Cities keep squandering money on hotels and meeting facilities

[krazeeboi]

From my perspective, it's pretty obvious that the location of Prime Osborn is a huge reason why Jacksonville lags in landing conventions, especially without a hotel connected or within very close proximity. Building a convention center in the core won't be a silver bullet for downtown, but it will do much to raise Jacksonville's profile as a convention city and do more to put more feet on the street. It shouldn't be an "either/or" proposition when it comes to a convention center and investing in infrastructure that will bring in more businesses and residents. And Jacksonville wouldn't be competing with major convention cities like Orlando and Vegas by building a new convention center, but rather cities like Charlotte, Nashville, Birmingham, Tampa, Memphis, Norfolk, Richmond, Raleigh, etc.

[tufsu1]

remember...nobody comes downtown and a convention center would be empty

just don't tell that to the 3200 high school kids (plus parents/chaperones) that are here this week for the HOSA compettition....they are using all four major downtown hotels and the Landing has been packed with them for days