City beat from the Feb. 27 City Council meeting: For minutes and schedule, visit springfieldmo.gov/citycouncil
Six months after issuing a competitive assessment report for the vacant lot next to the Springfield Exposition Center, Chicago consultancy Hunden Strategic Partners is detailing its recommendations in a new report calling for $90 million in public-private investment hinged on a 60,000-square-foot retail, restaurant and entertainment complex in the University Plaza parking lot.
The consultant also advocates for an anchor hotel on the empty 1.7-acre parcel that fronts St. Louis Street and connecting it to the Expo Center and University Plaza across the street.
The follow-up report, issued to city officials Feb. 23 and briefly discussed with City Council members Feb. 27, builds on recommendations in August that the city pursue four points of development: construction of a full-service hotel connected to the Expo Center; renovations to the Expo Center; improvements to the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center; and development of a restaurant and entertainment district. The first report, a 185-page document, suggested the proposals would require more than $100 million in public and private investment, and it positioned the entertainment district closer to downtown.
“(Hunden Strategic Partners) does not believe the new hotel or expo/convention center is worth the investment if Springfield does not also create this new restaurant/retail/entertainment environment,” the report states.
The revisions are part of an economic impact study tasked with showing the city’s return on such an investment. The city partnered with Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau and John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts to hire Hunden Strategic Partners to determine the best use of the vacant land next to the Expo Center.
That land had been slated for a 200-room Embassy Suites Hotel to be constructed by Hammons Hotels, but the project stalled due to a lack of financing.
The city has sought development of a full-service hotel on the site for years in an effort to increase the city’s convention business.
“If we don’t move forward, then we need to get out of the game altogether,” said John Ford, publisher of Welcome to Springfield Magazine and a member of the 13-person Convention Attraction Task Force that is reviewing the consultant’s impact study.
With Springfield facing stiff competition in the convention and group-booking business from the likes of St. Louis, Kansas City and nearby Branson, the Hunden report recommends an all-or-nothing approach.
“The city’s competitors from Kansas City and St. Louis to Branson all have this, and Springfield will not see adequate results with the ‘fun’ factor,” it reads. “Absent this, Springfield’s only competitive advantage would be price.”
The task force has responded with a preliminary recommendation, and a formal response will be submitted to City Council at an undetermined date, said Tracy Kimberlin, president and CEO of the CVB and task force chairman.
The task force’s recommendation states:
“Given the recommendation of Hunden Strategic Partners that the best use of the vacant lot adjacent to the Expo Center is a new hotel facility, the city should continue to hold the property for such use while city staff investigate the feasibility of funding construction of recommended renovations to the Expo Center. If, within a reasonable time, the city determines that it will be unable to fund the recommended improvements to the Expo Center, then the city should entertain other uses for the property, keeping in mind, however, that per the assessment of Hunden Strategic Partners, the lack of a hotel on this site could result in the continued loss of conventions and other similar functions.”
Kimberlin said he doesn’t believe it likely that all of Hunden’s recommendations will be followed, and he described the entertainment and retail facility as being the most controversial suggestion.
“I think the public investment in private enterprise from the standpoint of retail and restaurants would be something that I would be very surprised if we do here,” Kimberlin said.
Estimating a 25-year horizon, the investment would generate $43.8 million above costs, or an 8 percent return, factoring in 3 percent inflation and borrowing costs of 5 percent.
The impact study projects that if its recommendations are fulfilled, spending in the community would increase by $1.1 billion during the 25-year horizon. Personal income would increase by more than $15 million annually and 750 full-time equivalent jobs would be created during that time. The one-time construction impact would generate $54 million in personal income and 441 job years, which is defined as one job for one year.[[In-content Ad]]
