ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — The ongoing expansion of the downtown convention center has, so far, added one new exhibit hall, started at least two big political fights and burned through well over $100 million.

But it won’t make St. Louis more competitive in the way leaders once envisioned.

A review of floor plans for nine cities identified as competitors when the expansion was first planned indicates that, as the project stands now, the America’s Center will rank roughly where it did in 2016 in terms of exhibit halls, ballrooms and meeting room space.

Eight years ago, a consultant hired by the region’s tourism bureau recommended a much larger expansion, one that would establish clear supremacy over Midwestern peers, challenge the likes of Denver and Houston — and bring in a lot of new business.

Leaders called the improvements critical:

St. Louis’ convention center was falling behind, they said, at risk of losing some of the hundreds of thousands of people conventions bring downtown each year. Other cities across the Midwest were investing big in their centers. Leaders here said they needed to do better than match their competitors — they wanted to surpass them.

It didn’t happen.

First, St. Louis tourism leaders couldn’t get the money for the big plan. Then they introduced a smaller one. And now lengthy delays and skyrocketing costs have forced cuts even to that.

The result is an expansion that holds St. Louis’ place among its competition but falls short of delivering the size and space consultants said would attract more conventions. It raises questions about whether the current, $250 million expansion can live up to the promised benefits, even as hotel bookings slide. And St. Louis may not keep pace with rivals for long: and , for instance, continue to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into further buildouts.

“It would have been real nice to do the whole thing,� Gary Andreas, an industry expert and principal with Chesterfield-based H&H Consulting, said of the 2016 pitch. “It’s a vicious business.�

Kitty Ratcliffe, chief of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission and face of the expansion, could not be reached for comment for this story.

But Brian Hall, chief marketing officer for the tourism bureau, said the organization clearly preferred to do the full expansion as originally proposed. However, he said, a coordinating team led by St. Louis, St. Louis County and tourism officials did the best it could with the money available.

And he said improvements like the new 72,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a planned outdoor event plaza and expanded loading docks will keep St. Louis ahead of several competitors and allow it to host multiple events at the same time.

Hall said feedback from customers has been outstanding and that the convention center is set for a banner year for events in 2025.

Steve O’Loughlin, the commission board chair, added in a text message that square footage isn’t the only thing convention planners consider. The region has pumped billions of dollars into nearby attractions such as the Gateway Arch National Park, Ballpark Village, the new soccer stadium and Union Station, he noted.

“We’ve never been better positioned to grow,� he wrote.

Exhibit space, loading docks, big ballroom

The report from Chicago-based Johnson Consulting dropped in February 2016. Its message was urgent: The America’s Center, it said, was “hugely important� to the region, an anchor for an “entire subsector of the City’s Downtown,� bringing hundreds of thousands of people to the city every year.

But the report said the center’s clients were outgrowing it: They complained that the ballroom was too small. The kitchen was in the wrong place. The loading docks were too few. And the Dome, sold to the public in the 1990s as a multi-use building, provided a “false sense of scale� due to a drop-off in quality and connectivity between the football stadium and the rest of the convention center.

Without the Dome, the report said, the America’s Center had less exhibit space than Denver, Minneapolis and Nashville, Tennessee. Those three cities and Columbus, Ohio, had bigger ballrooms.

Even with the Dome factored in, St. Louis’ offerings fell short of Atlanta, Houston and Indianapolis, a city an before its convention center expanded in 2011 and record-breaking hotel bookings followed.

The consultant recommended an ambitious expansion in St. Louis, one that would increase exhibit, ballroom and meeting space by nearly 40% and upgrade part of the Dome for convention use. It would cost a lot, maybe as much as $500 million.

Tourism commission board members said it was essential.

“I just hope we’re able to go to the Legislature,� said Vice Chair Kim Tucci, “and get as much help as we possibly can.�

There was precedent: The state covered half of the bond payments on the expansion that built the Dome.

But by 2016, state legislators were publicly fuming at the city’s costly — and failed — bid to keep the Rams football team from leaving the Dome for Los Angeles. There was .

And there was little appetite for more big commitments in new Gov. Eric Greitens’ office as staffers .

So tourism bureau leaders asked Johnson Consulting to draw up a compromise plan.

And in September 2018, city and county leaders announced a smaller project. It wouldn’t build out the convention center and upgrade the Dome like tourism bureau officials wanted, but it would add some new exhibit space, loading docks and a ballroom double the size of the current model.

Then St. Louis and St. Louis County officials delayed approvals, and as the delays stretched on, construction material costs skyrocketed.

The bid for the first phase of construction came in $40 million over budget.

And by the end of 2022, the ballroom was on the back burner.

‘We need to know what’s going on’

Today, the convention center can still boast about its new loading docks, which now number more than 30, closing the gap with competitors. The new exhibit hall is almost done. And work is beginning on a new outdoor plaza between Ninth and 10th streets that will help match offerings in other cities.

But in terms of dedicated exhibit, ballroom and meeting room space originally targeted for improvement, the expansion doesn’t push St. Louis past any of its 2016 competitors:

It added 72,000 square feet of exhibit space, growing to 574,000 square feet, but stayed in fifth place when compared with nine other cities, behind Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis and Denver.

Ballroom square footage, which didn’t grow, stayed in ninth place, behind Denver, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Louisville, Houston and Columbus, Ohio, and beating only Minneapolis.

In meeting room square footage, which also didn’t change, the America’s Center dropped to fourth, behind Atlanta, Indianapolis and, barely, San Antonio.

Meanwhile, hotel room bookings secured by the commission here, a key sales metric, remain well below pre-pandemic numbers even as other cities are reporting full recoveries.

And it’s not clear what officials can do about it all.

Hall, the tourism bureau spokesperson, said adding new ballroom space and a state-of-the-art kitchen facility in the heart of the complex remain top priorities. But it will take more money to do that.

City officials have already forked over an additional $45.3 million to get the plaza and some other improvements done, and there are no immediate plans to offer more cash.

Page, the county executive, said in a statement May 31 that the county “does not have any more money for the project.�

Meanwhile, some county council members are demanding tourism bureau officials appear at a hearing July 9 to explain the situation.

“We need to know what’s going on down there,� said Councilman Mark Harder, R-7th District, “and the taxpayers do, too.�

Late Thursday, the tourism bureau board met in closed session to discuss personnel matters, just weeks after the board discussed removing Ratcliffe.

O’Loughlin, the board chair, said after the meeting he had nothing to report.