Growth Industry Expansion Project Intended To Boost City’s Share Of Convention Market

A survey five years ago showed that 200 national organizations would consider holding their conventions in Spokane if only the city had more space for them.

“That represents a couple million dollars in potential business and that’s just a small survey,” said Hartly Kruger, president of the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The prospect of attracting more convention business convinced the city to commission a study in February to research possible locations to expand the convention center.

The $185,000 report, completed by Price Waterhouse of Florida, Integrus Architecture of Spokane, and Loschky, Marquardt and Nesholm Architects of Seattle, is scheduled to be presented Monday to the City Council.

The study finds that, of four sites researched, the best place to expand the convention center is directly across the street.

The study places a price tag of $75 million on the proposed expansion.

If the city follows the study’s recommendation, it will try to expand to the entire block bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, Main, Bernard and Washington.

The study projects grand achievements for the new convention center. If built, it says, it would create 700 to 800 new jobs and at least double the current economic impact of the convention business.

Convention sales are expected to top out this year at $65 million. Visitor spending is expected to reach $500 million, according to studies done for the visitors bureau.

The study also suggests a possible design for the addition. The plans, which would greatly expand convention center capacity, are subject to City Council approval.

The center currently can accommodate from 1,200 to 1,500 people in its exhibit halls, said Mike Kobluk, the city’s director of sports and entertainment facilities. The proposed design would at least double that capacity, he added.

Capacity for banquet and meeting rooms varies depending on a group’s needs, Kobluk said. For example, the recent Subud convention brought 3,000 people from more than 70 countries into Spokane for two weeks.

Kruger said Spokane has more than enough hotel rooms to back-up the proposed expansion.

“We anticipate the Davenport (Hotel) reopening, which would put us over 6,000 hotel rooms,” Kruger said. “I think we’re in good shape with hotel rooms.”

The recommended design concept would expand convention center exhibit space from 37,000 to 100,000 square feet and increase banquet and meeting space from 18,300 to 67,000 square feet. The number of meeting rooms would grow from 13 to 30.

The convention center and Ag Trade buildings would be reconfigured to house all banquet and meeting space, including a 30,000-square-foot ballroom, twice as big as what’s there now.

The addition would house all exhibit space, on a level built 16 to 20 feet below ground. Above that would be a lobby area and three levels of parking to accommodate 800 vehicles. Loading docks also would be built below ground and would be accessed from Main.

Convention-goers would cross Spokane Falls Boulevard on a skywalk. An underground tunnel would service maintenance and utility needs.

The study examined three other sites and rejected two.

Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co.’s Summit property, north of the Spokane River between Maple and Monroe, was deemed too expensive because it would force the city to start from scratch, rebuilding the current facility and the addition.

“Having two separate sites doesn’t make sense,” Kobluk said.

A site across the street from the Spokane Veterans Arena also was rejected for that reason.

Expanding east of the convention center is an option, though not recommended as strongly as building across the street to the south. Expansion eastward would create difficulties because the new building would have to wrap around the Doubletree Hotel, creating hotel access problems.

However, no site choice will be finalized until the council reviews the study.

“(South of the convention center) is going to be the preferred site, but that doesn’t mean the other sites aren’t going to be looked at,” said Jeff Colliton, the City Council’s representative on the Sports, Entertainment, Arts and Convention Advisory Board (SEACAB).

It’s not clear whether the city, which currently owns part of the block targeted for the expansion, would buy or lease the remainder of that land.

The majority of that property is owned by Spokane architect Glen Cloninger. Parcels also are owned by the Hirata family and Diamond Parking. The block houses parking lots and the Arizona Steak House.

Both Cloninger and Diamond Parking say they support expansion of the convention center and also expect to be involved in the process.

“All of a sudden we find ourselves in the path of the expansion,” said architect Cloninger. “If we’ve already made our investment, we should have some involvement.”

Cloninger would like to see the expansion completed through a public-private partnership, in which private developers build the center, then lease or sell it to the city.

“Governments take longer to do this than the private sector,” Cloninger said. “The private sector can normally do it more efficiently.”

Kobluk stressed that it’s too early to say how the city will proceed with expansion plans.

“We don’t even know if this project is going to go forward,” Kobluk said. “All we are trying to do is answer some very basic questions, like: Is it possible? Is it feasible? Will it break even?”

The study places a possible $75 million price tag on its suggested project.

