SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS November 2007 Successful Meetings: In May, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced plans for an $890 million renovation of the convention center, the first facility-wide upgrade the center has ever received. Why do this now?
Jim Gans: The Las Vegas Convention Center is almost 50 years old. We have done a series of remodels and additions to the facility, so what we have is a complex of additions put together over time. It's time to tie all this together, provide upgraded technology, utilities, infrastructure, telephonics-the works. This renovation will integrate our facility in a way that hasn't been done before.
Also, it's worth mentioning that during the same time period in which we're going to be constructing, Las Vegas as a destination will be adding 46,000 more hotel rooms and a total of 3.5 million sf of convention space-so that is really a tremendous amount of growth. It's going to be just incredible for the convention industry as a whole.
SM: What exactly will the renovation entail and when will it be complete?
Gans: We're building more than 200,000 sf of new meeting rooms, and adding that to the side of our south hall exhibit space. We'll add a brand-new concourse to give more and better access to the exhibit space in the South Hall. We'll add a north-south connector, which will probably end up being called a Grand Concourse, that will be the full width of the building from the south hall and will connect everything together. And we're going to do a lot of detailed enhancements to the existing meeting rooms and add more bathrooms.
Overall, we're adding some 650,000 sf to the facility. Additionally, there will be a Metropolitan Police Department Substation on campus as well as a fire department.
The majority of all construction will be done in 2010 and the rest of the renovations will be complete in 2011.
SM: How will you minimize the interruptions to groups who will be on site during the construction process?
Gans: Maybe I should ask you that question, and you can tell me. It's going to be a challenge. The construction is a reality, and there's no question in my mind that there will be inconveniences to our customers, but we will do the best we can to minimize them. That's why we're going to build the new meeting rooms first, and then, in 2011, when we have those new rooms complete, we'll complete the renovations on the existing ones-so we don't make rooms scarce during the construction. We will do the best that we can, and I think we can do it.
SM: The Las Vegas Convention Center has a unique position in that it competes for business not only with other cities but with all the other convention space in Las Vegas. How will this project improve your standing?
Gans: Locally, we see ourselves in a position of what we call "coopetition": we go out and get leads and we provide those leads to our hotels and resorts in the area. The shows and the meetings that they can't handle-the really big ones-we take. Most of the other facilities here are not as large as we are. Certainly, Mandalay Bay and the Sands do their own sales efforts, but we try to work together wherever we can.
Nationally, we have some big competitors-Chicago, Orlando-and we are going to go after the shows just as they are, and that's another reason we believe that it is very timely to work on this enhancement project now. We believe this puts us in a better position, competitively.