Santa Clarita Conference Center

On Tuesday night the City approved $75,000 to fund a master plan for a new Santa Clarita Conference center. That followed a 2010 feasibility study which said that there was sufficient demand for a 40,000-60,000 sq. ft. conference center in the SCV.

Is there really demand? From the City staff's notes on the agenda item:

For years, members of the Santa Clarita Tourism Bureau have expressed a desire for increased conference space, reiterating that this would help attract new business. Tourism partners believe that with increased space, which is currently limited to Hyatt Regency, Embassy Suites, and the City’s Activities Center, Santa Clarita would attract more conferences, conventions, and revenue-generating tourism events, yielding increased sales tax generation.

The City’s Tourism Office, in cooperation with Santa Clarita Tourism Bureau partners, have solicited large-scale conferences and events in the past. Organizers have considered Santa Clarita, but chose alternate destinations because the area’s facilities were not large enough. 

One reader has his doubts:

The discussion about a conference center has me intrigued.  What sort of conferences do they think they're going to draw to Santa Clarita that wouldn't rather go to Burbank (airport adjacent, existing conference center) or Universal City (tourist destination with abundant dining, shopping and fun within walking distance)?  

My thought is that Santa Clarita would really need to step up the game and build not a small center, but one of the UBER Conference Destinations like Gaylord Hotels has done.  I attended a conference last September at their resort in National Harbor, MD.  The whole area surrounding was entirely built to support this massive center.  This area had one giant hotel (main center) then 4 or 5 smaller, supporting hotels, a dozen or so restaurants, ranging from high class steakhouses to a five-guys style burger joint.  Also had some kitschy souvenir shops, a drug store, some other stores you might see at Citywalk or Third Street Promenade that cater to tourists.  The point is, National Harbor, MD isn't airport adjacent ($80 cab right from Dulles, bout $45-50 from Reagan), its not even particularly close to DC and the National Mall if you wanted to do a little sightseeing.  But because they were able to build this massive center, they can easily draw the crowds, despite the lack of convenience for travel.

Some comments on The Signal have the idea of building at Saugus Speedway, and that's a legitimate option.  Who will pay for the cleanup will be a lingering question.  But really, to do so would undoubtedly upset the existing members of the Tourism District, as they'd lose out on the benefits of that.  Building a mega center near those members (to gain the benefits) doesn't seem easy either, as all the land in that area (at least within City Limits) is already gobbled up.
I guess the long story short is:  I don't see this as being any sort of windfall for Santa Clarita that will bring in overwhelming revenue.  This only adds to the current game, doesn't change any of it.

Conference/convention centers occupy a squishy area between public goods that we'd all benefit from and something traditionally built by the private sector. Many cities at least partially fund & build conference centers to attract businesses and events to their town, so one can understand why the City is pushing this.

And yet, it feels really risky, for all the reasons outlined by the reader above, and because there's few specifics in the staff's report.

What if they build it and it's only occupied for half a year? Or a quarter of the year? It's not like you can use such space for something else. Are Santa Clarita businesses going to have some skin in this game, or is the risk entirely on us?


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