Convention space: A new arms race
Here in 2014, with the city, county, state and local developers pooling resources to build an Iowa Events Center hotel in Des Moines as if it were a hospital for blind orphans, it’s hard to remember the days of 2005, when the Iowa Events Center opened and was heralded as a catalyst for growth.
“I can see this as an economic development tool,” said Polk County Supervisor E.J. Giovannetti in 2005. “I’m seeing this as seed money ... but after this, I’m not putting any money into new hotel construction, that’s for darned sure.”
It seemed rational to assume that no more public money would be needed. After all, Hy-Vee Hall and Wells Fargo Arena would attract thousands of people and the bags of money they brought would spur private development — restaurants, hotels, retail.
But far from being a growth generator, the Iowa Events Center is almost a growth detractor. Almost 10 years after it opened, there are no new hotels and no new private construction. The only project that opened with the stated purpose of being near the Events Center — AllPlay — failed twice.
By contrast, the East Village has boomed since 2005. There have been six buildings constructed and eight buildings renovated with thousands of square feet for restaurants, retail and residential.
And, miraculously, two hotels are planned in the East Village — all without being a county money pit.
From the East Village to Court Avenue and Western Gateway, it seems that anywhere there is not an Events Center, there is growth and hotel construction.
Now, as I mount my high-horse of private, measurable growth versus wasted public spending, I can almost hear the eye rolls at the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As they see it, the Iowa Events Center has been a runaway success. They rattle off attendance rates, visitor numbers, and although there has been no construction-based development like originally expected, they move the goal posts a little and say that all those visitors spend money elsewhere in Des Moines, thus helping the city in general.
And they say that when it comes to visitors, Des Moines is going to be losing to other cities if we don’t add a hotel. The Events Center’s general manager, Chris Connolly, claims he has heard specifically from visitors, “Hey, we’re not coming to Des Moines because of the [lack of an] attached convention hotel.”
An attached hotel. Sorry, Quality Inn.
Back in 2010, Giovannetti, Mr. No-New-Events-Center-Money, echoed those same concerns when he told the Register, “One of the reasons business is going away from Des Moines is because the facility is no longer competitive in the national market.”
But that wasn’t about a hotel, that was about a lack of meeting and convention space. That was 2010, when Polk County sunk another $32 million into the Iowa Events Center to rehab Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The renovation had to be done to bring the facility out from the doldrums of “no longer competitive.”
No longer competitive after only five years? How is that possible?
When Des Moines was building the Iowa Events Center in 2004, 44 new convention centers were in the planning or construction phases across the United States. We were going to be behind as soon as we started. Over the last 20 years, according to professor Heywood Sanders, as convention square footage has increased by a whopping 127 percent, the largest 200 trade shows are languishing at 1993 levels.
We’re now stuck in a Convention Center arms race, where we need to keep pouring money in just to keep up.
I may not be privy to all the Greater Des Moines Partnership and Convention and Visitors Bureau numbers, but I know what an unsustainable race to the bottom looks like.
Here in Iowa, Cedar Rapids opened its convention center with hotel about a year ago. St Louis opened its convention center hotel in 2002; Indianapolis opened its convention center hotel in 2011, Oklahoma City began its convention center hotel in 2012, joining other new convention center hotels in Nashville, Overland Park, Kan., Fort Worth, Salt Lake City and Dallas’ 1,001-room Omni Hotel.
This spring, as Des Moines has stepped up discussion of a hotel, Ames announced plans to try to build a convention center hotel. Madison, Wis., also announced it was one step closer to building a 352-room hotel connected to its convention center. Rockford, Ill., announced a development agreement for a downtown convention center and hotel. Omaha unveiled plans for its new downtown convention center renovation. Minneapolis has given the green light to a 1,000-room hotel connected to its convention center — over twice as big as Des Moines’ proposal.
Every one of these projects has three things in common:
• Public financing to get them off the ground.
• Arguments that all of their new convention traffic in the hotel means they won’t detrimentally affect privately financed hotels’ occupancy rates.
• The promise that a hotel will help their convention centers finally turn the corner and spur local development.
The Iowa Events Center hotel will happen. Enough state, city, county officials and old rich guys in Des Moines want it to happen. More helpful than money, we’ve gotten used to the fact that the Events Center has to be redeveloped regularly.
We’ve dramatically lowered our expectations.
