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Convention center here comes down to demand, place, cash Comment By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Dec. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Dec 21, 2015 at 9:21 AM By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Dec. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Dec 21, 2015 at 9:21 AM » RELATED CONTENT Conventions or conferences? --> Lots of people use the terms interchangeably, but conferences, conventions, trade shows and summits all have their unique qualities, according to event marketing firm SpinGo and the Social Tables b... » Read more X Conventions or conferences? Lots of people use the terms interchangeably, but conferences, conventions, trade shows and summits all have their unique qualities, according to event marketing firm SpinGo and the Social Tables blog. Conferences : Gatherings for consultation, education or discussion between attendees and speakers. Most commonly held in academic, news and information exchange situations. Conventions : Gatherings of members, representatives or delegates to engage in common interests and to make decisions as a group. Designed for attendees to engage with each other. Trade shows : Generally product-driven exhibitions for a specific industry to demonstrate latest offerings and examine recent market trends. Often limited to insider attendance. Summits : Gatherings of CEOs and other top executives with a prearranged agenda. A place where big business occurs, deals are made and debate happens.     • Location, location, location • Potential pitfalls • Success stories • Conventions needing large central spaces are bypassing Medford... » Social News Medford was feeling its oats as it transitioned away from a timber-based economy two decades ago, choosing tourism as one of its paths to future prosperity. In September 1996, the city hosted the annual Oregon State Bar convention. Although the community spirit was willing, Medford simply lacked the capacity for such a gathering. "We had to meet at the Red Lion in Medford, but if we offered extra things and events, most were in Ashland if we could do it," says Portland event planner Carolyn Wence. "I like the Red Lion, but it was not big enough even back then." Brad Hicks, CEO and president of the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County, recalls placing delegates in multiple hotels and running shuttles to accommodate the schedule. "I remember getting comments like, 'Don't invite us back until we can all be in the same place at the same time," says Hicks, who was a junior staff member then. "A lot of groups find Southern Oregon a very attractive place to come to, but we simply don't have the facilities to hold them." While new hotels have been built, little has changed in regard to Medford — or anywhere in Jackson County — having the resources to handle large organizations desiring to eat, meet and sleep in a single location. Now armed with a $100,000 feasibility study grant from the Oregon Legislature, the city of Medford has a chance to evaluate the demand, scope and costs for a convention, conference, exhibition or civic center. Medford will begin seeking proposals from consultants early next year. The consultant of choice will have a major influence on the direction the community takes. Even then, however, it may be years before decisions are made and a final product emerges. Virtually every one involved in the process concedes the coming study may very well suggest the best course of action is to make do with what we've got. Definitions and terminology can cloud understanding of the perceived need — is it a conference, convention or civic center? — but the reality of limitations is clear. City Manager Pro Tem Bill Hoke sums up the feasibility study for what he terms a "conference center" as a balancing act. "There is a sweet spot and for sure you want to hit it," Hoke says. "You get the right people involved, spending the right time on the planning phase before you go into it, and then you won't regret it." The three elements necessary going forward, he says, are establishing whether there is demand, where the project would be sited and how to pay for it. "If they walk through and say there is no demand, we're done," Hoke says. "If there is demand but we can't come up with a site, we're done; if there is a demand and site, but we can't figure out how to afford it, then we're done." What we can — and cannot — offer With a mild climate, outdoor activities, wine and beer sampling, Britt Festivals concerts and Oregon Shakespeare Festival plays, the Rogue Valley can put on an attractive presentation to groups and event planners. But challenges remain. Industry experts say no two locales parse out the same when analyzed, for myriad reasons. The Rogue Valley may be a wonderful midpoint along Interstate 5 between Portland and the Bay Area or Sacramento, but it is secluded. Jackson County may have a population of 210,000, but there are smaller or similar-size communities throughout the country that can draw from much larger population centers within a two- or three-hour drive. "Some people think the state of Oregon ends when you get to Eugene," says Tom Becker, former Pacific Retirement Services CEO and Lithia Motors board member. "The state has a lot of meetings in Salem or Portland and a few in Eugene. But seldom do they hold them down here in Medford. There's just an expectation that you're going to go to Salem or Portland." Medford has an international airport with connections to hubs throughout the West, but the perception remains that flights are both difficult to book and expensive. The transportation system also factors in, event planners say. The availability of auto rentals is far less important than bus or tram service to out-of-town attendees, who are in meetings throughout the day. There are other factors, and often moving targets, in evaluating community conference and convention needs, says Steven Spickard, managing principal at Land Economics Consultants in the Bay Area. He cites, for example, technology changes that once led to a belief that large-scale gatherings were on the decline. "Twenty or 30 years ago it was thought video conferencing would mean fewer people getting together," Spickard says. "That hasn't happened. What has happened is the same traditional need of getting people together, it's just become more complex and complicated. We used to call them municipal auditoriums. They weren't really performing arts buildings, but a big multipurpose room where you could have banquets, the local Lions