Jacksonville convention centers having trouble attracting visitors

[thelakelander]

What else is new? 

The limitations of the Prime Osborn underscore the challenge to convince groups to stay in Jacksonville.

But the biggest problem that Jacksonville has now, Reyes said, is the Prime Osborn Convention Center. It's only got 78,000 square feet of exhibit space and has no hotels next to it. The Ocean Center in Daytona Beach has 150,000 square feet and is right on Florida A1A.

That's where Fire-Rescue East, an educational and trade show for the fire and rescue industry, will be next month. It's put on each January by the Florida Fire Chiefs Association, and Larry Scovotto, the group's retired executive director, said it's the largest of its kind in the Southeast.

It was held for 10 years and by the last year it was here drew about 8,000 people, Scovotto said. Vendors set up their displays for everything from boots to fire trucks, and leaders from fire and rescue departments from much of the eastern half of the U.S. showed up.

But for the past three years, it's been held in Daytona Beach.

"When you've got an antiquated convention center, which the Prime Osborn was, with no hotels near it, it makes it hard," Scovotto said. "One year, the vendors had their booths under umbrellas because the roof was leaking."

But the biggest problem he had was with the size of the convention. Some of the larger vendor exhibits had to be held in the parking lot, and he was still turning 20 to 25 vendors away each year.

As for why the show kept returning for a decade, Scovotto said, "It's Florida. Now, it's North Florida, but when you say 'Florida' to someone in Minnesota and it's January, they want to come. Except for a couple of years, the weather was great.

"And it's a lot more affordable than Orlando."

full article: http://jacksonville.com/business/2009-12-28/story/jacksonville_convention_centers_having_trouble_attracting_visitors

[Keith-N-Jax]

Broken record!

[buckethead]

Bad news for local hookers.

[Ocklawaha]

TEAR IT DOWN, TEAR IT DOWN, TEAR IT DOWN! Hell, bring in David Copperfield and allow him to work his magic!

POOF! The Damn thing just disappears! Just F**King DISAPPEARS!

Come on Prince Johnny, here is a project for you to blow your last $27 Million on. To hell with Metropolitan Park, this place needs to see a wrecking ball TOMORROW!

Damn, Where's bin Ladin when we need him? Maybe he could hold a terror convention and blow the place sky high, thus solving his own exit, and our Convention Center Problem. Damn bin, bet I could round up a few more virgins (slightly soiled Panama Park variety) to send with you.

TEAR IT DOWN, BLOW IT UP, KNOCK IT OVER, DEMOLITION PRACTICE, DEEP 6 THE PRIME, DO IT NOW, FRICKIN PIG IN THE MOSQUE, DEFAMATION, DESECRATION OF THE TEMPLE OF THE RAILROAD GODS! A HEX ON CITY HALL! A POX ON FLORIDA, KILL THE PRIME, GIVE IT THE BOOT, ROUND FILE THE CONVENTION HALL, KILL, KILL, KILL! I hear-by publicly volunteer to be the guy to push the plunger! Oh how apocalyptic! Oh the Humanity!

Tomorrow I'll post something to tell y'all how I REALLY feel.

OCKLAWAHA
It's REBEL YELL time Boyz!

[Keith-N-Jax]

Bin Ladin.. good one Ock. Didn't the mayor say it would be atleast 20 to 30 yrs before we see another major hotel downtown, so what makes you people think a convention center will be built before the next 50 yrs. You do realize that's how we roll in Jax (decades).

[copperfiend]

Does the Prime Osborne really have "conventions"? It seems like mostly just trade shows to me.

[Ocklawaha]

Does the Prime Osborne really have "conventions"? It seems like mostly just trade shows to me.

Didn't we once have a convention of Jr High Cheerleaders? Seems the girls and boys were from distant Kingsland, Lake Butler and maybe Lulu? Big doings at the Omni that night, sold 42 bottles of Sprite, and the local pusher sold 2 hits of Coke! So take that Atlanta, Orlando or Daytona, we've not yet begun to fight!

Does Johnny realize taking that damn thing down would leave a transportation center that would/could be a world model? How's THAT for a legacy? "The screw up, do nothing mayor, that enabled a world class transportation center to move forward, AND, set the stage for a REAL convention center DOWNTOWN.

Such are things that dreams are made of...

OCKLAWAHA

[ProjectMaximus]

Bin Ladin.. good one Ock. Didn't the mayor say it would be atleast 20 to 30 yrs before we see another major hotel downtown, so what makes you people think a convention center will be built before the next 50 yrs. You do realize that's how we roll in Jax (decades).

right, 20-30 years for the NEXT major hotel. Therefore the new convention center should be built around the existing Hyatt.

[thelakelander]

^Bingo!

[vicupstate]

Stephen, you know perfectly well that the facilites have NEVER been adequate in Jax to build and sustain a convention following.

Do you honestly believe that if the ORIGINAL location of the Convention Center (where the Omni hotel is) had been choosen, that it wouldn't have been more successful, not to meniton a more succesful Landing and likely Laura Street coridor too?

Stephen, who would patronize those businesses?  A few might hang on, but the majority would go the way of that Seafood restaurant.  With no resident population, no convention business and suburbanites too afraid/uninterested to go DT, the vast majority would fail, as most new businesses do ANYWAY.

The following cities ALL used a convention center to create the kind of DT that Jacksonville desires: San Diego, Charlotte, Nashville, Indy, San Antonio, just to name a few.  If convention facilities are taken off the table, what else is left to draw in large numbers of visitors?  

If the facilities are available and a at market price, the bookings would occur.  Once the participants visit and have a favorable impression, they would make return trips.

[tufsu1]

Exactly vic....having a convention/tourism inustry can create the demand for restaurants, nightclubs, etc. downtown....one need look no further than Nashville for proof of that.

[JeffreyS]

The convention center is so disconnected from the rest of downtown even the trade shows we have do not translate to people coming for those to the Landing and other businesses in downtown.

[copperfiend]

If the convention center is built next to the Hyatt and the convention attendees stay at the Hyatt, how will the JSO make all streets one way highways out of downtown?

[Keith-N-Jax]

Build next to the Hyatt great idea, I just dont see the city comming off that property before Christ returns.

[tufsu1]

they wouldn't have to give up the land Keith...most convention centers are built and owned by government entities.