By Nicholas Miller
You may have heard, Buffalo lost a bid to host the annual conference of the National Association of Sports Commissions due to the dated condition of the current convention center and the not-so-vibrant condition of Main Street. You can almost hear it now, can't you? Soon there will be cries from every direction that Buffalo ought to replace its convention center with a bigger and better model. To not do so would be leaving money on the table, right? How is Buffalo going to compete for all the lucrative convention business that seems to be revitalizing just about every other city?
Well, first off, conventions aren't as lucrative as many people think. This interesting Brookings Institute Report offers a glimpse at the harsh realities of convention center economics. The report is several years old, but its points are still salient. Convention business is fierce. While many cities have spent enormous sums on massive enlargements of their convention centers, convention attendance hasn't kept pace and the metrics of attendee spending are unclear.
Further, being a smaller city, Buffalo would be hard-pressed to come up with the funds to build a competitive convention center. For instance, Pittsburgh, with a metropolitan population just twice as large as Buffalo, has a new convention center more than 14 times as large as Buffalo's.
"Your Convention Center did not meet the expectations of the site selection committee and did not measure up to the level of convention centers visited in the other cities," she wrote. "There was also concern from the site selection committee regarding the abundance of vacant storefronts surrounding the Convention Center and the host hotel."
- Beth Hecquet, National Association of Sports Commissions director of meetings and events
If Buffalo wants to compete in this market, it needs to think smarter. It needs to do something far outside the box. My suggestion would be to tear down the convention center and don't replace it. For starters, it's almost laughably small; roughly the size of a typical Walmart. It's not a unique space and there's no need to overreact and build some expensive, glittering architectural achievement to replace it.
Buffalo already has countless large, underutilized spaces that would provide a unique alternative to the typical convention center and provide more than enough space. This thought came to me when I was in town for the National Trust Conference. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people came for the conference, but in my conversations with attendees, I found that few were able to break away from the convention for more than brief glimpses of Buffalo's amazing neighborhoods.
At one point, I walked up Elmwood from downtown past countless interesting restaurants and businesses (not to mention six nearby hotels) and sat alone in the amazing interior of the Karpeles Manuscript Museum with the knowledge that just a mile south, convention sessions were being conducted in the small, windowless rooms within Buffalo's concrete bunker of convention center.
Karpeles is just one of countless spaces that could be used for exhibition or meeting space. Imagine what a unique experience it would be to hold a convention in the Connecticut Street Armory or one of Buffalo's grand hotel ballrooms or the Central Terminal or Shea's or the Richardson Complex or any number of Buffalo's amazing churches. The visitor's bureau could refocus all the money and effort it spends on maintaining the outdated convention center to coordinating shuttles between these various facilities, becoming a central booking agency for all of these private spaces, and offering grant assistance to the caretakers of participating facilities. That's an approach that would offer a truly unique convention experience, one where people really saw and experienced the city. It would also set Buffalo apart from all the cities that follow the traditional route of building expensive, banal convention pods.
I say, rather than competing simply on the basis of convention facilities and downtown vitality, let's allow Buffalo to compete as a unique city with countless interesting gathering spaces and many lively, unique neighborhoods. Don't fall prey to the faulty economics of big, shiny, single-use convention pods.
Aerials from Bing Maps
Nicholas Miller graduated from the Ohio State University with a B.A. in Urban Geography and Economics in 2010. He currently lives in Detroit with his partner where he works in the GIS field.
Six hotels while walking Elmwood, eh? Though I get your point and actually like it, I'm not sure the practicality. A coordinated army of shuttles still doesn't satisfy what the group was looking for: a walkable, hospitable area. Of course, a region not drowned by sprawl and a reasonable transit system would mitigate that problem somewhat. But alas...
I like your idea. It's what the BNCVB ought to build marketing on: why we're different. Because we're not going to compete with even mid-sized cities like Pitt, Nash, et al.
Also the Armory is at the mercy of the National Guard and Reserve.
For the National Trust Conference, many shuttles were provided for attendees to go to all kinds of places, including the Connecticut Street Armory and the Darwin Martin House. They also held some events at Kleinhans, Shea's and The Colored Musician's Club, so providing shuttles and coordinating third-party facilities is something the convention bureau is already familiar with doing. However, most of the sessions were held in the dingy session rooms of the Convention Center. There are so many amazing, unique spaces downtown and around the city, there's just no need to maintain this publicly-owned space and I do think the Convention Center is holding back the street life of downtown. I think returning the radial street grid and erecting some mixed-use buildings on the convention center's site would dovetail tremendously with all the progress happening downtown. Let the Lafayette, Avant, Statler and AMA's provide the big gathering spaces, but I'm starting to ramble. . .
Couple of thoughts:
1. We need a convention center. A lot of the business is actually for local conventions. The size is fine for local stuff, and no one care if Main St isn't vibrant -- these conventions just pull from the WNY region anyway.
