by Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
M.G. Orender, the chairman of the Convention Center Task Force Steering Committee, said Wednesday that two destination appeal studies have yielded sufficient data to move forward with a feasibility study on bringing a new or expanded convention center to Jacksonville.
“The next step is to go ahead with a full feasibility and market study,” said Orender. “That’s going to happen. You can count on that.”
Orender said the study will take about 12 weeks to complete. It will be conducted by a national consulting group which Orender said the task force will contract today to do the work.
He said results of the destination appeal studies will be made public on Friday.
“We have very strong appeal, particularly regionally,” said Orender. “We can’t sit around and wait on this. We’ve got to move forward.”
One of the destination studies examined three groups: people who have attended a convention at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, those seen as long-term prospects to convene in Jacksonville and those who considered the Osborn Center but chose to meet elsewhere. The other study looked at local restaurants, night life and other attractions, comparing them with amenities in 157 other cities.
The task force is determining whether a new center should be built or the expanded to include the 250,000 feet of contiguous exhibit space that is the industry standard.
Task force member, Phil Tufano, said recently that following the feasibility study, a subcommittee on site selection would meet.
“That will be controversial,” he said. “If you want to have some fun, come to the site selection and or expansion sub committee.”
The task force meetings are open to the public.
Tufano, the general manager of the Hyatt, said an expansion of the Osborn Center would include taking over some of the facility’s parking areas.
“Right now, with the size of the center we have, we can attract about 7 percent of the total convention business that’s out there on the market,” he said.