Global events management firm Cvent recently announced Las Vegas slipped to third among its top rankings for U.S. conventions and meetings destinations, trailing Orlando and Chicago, respectively.
Virginia-based Cvent partly bases its annual rankings on the amount requests for proposals received versus contracts signed for events destinations among its 16,000 clients, who sponsor nearly 280,000 conventions and meetings events around the globe.
Orlando, Chicago and Las Vegas routinely rotate among Cvent’s top destinations rankings, and the events management firm has events contracts in place that give the two other cities an advantage in the rankings. But Cvent says the conventions and meetings industry is highly competitive, and projects like the $2.3 billion Las Vegas Global Business District could help to put Las Vegas back on top.
Chicago recently completed a renovation and expansion of its McCormick Place convention center and is adding a $390 million companion hotel. In Orlando, the Orange County Convention Center is undergoing a multi-year Capital Improvement Plan, including improvements to its meetings and boardroom areas.
LVCVA CEO Rossi Ralenkotter in 2013 cited such projects among reasons why Las Vegas needs to be proactive in improving the convention center and maintaining its traditionally stellar rankings and undertake the 10-year, $2.3 billion Global Business District project.
“The Las Vegas Global Business District is the single most important economic development project in the state, and it will generate thousands of good-paying jobs and help lay a strong economic foundation for the benefit of the entire community,” Ralenkotter said upon the LVCVA’s approval of buying the Riviera Hotel & Casino for $182.5 million.
The purchase made way for the first phase of the LVCVA’s convention center expansion plan. The LVCVA intends to build an outdoor exhibition area on the location and have it ready in time for a major global construction industry trade show in 2017.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said the deal demonstrates Las Vegas’ “ability to reinvent itself as the economic engine for Southern Nevada,” and that’s what LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter says the Global Business District development is all about.
During its planned 10-year construction through 2013, the Global Business District is expected to create some 6,000 construction jobs and spur $3.6 billion in economic activity, according to the LVCVA. Once completed, the Las Vegas Convention Center will be 1.8 million square feet larger, and Global Business District should net an expected 20 new trade shows and nearly 500,000 new attendees each year.
The LVCVA estimates the Global Business District will create about 6,000 permanent jobs paying more than $220 million in wages and salaries, and produce an incremental economic impact of some $700 million. It also expects the new Global Business District, which includes
The project is the largest undertaken by the LVCVA since the initial construction of the Las Vegas Convention Center in the latter 1950s, and the former Riviera casino is a large part of those plans.
The Riviera’s 13 structures are slated for demolition this summer, including its two hotel towers. But they contain asbestos and face minor local legal challenges, mostly related to asbestos abatement. The contractor in charge of the demolition plans to place a protective wrap around the towers, manually remove the asbestos-laden materials, and take down the towers in separate implosions this summer.
The LVCVA is expected to prevail against legal challenges and plans to have the site cleared by the fall to make way for a 750,000-square-foot expansion of the convention center, most of it outdoor exhibition space and supporting structures. The LVCVA needs that done in time for a global construction-industry tradeshow planned next year.
The former Riviera casino site also is to provide about 187,500 square feet of state-of-the-art meetings and events space, which likely will please Cvent clients. Once that is completed, the LVCVA then plans to renovate and expand the Las Vegas Convention Center, including adding 100,000 square feet of meeting space and another 100,000 square feet of general-use space.
Upon completion of its Global Business District, the LVCVA says the Las Vegas Convention Center will have grown from 3.2 million square feet to about 5.7 million square feet.
The improvements at the Las Vegas Convention Center likely will boost Las Vegas’ ranking among Cvent clients. So should the many planned hotel and resort developments.
Cvent also assesses the number of available room nights, and says the price of rooms can impact rankings. With high occupancy rates on the Las Vegas Strip, Cvent Vice President of Marketing Kevin Fleiss says adding more hotel rooms could help Las Vegas to regain its top ranking.
The LVCVA indicates Las Vegas Strip hotels are averaging nearly 90 percent occupancy rates, and large events drawing more than 100,000 people result in room rates between three and five times higher than normal.
Fortunately, many projects are underway that would add thousands more rooms on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip and near the convention center.
Genting is planning to add another 3,100 rooms by 2019 as part of its Resorts World Las Vegas project on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip. Across the street, Crown Gaming plans to add another 1,100 room at its Alon project by 2018, but financing is needed.
Wynn Resorts might add another 1,000-room tower, conveniently located near the Las Vegas Convention Center, as part of Steve Wynn’s ambitious water park project.
A more modest development, the Lucy Dragon Resort, is adding another 200 hotel rooms upon its planned casino opening later this year, while the massive Fontainebleu has the potential to add another 3,800 rooms, if the right buyer ever is found.
The addition of those hotel rooms, along with meetings and events space, should resonate well among Cvent’s large client base.
Combined with the LVCVA’s Global Business District project, that leaves Las Vegas well-situated to regain Cvent’s top conventions, meetings and events destination ranking.