The only question I have is: Five years after the hotel’s completion, what will be the next project the Events Center will desperately need public money for to stay competitive?
Reported by: desmoinesregister.com
“I can see this as an economic development tool,” said Polk County Supervisor E.J. Giovannetti in 2005. “I’m seeing this as seed money ... but after this, I’m not putting any money into new hotel construction, that’s for darned sure.”
It seemed rational to assume that no more public money would be needed. After all, Hy-Vee Hall and Wells Fargo Arena would attract thousands of people and the bags of money they brought would spur private development — restaurants, hotels, retail.
But far from being a growth generator, the Iowa Events Center is almost a growth detractor. Almost 10 years after it opened, there are no new hotels and no new private construction. The only project that opened with the stated purpose of being near the Events Center — AllPlay — failed twice.
By contrast, the East Village has boomed since 2005. There have been six buildings constructed and eight buildings renovated with thousands of square feet for restaurants, retail and residential.
And, miraculously, two hotels are planned in the East Village — all without being a county money pit.
From the East Village to Court Avenue and Western Gateway, it seems that anywhere there is not an Events Center, there is growth and hotel construction.
Now, as I mount my high-horse of private, measurable growth versus wasted public spending, I can almost hear the eye rolls at the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As they see it, the Iowa Events Center has been a runaway success. They rattle off attendance rates, visitor numbers, and although there has been no construction-based development like originally expected, they move the goal posts a little and say that all those visitors spend money elsewhere in Des Moines, thus helping the city in general.
And they say that when it comes to visitors, Des Moines is going to be losing to other cities if we don’t add a hotel. The Events Center’s general manager, Chris Connolly, claims he has heard specifically from visitors, “Hey, we’re not coming to Des Moines because of the [lack of an] attached convention hotel.”
An attached hotel. Sorry, Quality Inn.
Back in 2010, Giovannetti, Mr. No-New-Events-Center-Money, echoed those same concerns when he told the Register, “One of the reasons business is going away from Des Moines is because the facility is no longer competitive in the national market.”
But that wasn’t about a hotel, that was about a lack of meeting and convention space. That was 2010, when Polk County sunk another $32 million into the Iowa Events Center to rehab Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The renovation had to be done to bring the facility out from the doldrums of “no longer competitive.”
No longer competitive after only five years? How is that possible?
When Des Moines was building the Iowa Events Center in 2004, 44 new convention centers were in the planning or construction phases across the United States. We were going to be behind as soon as we started. Over the last 20 years, according to professor Heywood Sanders, as convention square footage has increased by a whopping 127 percent, the largest 200 trade shows are languishing at 1993 levels.
We’re now stuck in a Convention Center arms race, where we need to keep pouring money in just to keep up.
I may not be privy to all the Greater Des Moines Partnership and Convention and Visitors Bureau numbers, but I know what an unsustainable race to the bottom looks like.
Here in Iowa, Cedar Rapids opened its convention center with hotel about a year ago. St Louis opened its convention center hotel in 2002; Indianapolis opened its convention center hotel in 2011, Oklahoma City began its convention center hotel in 2012, joining other new convention center hotels in Nashville, Overland Park, Kan., Fort Worth, Salt Lake City and Dallas’ 1,001-room Omni Hotel.
This spring, as Des Moines has stepped up discussion of a hotel, Ames announced plans to try to build a convention center hotel. Madison, Wis., also announced it was one step closer to building a 352-room hotel connected to its convention center. Rockford, Ill., announced a development agreement for a downtown convention center and hotel. Omaha unveiled plans for its new downtown convention center renovation. Minneapolis has given the green light to a 1,000-room hotel connected to its convention center — over twice as big as Des Moines’ proposal.
Every one of these projects has three things in common:
• Public financing to get them off the ground.
• Arguments that all of their new convention traffic in the hotel means they won’t detrimentally affect privately financed hotels’ occupancy rates.
• The promise that a hotel will help their convention centers finally turn the corner and spur local development.
The Iowa Events Center hotel will happen. Enough state, city, county officials and old rich guys in Des Moines want it to happen. More helpful than money, we’ve gotten used to the fact that the Events Center has to be redeveloped regularly.
We’ve dramatically lowered our expectations.
The only question I have is: Five years after the hotel’s completion, what will be the next project the Events Center will desperately need public money for to stay competitive?
Reported by: desmoinesregister.com
