Tourism officials in Memphis, Tennessee, have unveiled plans for a US$55m overhaul of the city’s aging convention and exhibition centre in.
The Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau (MCVB) has received preliminary approval from council officials to increase the city’s hotel-motel tax to pay for an upgrade to the Memphis Cook Convention Centre.
The project would combine the Cook Convention Center and Cannon Center into one building with a unified façade, expanded meeting space, improved signage and enhanced parking.
“We need an updated convention center, so even our hometown companies can conduct larger conventions, meetings and events here,” said Kevin Kane, MCVB president and chief executive. “And we need updated facilities so we are less disadvantaged when competing for meeting and convention business regionally and nationally.”
Built 41 years ago, the 27,592sqm centre’s rivals include Nashville’s Music City Center, which spans 111,480sqm and the Jackson Convention Complex spanning 30,650sqm.
Council officials voted unanimously to increase the city's hotel-motel tax 1.8 per cent, to 3.5 per cent. They also gave the green light to plans to create a Tourism Improvement District and impose a $2 daily hotel-motel occupancy fee to pay for the MCVB's annual budget when its share of hotel-motel tax is diverted to pay for FedExForum bonds in 2017. The ordinances are subject to a further two readings.
In their presentation to council officials, MCVB representatives said the Memphis centre was “outdated and worn in many areas” and needed to “project a welcoming, inviting, first-class image”.
“If Memphis is to maintain its position as a top leisure destination, a position that brings in more than 10 million visitors, nearly $150 million in state and local taxes and more than $3.2 billion in spending by visitors annually, then the MCVB must be adequately funded,” Kane added.
The renovations would create more than 1,500 construction and long-term jobs, as well as 100 full-time tourism jobs, according to research from Seattle-based consultants BCI=network.
