Scottsdale Exhibit Hall to Open in 2007
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 8/2/2004
The city of Scottsdale, Ariz. will build a 115,000 square foot exhibit hall in a larger entertainment complex called WestWorld in the northern portion of the Phoenix suburb. City officials have begun soliciting bids on the project, expected to be completed by the spring of 2007.
While the Phoenix area currently has fairly limited options regarding exhibit space (the Phoenix Civic Plaza has 375,000 sq. ft. available, the Arizona State Fair Park & Exposition 225,880 sq. ft.), WestWorld General Manager Brad Gessner said the city-owned facility will not necessarily try to attract tradeshow business away from those venues.
"It's primary purpose will be consumer shows," Gessner said.
WestWorld already has a semi-permanent 80,000 sq. ft. tent that it uses for the annual Barrett-Jackson Classic Auto Auction. Earlier this year, dmg world media produced the Scottsdale Home & Garden Show at what began in the 1980s as an equestrian center. WestWorld is still the site of a number of horse shows but, as the Phoenix metropolitan area has gradually surrounded it over the past two decades and made it accessible to more people, the city decided last year to build the exhibit hall and an amphitheater and enclose and air condition a 6,400-seat Equidome Arena.
Gessner said he believes the $30-million facility will not necessarily take shows away from the Phoenix Civic Plaza or Arizona State Fairgrounds, but provide show producers a new opportunity.
"A lot of consumer show producers consider Scottsdale a separate market," he said. "They're interested in producing a brand new show here."
