Boston Rolls Up Its Sleeves to Fill New Center

After seven years, Bostonians can breathe a sigh of relief. The light and airy Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is opening on schedule and within budget.

And now, the real work begins.

With government, tourism and BCEC staff being locally criticized for constructing a $1.3-billion white elephant, the center's most pressing challenge will be to bring in the show managers. The BCEC has only 43 confirmed bookings through 2010.

But the center, which celebrated its grand opening June 10, is credited with improving the skyline of the outlying South Boston Waterfront and featuring many state-of-the-art amenities.

Designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, the BCEC offers 516,000 square feet of nearly column-free exhibit space, with floor boxes, natural light and ceilings ranging from 39 to 100 feet high. The exhibit floor also features a Wi-Fi-enabled fiber and optical network.

Besides a 40,020 square foot ballroom — the largest in New England — the BCEC offers 82 meeting rooms with a total of 160,000 square feet. Many of the rooms are multi-purpose; all are fitted for audiovisual and Internet access.

With 46 ovens, 22 ice machines and 22 walk-in refrigerators, the center's kitchen is capable of producing 4,000 meals per hour. The center's 700-seat food court, managed by Aramark, serves both local and international cuisine.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested in his grand opening speech that the center would be a boon to the community. "People are going to come here, say they want to move here permanently for their enterprise or to live," he said.

Milton Herbert, executive director of the Boston Convention Marketing Center, which is responsible for bookings at the BCEC and Boston's older John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Center, believes the new facility will nearly sell itself. "Once meeting planners come here, we have an 80-percent chance of converting them," Herbert said.

Among the events being held at the BCEC are IDG World Expo's Macworld Conference & Expo, scheduled July 12–15, and the Society of Independent Show Organizers' Executive Conference, set for Aug. 16–18.

The center reportedly contains no cell phone dead zones and has electrical outlets at every turn. A massive service corridor surrounds the building on all three levels, allowing suppliers easy access to meeting rooms and the exhibition hall without disrupting foot traffic on attendee walkways.

In addition, two tiers of roads ring the facility, allowing exhibitors quick admittance to 52 loading bays, two and a half times the number of New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The docks' elevation capabilities provide for faster and easier move-in and move-out. The docks also have five "elephant doors" large enough to let 18-wheelers drive directly onto the showfloor.

But while the list of exceptional features goes on, more development needs to take place in the center's surrounding area. An adjacent 790-room Westin headquarters hotel is set to open in summer of 2006. It will join the only other hotel in walking distance of the BCEC, the 426-room Seaport Hotel World Trade Center across the street.

A few local developers have stepped up to the plate, recognizing that business won't pick up unless show managers can guarantee enough hotel rooms in the neighborhood. The Marriott Renaissance has broken ground on a 440-room hotel set for completion in 18 months. Hyatt is set to build a 650-room hotel, though the project is temporarily on hold. And there is talk of two more hotels eventually being built nearby, according to Larry Meehan, director of public relations and tourism with the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

In addition, Logan International Airport, a seven-minute cab drive from the center, will add another runway, said Pat Moscaritolo, president of the GBCVB.

Some are still concerned about how much business the BCEC will attract between now and the time the various projects are completed. Recognizing this, Jennifer Dekkers, director of sales for the Comfort Inn & Suites, promised her hotel would provide free shuttles to and from the BCEC as they currently do with the airport.

The Boston Red Sox are also offering package rates to meeting planners looking for creative outings for select groups from larger tradeshows. Bill Sell, vice president of CeBIT America, liked the idea of Fenway Park cooperating with the BCEC. He still wasn't quite impressed enough to move CeBIT America from New York to Boston. "But definitely, we're looking at a number of ideas for the Boston marketplace in the tech and biotech fields," he said.

Romney said development of the surrounding area would take time. "There are 30 million square feet of development, which includes the convention center, in the master plan for the waterfront," he said. "The last 30 million square feet of development in the city took 25 years. If you assume the renaissance began in 1995, it'll probably be another 20 to 25 years before it's all done."

Not everyone is so patient. Said Donald Wilson, president of the South Boston Chamber of Commerce: "They promised us jobs and business. We're going to hold them to it now."