Home Builders Cancels 2007-08 Conventions

The association, based in Washington, DC, will pay the city, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau about $2.6 million in total penalties for breaking the two-year contracts, sources tell GlobeSt.com.

Chicago, Orlando and Las Vegas are among the sites the builders are considering for near-future conventions, sources close to the controversy tell GlobeSt.com. The estimated economic loss to metro Atlanta is $120 million per year. The builders' annual conventions were Atlanta's biggest events with an estimated 150,000 visitors attending yearly, sources working with the local visitors' bureau on other events tell GlobeSt.com.

Lack of exhibit and area hotel space were factors in the directors' decision to pull out of Atlanta, sources tell GlobeSt.com. With 1.4 million sf of exhibit space, the 29-year-old Georgia World Congress Center is considered the fourth largest convention center in the US, behind Chicago (2.2 million sf), Orlando (2.1 million sf) and Las Vegas (2 million sf), according to GlobeSt.com research. Gross space at the World Congress Center is 3.9 million sf.

Dan Graveline, executive director of the Congress Center, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. But hospitality industry sources tell GlobeSt.com the center is working on several contracts that will bolster the bookings ledger over the next two years but won't replace the revenue loss from the home builders' conventions.

Hotel rooms in metro Atlanta total about 80,000, according to Marcus & Millichap research. That number compares with an estimated 120,000 rooms in Orlando; 50,000 rooms in Miami; 48,000 rooms in Tampa; and 46,000 rooms in metro Nashville. The latest Marcus & Millichap data show new construction will add only 1,000 hotel rooms per year in Atlanta through 2005, compared to 2,800 rooms per year in the late 1990s.

The World Congress Center has run into bad luck recently with the cancellation of the National Hockey League's All-Star game in 2004 and a projected revenue shortfall of $500,000 this year. Besides the World Congress Center, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority oversees operations of the 102,000-sf Georgia Dome and the 21-acre Centennial Park.

The center also competes for events with several smaller area convention sites. Among them are the Georgia International Convention Center, 150,000 sf; Gwinnett County Center, 50,000 sf; Emory Conference Center Hotel, 23,000 sf; Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, 21,000 sf; Marriott Evergreen Conference Resort, 20,000 sf; and the 20,000-sf Marietta Conference Center & Resort.