New CVB Chief Plans To Expand Javits, Corp. Mtgs.

<B> New CVB Chief Plans To Expand Javits, Corp. Mtgs.</B>

By Robert Selwitz

As the newly named president and chief executive officer of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, Fran Reiter's prime goal is "to make New York City the premier meeting destination in the country."

To fulfill that objective, the city must expand the Javits Center, increase the venue supply for small corporate meetings and support at least a 10 percent growth in hotel inventory, Reiter told attendees at a press conference last week.

Addressing the current situation at the Javits, Reiter focused on the facility's small size--compared with other centers-- inconvenient location and lack of onsite conference facilities, all of which have hindered the center's success.

"We want meeting planners to be able to stage conferences and sales meetings at the Javits," Reiter said. "There shouldn't be the need for companies attending a Javits show to have to regroup at a midtown hotel in order to discuss strategies or plans."

Therefore, while she supports an extension north to 42 Street, Reiter pointed out that merely adding show space won't fill the center's critical needs (MT, Nov. 10, 1997). Not only should smaller meeting spaces be incorporated into Javits, but the CVB would like to have more influence over the event booking process.

"There has to be a balance between major shows, conferences and conventions. While boat and auto shows are very important to tourists and area people, there also must be sufficient dates for events that have ancillary benefits for the city, those which produce hotel room nights, visits to restaurants and entertainment outlets, and purchases of transportation," Reiter said. "From the city's perspective, these are the things that justify a major investment in the Javits Convention Center."

While noting that a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus terminal and a building site--which the owner wants to develop--stand in the path of the Javit's proposed northward growth, those challenges pale in comparison to an earlier and much larger stumbling block: the clearing out of criminal elements that for many years made Javits an expensive and unpleasant venue.

As for smaller function facilities, Reiter hopes to develop conference facilities at the West Side Piers. So far, she said, a planned conversion of the present site into television and movie studios isn't moving ahead, and the Piers might become increasingly valuable to this meeting market.

"With the loss of the Coliseum, there's a real void for smaller shows and exhibits in New York City. Therefore we must locate and develop new sites to attract and retain this business," she said.

Working to develop the small to mid-sized meetings market, CVB senior vice president sales and marketing Michael Fiorentine's department will target corporate meeting planners, with sales personnel ready to assist buyers and work more closely with hotel suppliers.

"Our sales people are not just trying to attract individual events, but an entire vertical industrial swath--we'll go after not just the American Bankers Association but also Chase Manhattan Bank," according to Fiorentine. "Whether its pharmaceuticals, insurance, finance or others, we are determined to assist our 140 hotel members in their quest to fill their smaller meeting facilities. We are ready to supplement what the sales offices of Sheraton, Marriott or Hyatt can do, all with the goal of finding functions that comfortable fit into free standing meeting spaces in individual hotels, as well as at groups of properties."

For example, Fiorentine said, "a partner's meeting at Deloitte and Touche might cover two or three hotels, but a meeting of the firm's new partners could comfortably fit into one property. We are ready and willing to help our hotels secure all of these kinds of business. We are definitely concentrating on those markets that are predetermined or pre-disposed to buy New York City."

Reiter expects the 6,000 new hotel rooms that are coming online in the coming year will accommodate this market. Indeed, a key area of growth cited by Reiter is the new properties catering to mid- or moderate incomes, which are either conversions of current properties or office buildings not concentrated in midtown Manhattan (see story, page 34).

Reiter said the new wave of hotel development began less than five years ago, when all hotels were concentrated strictly in city-center sectors. "Just four years ago Patton's army could have rolled through lower Manhattan during a weekend, and never hit anyone," she said. "Today, we have a successful property in SoHo, other hotels in and around the area are filled, people are busy shopping and even the South Street Seaport is doing better."

Reiter also supports continued improvement at the city's airports. While praising the clean-up and installation of spiffier food and retail outlets at La Guardia, she has nothing good to say about the present state of New York's prime international entry point, JFK. "It's horrible! Go to Kenya and look at Nairobi's airport--which is no one's idea of a first class facility--and you'll see its only a minor step below the Kennedy experience." Meanwhile, plans are rolling ahead to improve that facility (see story, page 36).

Prior to assuming leadership of the NYCVB, Reiter headed Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's successful second election campaign. During his first administration, she served as deputy mayor for Economic Development and Planning, and deputy mayor for Planning and Community Relations.

Before embarking on her public career, the native New Yorker worked for 15 years on the business side of the entertainment and television industry. Reiter served in senior management positions for various television syndication companies, and ran her own marketing and management consulting firm between 1988 to 1993.