Builders' Block

The INTL. BUILDERS' SHOW/tecHOMExpo is big – and getting bigger fast. Good, right? Not necessarily, if you're a venue that was promised the show years ago when it wasn't growing all that fast.

Due to explosive growth recently, the Natl. Assn. of Home Builders has considered pulling its Tradeshow Week 200 event from at least two of the facilities where it had been holding space for the future.

First, there was Atlanta. When the NAHB decided in 1998 to change to a rotation that included the same city two consecutive years at a time, it picked Atlanta for 2007 and 2008. The choice was partly a consolation prize: In 1989, the association had committed to the city for its 2001-2004 shows – a commitment it asked to be released from when the two-year pattern was established.

At the time, the NAHB thought the 1.4 million gross square feet in Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center would be enough to hold it. After all, the exhibition had been growing at an average rate of 4 percent per annum for about 10 years. But during the last two years in Las Vegas, the show has experienced near-20-percent spikes, growing from 714,787 net square feet in 2003 to around 803,000 this year.

"All of a sudden it's raising a space issue," said Wayne Stetson, director of the show for NAHB. "It has to do with the quality of the show and the conditions in the housing industry – and Vegas has given us quite a spurt."

Stetson explained that the exhibition's net square footage typically represents 57 percent of its total space needs. In other words, if the show expects to sell 800,000 square feet of exhibit space, it actually needs closer to 1.5 million square feet for the entire exhibition. If the show keeps growing – even at its average rate – by 2007 the Atlanta facility will be a tight fit.

Enter Chicago. Knowing the association was strapped for space in Atlanta, the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau made what Stetson described as "a very attractive offer … involving a lot of savings for the NAHB."

The question of moving to Chicago in '07 and '08 was under discussion for more than a year. Then, in December 2003, the board sent a letter to NAHB members saying it had decided to make the move.

But the Greater Atlanta Home Builders' Assn., among others, was not happy with the decision. After a minor flap that made local newspapers, the NAHB board reversed its decision and said it would keep the '07 and '08 shows in Atlanta.

"I think that our membership has an interest in this because of loyalty to our market," said Jeff Rader, vice president of operations for the Atlanta association. "We believed the commitment from NAHB was a real one, and it was in our industry's best interest for the association to act in good faith."

As for the space issue, "It's tight, there's no question, but they can do it," said Dan Graveline, executive director of the GWCC. He added that the show will also use the adjacent Georgia Dome, which offers another 100,000 square feet.

Meanwhile, the location of the 2013 and 2014 Intl. Builders' Shows is still up in the air. Contracted by the NAHB in 1997, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans now appears an unrealistic site. "When we picked them, we had no conception we'd be this large," Stetson said. "Now, all of a sudden it's a space issue."

Not only does the Morial center's 1.6 million square feet pose a problem, New Orleans' relative dearth of hotel rooms does too. When the NAHB signed its letter of intent with New Orleans, the association believed it would need 20,000 rooms. But it has since raised the requirement to 40,000 – a number the Big Easy may find a little hard to come up with.

Consequently, on Dec. 17, 2003, the NAHB notified the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau that it intended to take the 2013 and 2014 shows to Chicago. At least that's what's alleged in a lawsuit subsequently filed by the NOMCVB against the home builders' association. Filed in a federal court in Louisiana just two days later, the suit seeks to bar the NAHB from holding its 2013 and 2014 shows anywhere other than New Orleans or, if it does, to pay damages to the city, including lost revenue.

At press time, the case was still pending. Stetson said the NAHB decided at its 2004 annual meeting in Las Vegas to send a delegation to New Orleans, closely survey the available square footage and sleeping rooms, then make a decision about the '13 and '14 shows.

"As of now, we're still in New Orleans," he said.

Stetson added that the NAHB has no space problems with any other foreseeable shows. The complete booked rotation includes: Orlando in 2005 and 2006; Atlanta in '07 and '08; Las Vegas in '09 and '10; Orlando in '11 and '12; New Orleans in '13 and '14; Orlando in '15 and '16; and Las Vegas in '17 and '18.

Interestingly, the show – which began in Chicago in the 1940s, but hasn't returned since the McCormick Place fire of 1968 drove it to warm-weather Houston – has "no plans to return to Chicago," according to Stetson. Because of business and governance cycles, the show cannot be conducted in any timeframe other than January-February, he said, and the membership prefers sunny winter locations.