THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609070410
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 128 lines
Affordable meeting-room rates. The region's largest ballroom. Centrally located with easy access to interstates. About 1,000 hotel rooms close by. Lots of shopping around the corner, including a regional mall. Scads of restaurants.
Chesapeake officials hope this is the right recipe to cook up a healthy conference and convention business in the city's Greenbrier area. They are betting that a mid-sized conference and convention center will provide the final - and perhaps most important - piece to turn Greenbrier into a major draw.
If they are right, Chesapeake could cash in on a mushrooming meeting industry.
Norfolk already has, luring the lion's share of the region's meeting business - 1,400 groups in 1995 - with its new, sparkling Waterside Convention Center.
Virginia Beach has done well, too, and is looking to boost its convention trade. It has considered expanding the 15-year-old Pavilion Convention Center or building a new resort facility. The Pavilion is the region's largest convention facility.
There are 17 new or expanded convention and conference centers that have opened recently in the Northeast. This growth underscores the explosion in the $83 billion industry.
Even with the added competition, there appears to be plenty of conference and convention business to go around.
The number of educational seminars jumped 19 percent from 1992 to 1995 while the number of conventions and annual meetings rose 11 percent, according to the American Society of Association Executives' latest study, Association Meeting Trends 1995.
Looking ahead, a 39 percent increase is expected in meetings in 1997, according to the 1997 Meetings Outlook Survey sponsored by the association executives society and Meeting Professionals International.
``Meetings are big business,'' said Ken Sommer, spokesman for the association executives society.
ASAE members collectively planned 375,980 meetings, expositions and seminars in 1993-94 involving more than 272 million delegates. Meeting attendees typically spent between $100 and $150 per day for hotels, meals and tips.
Considering the upward trend in the industry and the different flavors of the local meeting spaces, officials don't seem worried about oversaturating the region with meeting halls. However, they admit there would be greater competition, particularly for local groups as well as state organizations which rotate meetings around the state.
While there is some overlap, Hampton Roads cities see their facilities as catering to different clients.
Chesapeake's proposal is for a suburban, moderately priced facility. Norfolk's Waterside Convention Center is urban and more pricey. Virginia Beach's Pavilion is in the resort area and is nearly four times larger than the other two.
Chesapeake officials said their intention is not to go head-to-head with other conference centers in the area.
``I think we could drive new business to the region,'' Donald Z. Goldberg, Chesapeake's director of economic development, said of the proposed 51,000-square-foot facility. ``Ours would compliment the region in what we can offer.''
Ever since Goldberg arrived in Chesapeake eight years ago, he said there's been an obvious need for a mid-sized conference center. He attributes the demand to the city's central location within the region.
The proposed Chesapeake facility would cost about $9 million and would be built in partnership with the city's Industrial Development Authority and the Chesapeake-based Armada/Hoffler development and construction companies. Goldberg said the center could be open as early as June.
It would be located at Greenbrier Circle and Sara Drive, the center of the booming Greenbrier area.
``Greenbrier is very hot,'' Goldberg said. ``If I could put a second story over the entire Greenbrier area, I could sell it.''
The area surrounding Chesapeake Convention Center is a cluster of medium-sized hotels that include a Holiday Inn and three large retail centers that includes the Greenbrier shopping mall. All are close to Interstate 64 and easily accessible.
The Chesapeake City Council has scheduled a public hearing and vote on proposed hotel and meal tax increases and the development of the conference center at its Sept. 10 meeting.
``I'm all in favor of development, it's good for the region,'' said Norfolk marketing director Sam Rogers. Adding new convention facilities such as the one proposed in Chesapeake may be the difference between losing business in Hampton Roads or keeping it in the region, Rogers says.
Groups are sometimes turned away by Norfolk's Waterside Convention Center because it's booked. In fact, the facility has reservations into 2001, Rogers said.
Norfolk markets the convention center jointly with the adjoining Marriott hotel and the nearby Omni hotel, both of which also have meeting space.
The Waterside Convention Center, with 30,000 square feet of meeting space, is busy almost year round, primarily with national and mid-Atlantic associations, Rogers said. While the number of groups has remained fairly steady, the size of the groups are growing.
Virginia Beach's main convention showplace, The Pavilion, is losing market share because some events - like the boat show - are outgrowing the 175,000-square-foot facility, said James B. Ricketts, Virginia Beach Convention and Visitor Development Director.
The state's most populous city hope to cash in on the growing convention trade by growing with it. It is considering expanding The Pavilion.
``There are a lot of meetings that would come to Virginia Beach but don't because we don't have an adequate facility,'' Ricketts said.
The average convention center exhibit hall is 125,00 square feet. The Pavilion's is 57,000 square feet.
Ricketts said the city is also exploring building a smaller niche-market conference center similar to Chesapeake's instead of a large convention center.
``I think the market will dictate when enough is enough,'' Ricketts said. ``It's pretty market driven.''
``For a metropolitan area as big as the Hampton Roads region not to have a major world class convention center is really unfortunate,'' Ricketts said. ``The Pavilion has been successful, but it's very inadequate.
``We can't keep pace with the quality you have to offer and the various amenities that go along with attracting major groups to our city.''
Ricketts said The Pavilion was almost too small the day it threw open its doors 15 years ago. It reached its capacity after only 2 years. In those two years, Virginia Beach tripled its convention business. But there's been no growth since then.
``It's a competitive market,'' he said. ``It really boils down to who's got the best facility, best marketing and best sales effort.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
PROPOSED
PAVILION CONVENTION CENTER
WATERSIDE CONVENTION CENTER
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: CONVENTION CENTERS by CNB