-screen display and a slide-out keyboard.

Rivals gain ground

A Nielsen report Monday showed the BlackBerry remains the most popular smart-phone platform — but Google's Android operating system is rapidly gaining subscribers and Apple's iPhone is the "most desired" choice for customers' next smart phone purchase.

In a note to clients Monday, Gleacher & Co. analyst Mark McKechnie said he expects the new phone will be "a 'hit' with die-hard AT&T Blackberry users."

AT&T will offer the Torch 9800 starting Aug. 12 for $199.99 to eligible customers who agree to a new two-year contract. In addition to monthly fees for voice service, the carrier will charge $15 a month for a plan with 200 megabytes of wireless data or $25 for 2GB.

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Tax law fix tied up in Congress

WASHINGTON — Tucked into the new health-care law is a requirement that could become a paperwork nightmare for nearly 40 million businesses.
They must file tax forms for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods.

The goal is to prevent vendors from underreporting their income to the Internal Revenue Service. The government must think vendors are omitting a lot because the filing requirement is estimated to bring in $19 billion over the next decade.

Business groups say it will swamp their members in paperwork, and Congress is listening. Democrats and Republicans want to repeal it, but getting them to work together on the issue is proving difficult in an election year.

The House rejected a bill Friday that would have repealed the provision. The two parties disagreed on how to make up the lost revenue.

"This foolish policy hammers our business community when we should be supporting their job growth," Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska said in the Republicans' weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. "It's only one example of how the administration's promise to support small businesses really rings hollow."

Democrats blamed Republicans for Friday's failure.

"Despite all of their rhetoric about the need to eliminate this reporting requirement, Republicans walked away from small businesses when it mattered most," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Businesses already must file Form 1099s with the IRS when they purchase more than $600 in services from a vendor in a year. The new provision would extend the requirement to the purchase of goods, starting in 2012.

Goods included

The requirement would hit about 38 million businesses, charities and tax-exempt organizations, many of them small businesses already swamped by government paperwork, ac-cording to a recent report by the National Taxpayer Advocate. It would also create an avalanche of paperwork that could strain the IRS itself, wrote the advocate, an independent watchdog within the IRS.

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People are still losing homes to foreclosure

WASHINGTON — More than three years into the housing crisis that helped trigger a worldwide recession, the torrid pace of home foreclosures continues to tear at the core of the American dream.
New figures last week from RealtyTrac showed that foreclosure activity declined over the first six months of the year in nine of the 10 large metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates.

However, most of the 206 metropolitan areas with 200,000-plus residents didn't fare as well. In fact, three out of four posted year-to-year increases in their foreclosure rates. Seventeen of the 20 hardest-hit areas were in Florida and California.

In the first half of 2010, more than 1.6 million U.S. properties were hit with foreclosure filings, which include bank repossessions, default notices and auction sale notices. That's up 8 percent from the first six months of 2009 and puts the U.S. on pace to top 3 million filings this year, including more than 1 million bank repossessions. While subprime borrowers and bad loans led the surge in foreclosures in 2008 and 2009, this year's wave comes from homeowners who've lost their jobs.

The numbers reflect the widespread and continued fragility of local housing markets amid a largely jobless recovery. They also raise questions about the effectiveness of programs designed to fight foreclosures, such as the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program.

"If unemployment remains persistently high and foreclosure prevention efforts only delay the inevitable, then we could continue to see increased foreclosure activity and a corresponding weakness in home prices in many metro areas," said James Saccacio, the chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville metro area is evidence. Between June 2009 and June 2010, the area led the nation with 76,000 job cuts, according to government data. Not coincidentally, foreclosure activity in the Chicago area for the first half of 2010 was up 23 percent over last year; the area's 78,000 properties that received foreclosure filings ranked third highest in the nation.

Banks lack incentive

From the Bush administration's HOPE for Homeowners program to the TARP-funded HAMP program, community groups, consumer advocates and homeowners say anti-foreclosure programs have been largely ineffective because banks don't have a strong incentive or mandate to modify loans that favor them financially.

Government officials envisioned the Home Affordable Modification Program helping 3 million to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure by 2012. Borrowers who receive permanent modifications of their home loans under HAMP save a median of
36 percent — about $510 a month — off their original mortgage payments.