The study does not specifically recommend how the city could pay for the expansion, but includes a list of methods used by other cities.

“We’re asking the council to look at options and come back with recommendations,” Kobluk said.

Among the options used by other cities are: financing the parking garage with revenue bonds to be paid back with parking receipts and paying for the rest of the facility with a hotel tax, a food and beverage tax, a portion of the general sales tax and state and federal grants.

Ed Clark, SEACAB chairman, wants Eastern Washington legislators to push for funding for the new center.

“They spent $75 million to fix the roof of the Kingdome and now they’re going to tear that building down. We need our legislators on board for Eastern Washington,” Clark said.

Spokane Sen. Jim West, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he plans to meet next week with the report’s authors to discuss the expansion project.

West said community leaders have been planning for this project - in the site that now has been formally recommended - since when he served on the City Council, from 1980 to 1982.

Though West said it’s too early to predict how the new center might be funded, he discussed how other state localities have paid for projects.

“Most of the local convention centers have been done with new taxing authority in the communities that have built them,” West said. “Even Seahawks stadium has new King County taxes.

“When we did the Arena, that was done primarily with local money,” West continued. “The Washington State Convention Center was done with a hotel tax increase in King County only.”

Spokane got a great deal on its current convention center. The Opera House and Convention Center were built by the state using a tax on businesses entering the state when Spokane landed the World’s Fair in 1974. Both buildings were later sold to the city for $1.

The Ag Trade Center was built in 1989, paid for with a state grant for $3.5 million and a federal grant for $1 million. The city contributed another $4 million using councilmanic bonds and private donations totaled $500,000.

The Convention Center has been put to good use in recent years, with business increasing 260 percent over the past 10 years. In 1985, convention sales reached $18 million. This year, they’re expected to hit $65 million. Visitor spending has increased from $250 million in 1985 and is expected to reach $500 million this year.

Many involved with the local tourism business attribute those achievements to Hartly Kruger, who has led the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau since 1985.

“The convention business really caught fire when Hartly Kruger came to town,” Clark said. “We need to build him a bigger building so he can bring more business to town.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 Color); 1 Drawing; 1 Graphic: Proposed Convention Center expansion area

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. IN THE DETAILS A recently completed report proposes more than doubling the size of the Spokane Convention Center. Here are details: Proposed site is the entire block bounded by Main, Spokane Falls Boulevard, Bernard and Washington Expansion cost is estimated at $75 million Exhibition space would increase from 37,000 to 100,000 square feet Banquet and meeting space would expand from 18,300 to 67,000 square feet Number of meeting rooms would increase from 13 to 30. Proposed design includes a skywalk across Spokane Falls Boulevard, a subterranean exhibition hall, and three levels of parking to accommodate 800 vehicles.

2. SMALL SIZE LIMITS SPOKANE CONVENTION CENTER A larger convention center would make Spokane much more competitive in attracting regional and national convention business, according to Hartly Kruger, president of the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. A new $185,000 study commissioned by the city compares Spokane’s convention business, and its potential after the expansion, to other regional and national cities. Regionally, Spokane competes most with Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Boise’s Centre on the Grove, Portland’s Convention Center, the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle and the Tacoma Dome. Nationally, Spokane also competes often with centers in Albuquerque, N.M.; El Paso and Corpus Christi, Texas; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Fresno, Calif.; Lexington, Ky.; Mobile, Ala.; Shreveport, La.; Topeka, Kan.; and Tulsa, Okla. The study finds that among the regional centers with which Spokane competes, the city ranks fifth in exhibit space, ahead of only Boise and Bellevue. Though expanding Spokane’s center to 100,000 square feet of exhibition space would keep it in fifth place, it would compete much more effectively with Seattle, Portland and Tacoma. However, some of those centers are planning expansions of their own. There are plans, for example, to increase Portland’s center from 150,000 to 270,000 square feet. Seattle’s facility will grow from 102,000 to 210,000 square feet. “Future facility expansions will increase the difference between space at the Spokane Center vs. other competitive facilities if the Center does not expand,” the report concludes. Spokane’s proposed expansion would enable it to compete much more effectively nationally. Of the 10 competitors identified, only three are considering expansions. Spokane, which currently ranks last among its frequent national competitors in amount of exhibition space, would rise to fifth place with this expansion. “What we’re trying to do,” Kruger said, “is enter the national marketplace in a more significant way.” -Alison Boggs