Appleton already has three of the four elements required of a quality convention center: the downtown Radisson Paper Valley Hotel, a large meeting space and a ballroom. What it’s lacking is enough exhibition space, according to Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna.

Green Bay is also three for four: Its downtown facility includes exhibition space and a Radisson Hotel & Conference Center. What it needs is space to accommodate larger meetings, says Mayor Jim Schmitt.

$18-plus Million Project Costs
If both cities get approval to expand, they’d each spend between $18 million and $20 million to build facilities they insist are essential for them to remain competitive. If they remain as they are, both the Appleton and the Green Bay mayors fear they’ll continue to lose business.

In fact, both mayors point to smaller Wisconsin cities with bigger convention facilities and larger accommodations than either Green Bay or Appleton can offer now or in the next few years. Topping the mayors’ list of behemoth facilities is the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, which opened in 2000. Schmitt also cited a large new Holiday Inn convention center in Stevens Point, Madison’s Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, and new facilities in La Crosse.

Because Appleton and Green Bay are so close, some fear there’s more than a little competition going on. The Green Bay Press-Gazette recently quoted Mayor Schmitt calling Appleton’s project a threat to his city unless government and city leaders move quickly to endorse Green Bay’s expansion plans.

Asked if there’s any tension between the two cities now that they’re both seeking a major expansion, Schmitt demurred: “Oh, that’s the press. Sure, Appleton is a growing community, as is Green Bay. They have more meeting-room space, and they want to add expo space. And we have an expo center that lacks meeting-room space. We can both do this. We can both be successful. And I think we’ll both have facilities within our cities to look at more convention business.”

Friendly Competition
Appleton’s Mayor Hanna agrees there’s competition among the two cities. But he also insists that Appleton harbors no animosity or hostility toward Green Bay. “With every step, we’ve never had a conversation about how we need to beat Green Bay or who’s first,” he said.

Schmitt agrees: “Competition is good,” he told the Press-Gazette. “It makes you work a little bit harder.” His city also has some competition from the Oneida Casino, which operates a Radisson hotel and conference center near Green Bay’s airport. “They’re great people,” he says, referring to the Oneida tribe that operates the casino and other properties.

Brad Toll, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau, echoes the views of the Green Bay and Appleton mayors:

“We’ve proposed a plan for the Green Bay facility that everyone loves, and we’re working hard to complete the financial side. Our plan would take advantage of its proximity to the Fox River and incorporate river views with two hotels on either side. Tourism is continuing to grow, and we’re hoping to expand to meet that demand.”

Low Interest Rates Appealing
Both mayors say the time is ripe for expanding, due to historically low interest rates and the fact that the construction industry is eagerly looking for new projects to work on. As for how to finance it, Hanna says “We can leverage an increase in the [hotel] room tax, and that will leverage a lot more money today than if interest rates were a half or full percent higher today.”

“We’re pretty far down the road,” Schmitt says. “We’ve been looking at this for about three years now. We’ve got the design, we’ve got the renderings. We know where it’s going to go and how it’s going to be constructed. We’ve trimmed the costs. So now it’s a matter of financing. We’ve put together five financing components we need to secure in the next eight months.”

The Brown County Board in Green Bay has tentatively approved a plan to contribute excess hotel room tax revenue, which is sometimes as much as $1 million a year. Meanwhile, the Outagamie County Board in Appleton has agreed to release land adjacent to the Paper Valley Hotel for expansion, with negotiations over compensation for the property to take place later.

Hanna noted the ebb and flow of business in his area: “We have turnover in our downtown and elsewhere. That’s the way business is. We’re trying to expand our downtown and give it more symmetry, south down to the river and north, too. When we built the Performing Arts Center downtown, people asked what the payback would be, and at the time, the honest answer was what a council member said: ‘I can’t tell you what it’s going to be. What we hope is it will bring more people downtown and stabilize and increase property values.’ Five years after the PAC opened, property values on average increased 32 percent, and I see the same thing happening with the exhibition center.”

