Small-city Expansions: Yes, but We're Different

Just over a year ago, Heywood Sanders predicted in his Brookings Institution report that cities would continue to build and expand venues despite an apparent glut of convention center space.

"But we're different," is what Sanders said most cities would say.

Our report this week on convention center construction and expansion notes that the 70 projects in progress will add around 8.2 million square feet of exhibit space to the existing inventory by 2009 (see p. 20). Judging from that, Sanders was at least right about one thing — cities continue to build.

It isn't just Las Vegas or Chicago or New York that believes they're exceptions. It's also places like Spokane, Wash.; Peoria, Ill.; and Gatlinburg, Tenn.

"We were able to justify what we were doing because of the research we'd done," said Johnna Boxley, general manager of the Spokane Convention Center, which in July will add 96,260 sq. ft. of exhibit and meeting space to its existing 64,942 sq. ft.

"Gatlinburg is just unique," said David Perella, executive director of the Gatlinburg Convention Center, which will add 25,800 sq. ft. of space in April.

"We have relationships with a lot of shows and meetings," said Debbie Ritschel, general manager of the Peoria Civic Center, which will add 45,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space by fall 2007.

Some small-city convention center strategies may be right on target, and some slightly off. No matter what, most seem to have an explanation as to why they need the space.

Boxley said Spokane has turned away meetings, mainly due to a relatively small stock of exhibit space. Now, she said, "there's a whole market that starts at 100,000 sq. ft.," and a lot of it would be charmed by the city's "family-friendly" atmosphere.

"We're a safe community with a convention center in the middle of a 100-acre park on a river in downtown Spokane," Boxley said. "You don't think of Spokane as a destination, but once we bring them here, our return rate is very high."

Gatlinburg is not necessarily trying to set the tradeshow world on fire. However, Perella believes he can capture a lot of the regional association and corporate business he has been ceding to Tennessee neighbors Knoxville and Chattanooga, and Asheville, N.C.

His convention center, with 67,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, was built in 1990 next to a wooden auditorium that dated back to 1956.

"The original idea was to remove it and expand the convention center," Perella said.

In the end, the old building was preserved, but the interior was gutted and another 85,000 sq. ft. expansion was built around it.

Still, it provides him with plenty of meeting rooms, replacing what he admits used to be just a small exhibit space and a handful of breakout rooms, and giving groups — he hopes — a beautiful meeting setting just 100 yards from the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains Natl. Park.

Ritschel believes she can build on Peoria's solid reputation as a center for preparatory athletic events, centrally located in a Midwestern state that is crazy about high school sports. Certainly, she's going to have more room for tradeshows looking for a good venue, but it's sports she believes will provide the foundation.

Kevin Malloy, general manager of the Bayfront Convention Center, has definite goals for his Erie, Pa., facility, which will open in the summer of 2007 with 30,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.

On the banks of Lake Erie, and a magnet for history buffs interested in the War of 1812, Erie is already popular with tourists in the summer months. But during the winter, "the perception is we're next to the North Pole and Santa Claus is down the street," he said.

It's those weeks between the two extremes that have captured Malloy's interest. "If I can get 500 people here 16 times for three nights, that's 24,000 room nights," he said.

Malloy believes that Erie offers a niche audience at the far northwestern tip of Pennsylvania, just 16 miles from both New York and Ohio, an underserved region far from the population hubs of Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y. His idea isn't to talk show managers into moving to Erie, but to launch new shows for his market.

So, as openings for all these new or expanded centers approach, how are their strategies working?

In Erie, Malloy said, "The standard response is, 'Show me the steel and we'll talk further.' Will someone please put their toe in the water first?"

But in Gatlinburg, Perella seems to be getting what he wants. Shortly after the new meeting space in the renovated auditorium comes on line, Gatlinburg will host the Southeast Assn. of Biologists, which will hold a conference and small tradeshow — and take advantage of the nearby Smoky Mountains in their field work.

"The first group out of the box was exactly what we were looking for," he said. "In previous configurations, we couldn't have handled them."

And in family-friendly Spokane, the newly expanded center will host the U.S. Figure Skating Championships next January, with what Boxley figures is a $25.4 million local economic impact — that would not have come its way without the expansion.

"All a convention center really needs to do is figure out how they're different from all the rest," Boxley said.