Club gala, and at the same time host a collection of dentists for a three-day meeting." At present, Jackson County's three largest conference/convention centers — Inn at The Commons and Ramada Inn in Medford, and Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites in Ashland — can squeeze in about 400 people for a meal, but none of them can house that many by themselves. All three long have been on the scene and have gone through major overhauls. Built back in 1968 as a Holiday Inn, 154-unit Ramada Inn can now seat 400 for meals in its 8,228-square-foot ballroom space. Inn at The Commons, the former Red Lion Hotel, offers a 6,000-square-foot ballroom, but its room count was reduced to 118 from 185 when the property was revamped after its 2013 purchase by the Neuman Hotel Group. Doug and Becky Neuman, along with Mike and Laura Naumes, acquired Ashland Hills in 2013 and are on course to provide in-house food service next spring. Ashland Hills' grand ballroom is listed at 6,600 square feet capable of seating 520 for dinner. Its 148 rooms, however, likely necessitate the use of neighboring Windsor Inn and Holiday Inn Express. All three offer additional meeting room space. Don Anway, Neuman Hotel Group's general manager, isn't sold on the need to build something new for the sake of building something new. "I've heard a lot of people say, we need a conference center, and then they will come," Anway says. "I'm not opposed to a conference center. But there are not so many people looking at Southern Oregon that we need to have more space than what we currently have." Anway maintains flight schedules and fare rates neither are enticing nor supply a competitive advantage for the Rogue Valley. "It's expensive to travel to Medford versus other places, and you have a hard time finding flights during peak season," he says. While competing conference destinations already have public transportation in place, Southern Oregon is limited. "It's a nightmare for guests to fly into the valley and then try to get to their destination," Anway says. "Right now their source is a cab." Auto rentals aren't an attractive alternative, he says. "Looking at transportation, in the 16 years I've been here, and the costs of traveling to Southern Oregon, we've found some people don't even consider Southern Oregon because it increases their costs of having a conference," he says. Local tourism and visitors agencies have learned to work within the constraints of size and location, says Anne Jenkins, Travel Medford senior vice president, adding the Rogue Valley doesn't have a big enough meeting space nor enough breakout rooms to accommodate the larger groups. "We only go after groups we know we can have here," Jenkins says. "We don't want to waste meeting planners' time by going after groups of 300-plus that need more seating and breakout space than we have." Aided by concerted marketing efforts, Medford's conferences, conventions and events attendance has trended up following the recession. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014, Travel Medford counted 13,170 attendees, accounting for 13,510 overnight room stays. The figures grew during the fiscal year ending this past June 30 to 14,453 visitors, booking 17,108 overnight room stays. "One of the things we're seeing is that some of the events are lasting longer," Jenkins says. "There might be pre- or post-event activities, but for whatever reasons people are extending their trips and exploring the area." Convention center not a new idea At one point it made sense to someone to think in terms of larger conference space on the periphery of Pacific Retirement Services' property north of Quail Point Golf Course. Three decades ago, the city approved plans for a 150-room hotel with a 20,000-square-foot conference center where the 120-room Hilton Garden Inn Hotel is going up off Ellendale Drive in southeast Medford. The conference center, however, was scaled back to 3,107 square feet in 2008. "The idea at the time it was master-planned was that we would have a couple of hotels and a conference center," Becker says. "It kind of made sense at the time, but things change in planning all the time." The Hilton Homewood Suites was built in 2011 and purchased by Kauri Investments in September 2013. Kent Angier, president and CEO of Kauri LLC in Seattle, says an extensive conference center was not part of his firm's plans. "We didn't explore going in that direction," Angier says. "We felt there was sufficient demand for that many rooms with other drivers; we didn't conclude there was demand for a conference center." Although the community stepped up to rekindle the Craterian movie house into its premier performing arts center, the closest Medford has had to a civic center has been the National Guard Armory, built in 1957, and expanded to more than 40,000 square feet in 1991. In the 1970s, after the county fairgrounds shifted from what is now the Southgate Shopping Center between Barnett Road and Garfield Street, community leaders gathered to map out the future of what is now the south Medford interchange. The project, known as Vision 80, laid out a variety of plans, coming about as close to a civic/conference center effort as there has been. Very little of Vision 80 came to fruition, says Al Densmore, Medford mayor from 1977 to 1983. "It had the same problem that comes with all these proposals," he says. "Who is going to pay the subsidy when the conference center doesn't make money? They're trying to be as creative as possible to incorporate as many things into the design to get maximum usage now. We didn't have that degree of sophistication." In the weeks and months ahead, civic and community leaders will take the first step exploring the matter. Getting locked into a good idea might not even be best, says the chamber's Hicks. Rather than letting desire go beyond ability, he says, "to use a sports term, we've got to stay within ourselves." "There are still so many unanswered questions," Hicks says. "What it should be? Where it should go? How much and who pays for it? Right now, we can only focus on what we know as opposed to what we don't know. I want to make sure whatever we do complements amenities we already have, and that whatever we do is helpful to the hotel and hospitality industry, not harmful." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31 . By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Dec. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM Updated Dec 21, 2015 at 9:21 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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