The Fox Cities Exhibition Board applied for a grant through its Convention & Visitors Bureau for up to $250,000 to hire an architectural design consultant to work with the Boldt construction company to make sure the final design meets all needs of hoteliers, conference planners and stakeholders.

When the Paper Valley Hotel opened 30 years ago in downtown Appleton, that city became the first in the Fox Valley to offer convention facilities. Within three years, Green Bay followed with its downtown hotel, conference center and convention space in 1985.
For the next 15 years or more, the two cities each enjoyed thriving hospitality offerings. Then in 2000, according to the Press-Gazette, Green Bay spent $13 million to double its facility, now named the KI Convention Center. It was described as Northeast Wisconsin’s largest meeting facility — and one of the biggest in the state — with more than 45,000 square feet of meeting and event space, plus its connection to the Hotel Sierra, more recently part of Hyatt Hotels.

Risk of Losing Business
But in an era where bigger is better, both Green Bay and Appleton were feeling pressure to expand again for a better shot at landing more convention and meeting business. Moreover, both cities completed feasibility studies in the past few years and each learned that without expanding, they could lose business opportunities.

“We’ve had to turn some conventions down because our facility is too small, but more important, there are some conventions that love to be here and are growing, and they will outgrow our facility,” says Green Bay’s Mayor Schmitt. “We have an existing customer base that wants to stay here and we want them to stay here, but the only way that’ll happen is if we expand our existing facility.”

If nothing’s done, Schmitt says, the city could lose money. “We would lose about $8 million a year in economic impact if we don’t act on this expansion. So yes, we’ve had those conversations, we’ve had confidential letters from customers saying, ‘Look, Mr. Mayor, we love the city, we love the facility, but we need more meeting space or we’re going to have to look at other facilities within the state.’ That’s something we’re very concerned about and why we’re addressing it now.”

Conventions remain popular with association members. That is a key reason both Green Bay and Appleton are hoping to expand their convention facilities next year.

“Advancements in technology have raised the question of whether conventions will even be necessary in coming years,” says Lynn Peters, executive director of the Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau.  “It appears, however, that the opposite is true.  Because so much of communication is done electronically, many people are hungry for the opportunity to network in person.
“Hybrid conventions have come into vogue, offering the opportunity for people to attend either in person or from a distance, but a survey of people who participated online indicated that 82 percent of them planned to attend in person the following year. 

“For all my research I can find no sign that the need for face-to-face interaction is fading away,” says Peters.

Appleton’s Mayor Hanna has similar concerns.

“Conventions are popular these days, and companies really depend on trade shows,” he says. “But it’s been harder and harder for us to accommodate them. From our feasibility study, we got high marks for a lot of things, but not for our exhibition space. We talked to meeting planners. They loved the amenities the city offers, the shops and restaurants, the cleanliness and friendliness. It’s convenient downtown; you just park your car, and it’s walkable and safe. But we just don’t have that exhibit space. If we did, it’d put us back in the game, so yes, it is about competition.”
Hanna notes that the Fox Cities, which includes 18 municipalities, draws thousands of people from central Wisconsin.

“In fact, we reach all the way to Marquette, Michigan,” he said. “They come down here to shop. On a June day this year, downtown was packed. I saw a bus from Marinette arrive with about 80 people who were here to see a ‘Jersey Boys’ matinee. We get a huge draw, too, from the lakeshore — Manitowoc and Sheboygan.”

The Appleton study indicated that if the city built an exhibition center, it would give the community some 18,500 additional room-nights each year.

“This is the time to do it,” Hanna says. “You can’t deny the economic facts, the economic impact. While we have a downtown we’re very proud of, anything we can do to stabilize what we already have is going to help.” 

By Barbara Abel

Barbara Abel is a freelance writer and editor based in Wauwatosa.

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