The discussion whether a new convention center should be built Downtown could go back to the forefront following comments and a commitment made Tuesday to the Duval County Tourist Development Council.
After hearing a request from Visit Jacksonville board Chair Bill Prescott for the council to fund a $59,000 update of a 2007 convention center feasibility study, City Council member Richard Clark said he would sponsor legislation for the city to fund the update.
Clark said he didn't understand why Visit Jacksonville would pay for the new study when the city would be responsible for building and sustaining a new convention center.
"I'll commit to find the money for the study," said Clark.
Council member Warren Jones said he would co-sponsor the legislation.
Development council member David Potts said the proposed update would be the third — or possibly fourth — study has been conducted related to building a new convention center.
"But we've never had political clout behind it," he said.
Prescott's proposal was to update the study based on a single location for the convention center: adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.
Development council member Fred Pozin questioned the narrow scope of the proposed update.
He said the original study evaluated three possible locations for a new convention center.
Prescott said the Hyatt location should be the only one considered because the Jacksonville Civic Council studied the feasibility of a new convention center and determined being next to the Hyatt was the best site.
Prescott said the Civic Council concluded a convention center must have a headquarters hotel and must be located near an entertainment district.
The Hyatt has 963 rooms, 200,000 square feet of meeting space and is a block from East Bay Street, which is being developed as "The Elbow" entertainment area through a private initiative led by business owners.
Paul Astleford, Visit Jacksonville CEO, said convention planners look for locations that "show off a city" and cited the Hyatt's Downtown riverfront location as an asset.
"It's very obvious what is going to succeed in presenting our community to the world," Astleford said.
Clark qualified his position by stating that "not everybody feels the way the folks in this room feel about a convention center."
He also referenced financial obligations.
Clark said that a new convention center would cost at least $100 million to build.
Pozin said the last projection of construction costs was $200 million.
A new convention center also would require an annual subsidy of at least $5 million to operate and the city would not be a source, Clark said.
"All convention centers are subsidized," he said. "That is not coming out of the general fund."
"If you want to revitalize Downtown, a convention center is the way to do it," said City Council President Bill Gulliford, who is chairman of the development council.
"I believe we're to the point we've got to build something," he said.
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