According to the previous News Herald story, City, LCUB acquire Creekwood properties, that's what happened to Lenoir City. First Horizon Bank donated the land to the city according, Mayor Tony Aikens, at the same time LCUB bought another parcel of  property from First Horizon Bank for $600,000.00.

Prior to donating the property to the city, the bank had the property listed for sale for $879,000.00 and the parcel LCUB bought for $600,000.00 was listed for $541,812.00.

According to Aikens, the donated property, adjacent to the Venue, could potentially be used for a hotel which would be helpful for the Venue. According to financial records, the Venue could use help.

The Venue, owned by Lenoir City, is a conference and meeting facility, opened around the first of 2017 at the cost of around $7,000,000.00. The loan for the Venue requires an annual payment of more that $251,000.00 per year for, get this, forty years.

Operating expenses for the Venue have doubled in it's three years of operations. However, revenues haven't quite kept pace with the costs by more than a million dollars over the same three years.

Short of some major development, it's hard to imagine how long the city can continue to take such loses.

A hotel sure couldn't hurt.

Three year budget below.
All information from audits. 2019-2020 audit not yet available.

This is just another prime example of why government should never be in commercial business. If an event center was a good idea, some savvy business person would have built one. From what I understand, the rent rates are so high, most local organizations can't afford to use it.