by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“Jacksonville has great hotels and everyone at Visit Jacksonville is wonderful to us. The convention center is the weak link.”
That comment was made in January 2008 by James Wile, executive director of the Florida Fire Chiefs Association. He was interviewed for a story in the Daily Record concerning two annual conventions, the FFCA’s Fire Rescue East and the Florida State Cheer and Dance Championship, which were both abandoning Jacksonville and the Osborn Center in favor of the Ocean Center in Volusia County near Daytona Beach.
Both groups had “outgrown” the Osborn Center. Fire Rescue East had grown from a few exhibitors and 230 attendees when it debuted in 1998 to 265 vendors and 10,000 firefighters and EMTs from the United States and Canada in 2007.
That year, the cheer and dance competition brought 260 teams, 5,000 competitors and more than 7,500 family members and other spectators, who filled hotel rooms and patronized restaurants and retail businesses.
Visit Jacksonville, the marketing arm of the Duval County Tourist Development Council, estimated the relocation of the two conventions represented the loss of $2.4 million in economic impact that would instead stimulate the economy 89 miles south of Jacksonville.
The challenge to attract conventions and trade shows to Jacksonville continues to be driven by the size of the existing convention center, said Visit Jacksonville spokeswoman Lyndsay Rossman. In addition to the center being too small, it’s also not near hotels and entertainment.
According to Visit jacksonville Lost Business Reports, more than 170 groups have booked meetings elsewhere since 2006, a loss of more than $380 million in revenue from 2006-2018.
In the last year alone, said Rossman, the facility’s shortcomings have led to the loss of 11 conventions, representing more than 24,600 room nights, $3.8 million in room revenue and $12.5 million in total economic impact.
She also said a study conducted in 2007 for Mayor John Peyton’s Convention Center Task Force determined the Osborn Center has half the space needed for Jacksonville to be competitive in the convention business and its size makes only 13 percent of the convention market realistic prospects for the destination.
One of the priority recommendations of the Jacksonville Civic Council’s “Northbank Redevelopment Task Force Final Report,” released Feb. 8, is the construction of an exhibition hall adjacent to the Hyatt Downtown on the site of the Courthouse Annex.
The annex, formerly Jacksonville’s City Hall, will be vacated by the State Attorney’s Office when the new Duval County Unified Courthouse Facility in LaVilla is completed. That’s scheduled for June 2012.
The task force report recommends development of an exhibition hall on the Courthouse Annex site to include 80,000 square feet of “pure exhibition space” on the second level, the same level as the Hyatt’s ballroom and other public spaces. The area would be free of obstructions, allowing the entire unrestricted space to be used for exhibits and vendors.
“It’s premature to talk about size. That will depend on what the market demands when we’re prepared to build,” said Rossman.
“We’re pleased that a convention center is a priority in the civic council’s report. It would be a benefit for Downtown and the entire city. Having a convention center on Bay Street would help develop vibrant entertainment and nightlife that could be enjoyed by visitors and residents alike,” she said.
The task force report also addresses possible ways to pay for a new exhibition hall.
According to Bill Prescott, Jacksonville Jaguars senior vice president and CFO and the treasurer for Visit Jacksonville, the local hotel industry could support the creation of a Tourism Investment District.
An additional charge over and above the existing “bed tax” could be levied for each room booked and those funds could be devoted to contributing to building an exhibition hall and marketing it as a destination.
“The industry looks at it as a self-assessment,” said Prescott.
He said the consensus among local hoteliers is they would support a plan to raise funds based on the number of rooms booked rather than an ad valorem tax increase that would affect all property owners or a tax on the industry based on the number of rooms available at each property.
“It’s time to decide how we can grow this economy,” said Prescott.
Another element of the proposed Bay Street exhibition hall is the construction of a four-story parking garage along Newnan Street west of the proposed hall site. That would involve demolishing two buildings, Baywater Square in the 100 block of East Bay Street and the building next to it at 10 S. Newnan St.
Attorney Howard Coker and three partners own the buildings and Coker has his offices in Baywater Square.
He said neither he nor his partners were contacted by the task force for the report, but he’s not concerned about the wrecking ball arriving anytime soon.
“We’ve been in these buildings since 1986. I never get too alarmed about these kinds of things. Seeing is believing. I think it’s a logical place to put a convention center, but we’re a long way from anything happening.” said Coker.
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