Convention Hotel Delays Could Hinder Group Biz.

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B> Convention Hotel Delays Could Hinder Group Biz</B>

By Rowland Stiteler

<I>St. Louis </I>- Although the new TWA Dome and vastly expanded America's Center have helped make St. Louis a top-tier business travel and meetings destination, the fact that plans for a downtown convention hotel (<I>BTN</I>, April 8) are on hold is pushing away meetings and convention business, warned Convention and Visitors Commission CEO Robert Bedell.

According to Bedell and other city officials, St. Louis is losing convention business to destinations with smaller facilities because those cities have more downtown hotel space.

The downtown's premier convention property, the 910-room Adam's Mark hotel, is not quite big enough to satisfy meeting planners for most large conventions. Bedell said that because talks with potential developers are ongoing, it's not possible to say when a new hotel will be built.

Bedell estimates that if St. Louis had a 1,000-room downtown hotel, it could attract about 60 more conventions a year, booking another 200,000 to 250,000 room nights that would be spread out among properties across the city. With each room night generating an average of about $100 spent in the city, that could translate to a $25 million-a-year cash infusion into the city's economy.

But in order to get that-and protect the $450 million they already have invested in America's Center-taxpayers might be asked to spend about $150 million to build a downtown hotel.

Mayor Freeman Bosley, who tried for three years to get a developer to build a hotel in exchange for tax incentives from the city, is now calling for a plan by which the city would build the hotel and have a hotel developer operate it. With former Sen. Thomas Eagleton as the mayor's negotiator, talks have been held with two developers interested in a downtown hotel.

One of the interested developers is Melvin Simon of Indianapolis, who owns the shopping center across from America's Center. Under a plan being considered, a Dillard's department store that is part of Simon's shopping complex would be turned into a convention hotel, using city funding to pay for the transformation.

Another developer, Dallas investor Richard Aland, has discussed building a convention hotel with private money.

Either way, St. Louis officials say, a 1,000-room downtown hotel is vital to the long-term success of America's Center.