Centered in Cincinnati: Springfield chamber’s annual Community Leadership Visit studies Ohio city’s convention center project

Matt Morrow: Springfield has a lot of similarities with Cincinnati in areas such as economic structure.

Mark Hecquet: Timing of visit is relevant with both cities involved in convention center projects.

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While the city of Springfield has approved investing $30 million toward a new downtown convention and event center, another community amid a multimillion-dollar convention center project of its own served as the locale for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Community Leadership Visit.

Cincinnati, Ohio, was the site of the chamber’s Sept. 23-25 trip, which brought over 80 Springfield area business representatives to the town. This year’s CLV agenda included panel discussions on topics such as downtown revitalization, housing and redevelopment, regional economic growth, workforce challenges and placemaking.

As Ohio’s third most populous city, behind Columbus and Cleveland, Cincinnati’s metropolitan statistical area incorporates 15 counties, which also include some in Kentucky and Indiana. Its MSA population exceeds 2.3 million people and has grown 14% over the past 25 years. By comparison, the Springfield MSA – comprising Greene, Christian, Dallas, Polk and Webster counties – is up roughly 34% over the same period, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Noting Cincinnati has been on the chamber’s list for several years of possible destinations for its annual CLV trip, Matt Morrow, Springfield chamber president and CEO, said this year the city rose to the top.

“They’re a couple of years into a regional economic development strategic plan,” he said. “They’re specifically very focused on downtown redevelopment that’s taking place there, including some strategic initiatives toward increasing the housing supply.”

Morrow said Springfield and Cincinnati have a lot of similarities regarding how their economies are structured, the mix of industry representation and some similar opportunities and challenges.

“It’s been one that we’ve always had an eye on because that region is actually very similar to our region, although at scale it’s significantly larger,” he said.

While Cincinnati’s metro area employment size is almost five times the size of Springfield’s, both areas grew the labor force by 10% over the past decade.

Project pursuits
A key component of Cincinnati’s downtown redevelopment is the revitalization of its convention center. The city temporarily closed the facility last year to modernize the infrastructure. Construction on the $264 million Duke Energy Convention Center, which will have been closed for around 18 months upon its planned reopening in December, includes an overhaul of exhibit halls, ballrooms, meeting spaces, energy systems, outdoor amenities and a 700-room Mariott hotel.

The convention center first opened in 1967 and had its last significant upgrade in 2006, said Julie Calvert, president and CEO of Visit Cincy, a travel and tourism marketing organization for the Cincinnati region. The city, state, Hamilton County and Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., dubbed 3CDC, are among public and private partners collaborating on the project and downtown redevelopment.

“The power comes in the partnership that we have here between the city and the county, 3CDC, Visit Cincy, to really make sure that we together can create the best convention center in the Midwest for what we need to get done in terms of convention businesses in Cincinnati,” Calvert said. “We would be doing it a disservice if we call it a renovation, because renovation kind of conjures up the thoughts of new carpets, paint, that type of thing. But this is a complete modernization, and to be able to do that type of a massive project in just 18 months takes a lot of partnership and a lot of good communication between all the parties to make sure that we’re all on the same page and working together.”

CLV attendees were given a tour of the convention center, and Mark Hecquet, president and CEO of Visit Springfield, Missouri, said it was interesting to learn of the collaboration among city and county leaders, along with private investment, to make the project a reality. It was Hecquet’s third time to attend a CLV with a Springfield delegation.

“Obviously, the timing of what Springfield’s looking at was very relevant,” Hecquet said. “It was just really nice for us as a group to kind of see it and quite honestly get a bit of excitement because certainly the scale of what Cincinnati has is much larger than Springfield. It was refreshing to see another city that’s investing a lot of money, and it sort of reinforced a lot of people’s minds that this is something that Springfield should be doing.”

In August, Springfield City Council approved the expenditure of $30 million from the Spring Forward SGF capital improvement sales tax to fund a new downtown convention and event center estimated to cost $175 million, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The appropriation approved by council is intended to provide a one-to-one match for a $30 million allocation from the state, which is currently on hold and requires the approval of Gov. Mike Kehoe for release.

Additionally, Springfield voters will be asked to support an additional permanent 3% lodging tax on the November ballot that would go toward funding the project.

Morrow said the convention center tour was enlightening, adding the Cincinnati facility will be transformative for its downtown as the city had an existing asset that was underperforming and made the decision to “turn it off long enough to bring something back that would produce in a more robust way.”

“The takeaways that are most relevant to us around that is that they had to make the economic case first,” he said. “I think we’re in that spot right now where we’ve made that economic case. There are neutral expert third parties taking a look and better understanding what we’re leaving on the table by not having the kind of asset that we need.”

While Cincinnati had to heavily invest to revitalize a struggling convention center, Morrow said that is not the situation Springfield finds itself in.

“What we will need to do is to build new and to do that in a way that allows us to add business books that we don’t even really have on our radar today,” he said.

Partnership power
Morrow said Springfield stacks up “pretty well” with Cincinnati on public-private partnerships. Locally, that includes the Grant Avenue Parkway and Renew Jordan Creek projects.

“Both communities rely heavily on public-private partnerships,” he said. “It’s what they describe as their secret sauce for success. It’s our not-so-secret sauce for success also.”

Regional partnerships were noted by Dean Thompson, vice president and chief economic development officer at City Utilities of Springfield. Thompson, who also is executive director for Leaders for Ozarks Region Evolvement, an organization designed to promote regional collaboration, said he appreciated the impact of connectivity with trails and parks throughout Cincinnati. That collaboration has led to an initiative dubbed The CROWN to complete a 34-mile urban trail loop around the city. Roughly 65% done, The CROWN, which stands for Cincinnati Riding or Walking Network, is led by Tri-State Trails with support from government, philanthropy and foundations.

“Typically, I just don’t go there for the sessions and all that,” said Thompson, who has attended 10 CLVs with the Springfield chamber. “I’ll get out, I’ll go running or walking and try to get a vibe with the city. For a city that size, I was surprised how clean it was and the connectivity of the trails to the downtown and the river.”

Thompson said Cincinnati is focused on downtown as its hub, and while it ties in regional connections, the city’s focus doesn’t get diluted among its 15-county MSA.

It’s good strategy for Springfield to emulate, he said.

“If you talk about regionalism, people want to maintain their own identity, and that makes sense, and that’s what I would want to do,” Thompson said. “We as a region can never afford to allow downtown Springfield to become a doughnut hole inside of the urban area because that negatively impacts the entire region. It comes down to the focus, strategic priorities, what are we looking at transforming.”

Morrow said the planning for the next CLV begins as soon as the prior one ends, and part of the post-trip feedback includes surveying this year’s participants on suggestions for prospective destinations.

The chamber handles logistics, such as booking venues and hotels, for the CLV program, which started in 1994. Attendees pay their own way, and Morrow said the Cincinnati trip cost around $3,000 per person. 

He said the CLV program is a way for the Springfield community to compare itself with others – something every successful business does.

“A lot of communities don’t,” he said of benchmarking against peers. “That is a mistake because it would presume that communities are not in competition, and they are.”