However, of more than 3.1 million eligible delinquent loans, only 389,000 have been modified permanently, according to the most recent government figures. An additional 364,000 loans are in trial, or temporary, modification plans that could become permanent, but critics say that seldom occurs. More than 520,000 of these plans ended up being canceled.

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Electric plane idea keeps show abuzz

OSHKOSH, Wis. — An electric airliner?
Imagine a hyper-efficient aircraft as large as a Boeing 737, although weighing much less. It would run quieter and cleaner than any other commercial plane ever made, requiring two-thirds less energy, according to NASA-funded re-search.

The hybrid-powered jetliner of the future would operate on batteries or jet fuel, depending on whether it's cruising or taking off and climbing, when the most thrust is required.

The concept of electric aircraft generated a re-sounding buzz amid the drone of pistons and the roar of gas turbine jet engines at the Experimental Aircraft Association's an-nual AirVenture air show, which wrapped up Sunday at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

Boeing at work

Boeing is working on a concept plane called the SUGAR Volt that would use turbine engines and electric motors connected to the fans to more efficiently propel the electric airliner.

On flights of up to 900 miles, the SUGAR Volt would cruise almost exclusively on battery power, said Marty Bradley, a technical fellow at Boeing's Research and Technology division in Huntington Beach, Calif.

An electric propulsion system would help slash the amount of fuel burned as well as noise around airports by about 70 percent compared with today's airliner fleet, say aerospace researchers who believe they can have such a flying machine up and running by about 2035.

That's a critical environmental issue. The number of commercial flights will double or triple over the next 50 years, according to some estimates.

Prize is offered

On a smaller scale, a competition is under way to develop by next year a personal commuter aircraft that operates on electricity or fuel cells and can average at least 100 mph on a 200-mile flight while achieving greater than 200 passenger mpg.

The Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by NASA and the CAFE Foundation, offers a $1.5 million first prize for the aircraft with the best performance.

Some of the competing teams presented their de-signs at the Oshkosh air show.

"The concept is winnable. The engineering still needs to get done," said Jack Langelaan, an assistant professor at Penn State.

Weight a problem

Small planes or jumbos, disadvantages include the weight of battery packs and the lack of range that current battery technology provides.

Among the major challenges is improving the amount of power a battery can store for a given weight, said Stephen Beecher, director of advanced technology for power management at GE Aviation.

Electric propulsion will be a "game-changer and transform aeronautics in the next 20 to 30 years," predicted Mark Moore, an aerospace engineer and conceptual design expert at NASA.

Moore said the first breakthroughs will be with small aircraft, personal air vehicles that will replace the automobile on some trips; an expansion of unmanned aerial vehicles, currently used by the military, to civilian use; followed by much more environmentally re-sponsible commercial transport planes.

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Randy McClain: Nashville firms have a world of customers

When a business owner looks for his or her next sale, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking only locally.
But no one should overlook the fact that buyers for a Middle Tennessee product or service might just as easily call the streets of Tokyo or Mexico City home. Nashville is a fast-growing export town, ranking among the top 40 U.S. metropolitan areas for worldwide exports since 2003.

In fact, Nashville's rate of export growth has averaged 9.2 percent a year between 2003 and 2008, the same growth rate as the United States overall.

That statistic comes from a new study by the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy group in Washington that argues for a greater focus on exports to help lead the United States out of its economic doldrums.

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In Nashville, consider companies with an international reach such as Nissan North America or aircraft parts maker Vought Aircraft Industries Inc., and you'll begin to see how Nashville's financial strength touches the globe.

Brookings says the nation's top 100 metropolitan areas account for 83 percent of all exports from the United States, and if each city works to strengthen its best-performing industry clusters, it could lead to more sales, more jobs and more income for all.

So, how does Nashville stack up against a few of its peers — Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta; and Charlotte, N.C.? Here's a snapshot of several generally favorable comparisons with those other cities.

Nashville: Music City produces $7.8 billion a year in exports, with Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany the top five export markets from 2003 to 2008.

As a share of the local economy, 11.2 percent of what's produced here ends up going to foreign lands, and that supports about 72,700 local jobs. Transportation equipment (cars, for instance), electrical equipment, and professional and technical services are among our export moneymakers.

Two relative shortcomings stand out in the local export picture. Only about 8 percent of Music City exports over the period studied went to fast-growing markets China, Brazil and India. And wages linked to export jobs identified here averaged just under $53,000 a year — not a bad sum but below the totals of three-fourths of the top 100 U.S. cities.

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