2. On the other hand, how much public money is used to operate and market the center? How much revenue does it actually bring in? I'll bet it's a wash. If so, then we really don't need it. It doesn't add much to the local economy. The main beneficiaries are the hotels.
3. Most conventions are pretty, well, conventional. They want all activities in one place. Having meetings around town is a logistical nightmare, and few organizers would want that. It also drives up their costs. It may appeal to a very limited number, and it's fine to promote that, but think of it as frosting on the economic cake.
4. If the lack of a vibrant Main St. helped kill this deal, then the convention center should screaming up and down that we should no longer demolish buildings in favor of parking lots.
5. Although the report didn't say it, I'm sure the number of panhandlers and homeless within walking distance didn't make much appeal either. Until the city tackles this issue and the dead Main Street issue, forget about trying to attract major meetings.
6. Which means that the City must have a plan. An overall comprehensive plan for downtown. There isn't one, and normally I don't like plans. By Plan, I mean a realization that all the problems of downtown are interconnected, as are all the opportunities. It's great to have a new courthouse, and that solved one problem, but didn't address anything else.
If we want a thriving downtown, we must make it safe, convenient, lively, and attractive. By attractive I mean not just that litter get picked up and we have treelined streets, but that we have activities, such as shopping and entertainment, that attracts people.
The issue of the convention center cannot be discussed in isolation. It must be part of a larger plan of what do we want from our downtown. It thrived for about 170 years without a convention center, and has been pretty lousy every since it was built, so we know that it is not a crucial element to downtown's success. What is? There is no one answer to that question, but the answer is the Plan we need.
I don't disagree that there needs to be a comprehensive plan. I think most local stuff could be handled in Hotel Ballrooms, the Connecticut Street Armory or even a repurposed AMA's. Then people would have choices, too. I also think this building is a blight on downtown.
Does it serve a purpose? Yes. Is it also redundant? Yes, there are other properties you probably have a lot more affection for that have trouble generating business because they're competing with the convention center.
Nicholas -- how many conventions have you attended, specifically as a vendor or participant?
Back when I was in college, I sold insurance for a while and during that time I attended four or five conventions as a vendor with a booth. In the past six months I've attended two conventions as a participant. I've also gone to a few home and garden shows over the years. I've also gone to several political and fundraising events held in convention space.
I did 14 last year and I've already done 2 this year. I've never once been to one where events were held in "multiple spaces." If I was told that my meetings were in four different places -- I'd flip my lid.
Try again, kid.
We have a very comprehensive strategic plan, it's called the Queen City Hub, one thing it calls for is reestablishing Genesee Street, which leads through the Convention Center. And if the building was gone I have a strong suspicion that places like the Staler and the Lafayette Hotel, plus public spaces like ECC could pick up the slack. And my personal opinion, this is the one building in Buffalo I'd approve replacing with a parking lot.
rand503 said:
"4. If the lack of a vibrant Main St. helped kill this deal, then the convention center should screaming up and down that we should no longer demolish buildings in favor of parking lots."
best comment of the entire dialogue!
Couple of thoughts:
1. We need a convention center. A lot of the business is actually for local conventions. The size is fine for local stuff, and no one care if Main St isn't vibrant -- these conventions just pull from the WNY region anyway.
2. On the other hand, how much public money is used to operate and market the center? How much revenue does it actually bring in? I'll bet it's a wash. If so, then we really don't need it. It doesn't add much to the local economy. The main beneficiaries are the hotels.
3. Most conventions are pretty, well, conventional. They want all activities in one place. Having meetings around town is a logistical nightmare, and few organizers would want that. It also drives up their costs. It may appeal to a very limited number, and it's fine to promote that, but think of it as frosting on the economic cake.
4. If the lack of a vibrant Main St. helped kill this deal, then the convention center should screaming up and down that we should no longer demolish buildings in favor of parking lots.
5. Although the report didn't say it, I'm sure the number of panhandlers and homeless within walking distance didn't make much appeal either. Until the city tackles this issue and the dead Main Street issue, forget about trying to attract major meetings.
6. Which means that the City must have a plan. An overall comprehensive plan for downtown. There isn't one, and normally I don't like plans. By Plan, I mean a realization that all the problems of downtown are interconnected, as are all the opportunities. It's great to have a new courthouse, and that solved one problem, but didn't address anything else.
If we want a thriving downtown, we must make it safe, convenient, lively, and attractive. By attractive I mean not just that litter get picked up and we have treelined streets, but that we have activities, such as shopping and entertainment, that attracts people.
The issue of the convention center cannot be discussed in isolation. It must be part of a larger plan of what do we want from our downtown. It thrived for about 170 years without a convention center, and has been pretty lousy every since it was built, so we know that it is not a crucial element to downtown's success. What is? There is no one answer to that question, but the answer is the Plan we need.