Baltimore needs to get moving on new Arena/Convention Center complex

Existing Convention Center / Sheraton Hotel

Back in May of this year, the Greater Baltimore Committee revealed plans for a proposed new 18,500 seat arena, 500 room Sheraton hotel and enlarged Baltimore Convention Center at its Annual Meeting.  The key part of this proposal is that Willard Hackerman, a large Baltimore real estate owner/developer and current owner of the Baltimore Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, would form a partnership to privately fund the construction of the arena and new hotel.  Hackerman’s investment is contingent on the city of Baltimore and state of Maryland financing the enlarged convention center.

The overall project is estimated at $900 million dollars and would take four to seven years to totally complete once the project starts.  The arena is expected to cost $325 million and the hotel $175 million.  Those costs would be paid by Hackerman’s team, again provided the city and state fund the $400 million for the expansion of the convention center.  The timetable would be to demolish the existing Sheraton hotel and erect the new arena on that site.  A new Sheraton hotel, with an additional 150 more rooms than the current version, would be built above the arena.  The original east building of the Baltimore Convention Center would then be demolished and construction would begin on the expansion of that venue.

Let’s take a look at the existing arena.  It was out of date in 1960.  Unfortunately, it was not opened until 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center and designed to fill three roles – sports arena, convention space and performing arts facility.  It did none of the three roles well and created more headaches than it solved.  When the National Hockey League decided to expand in the mid 1960′s, they wanted to come to Baltimore rather than Philadelphia.  NHL President Clarence Campbell visited the Civic Center for a site inspection and when he saw the permanent stage on the south wall that would only allow for seating on three sides of a hockey or basketball game immediately disqualified Baltimore as a NHL expansion city.  With the current seating configuration, the NBA relocated the Baltimore Bullets to the Washington suburbs in 1973 and the NCAA will not even consider the venue for 1st or 2nd round games of the March Madness basketball tournament.  Concerts that come to the venue do not utilize the permanent stage and build temporary staging in front of it, which eliminates even more seating.  The meeting facilities were no longer needed after the Convention Center opened in 1979 and were eventually demolished in the mid 1980′s to facilitate construction of a parking garage.  Today, the arena is still owned by the city and operated by SMG.  The main tenant is the Baltimore Blast of the Major Indoor Soccer League.  SMG and its current management team should be applauded for keeping the venue as actively booked as it currently is the top venue its size in the country for dates booked.

The third piece of the puzzle is the Baltimore Convention Center, which opened in 1979 with 115,000 square feet of exhibit space.  In 1996, the Center expanded to 300,000 square feet of exhibit space when it opened its west building.   This proposed expansion would increase the exhibit space to 630,000 square feet.  Having worked in that venue for nearly 10 years, I know how hard the staff works to keep the facility from showing its age – there were times when it seemed like a losing battle, however (I also have the benefit of working two years to staff events at the 1st Mariner Arena, so I know of the issues they deal with as well).

Visit Baltimore, the city’s destination marketing organization, touts that hospitality and tourism industry supports nearly 75,000 jobs in the metropolitan Baltimore area.  In addition, over $1.1 billion is generated in additional tax revenue (For the record, I occasionally do some training for Visit Baltimore’s Certified Tourism Ambassador program).

Proposed Arena/Hotel from southeast Conway Street

Is this project guaranteed to be a slam dunk of a success?  No.  In my opinion, it is much riskier to “stay the course” and do nothing to get additional convention business in town.  Go back to the last paragraph and re-read the economic impact of tourism to Baltimore.

By going forward with this project, Baltimore gains: (1) construction jobs on this project; (2) the current site of the 1st Mariner Arena becomes available to help with the revitalization of the west side of downtown; (3) a more vibrant street scene along Pratt Street, which currently has bunker-like emergency exits for the convention center; (4) more hotel rooms to help accommodate groups that are currently not considering Baltimore due to not enough hotel rooms currently; (5) a state of the art arena that would attract more concerts and sporting events; (6) a “greener” convention center; (7) a major private investment of $500 million rather than the public financing the entire $900 million cost; and (8) the ability to compete with nearby Philadelphia and Washington, DC on a more equal footing for convention business.

I have travelled the past 18 months to various conventions around the country and have seen what other destinations can offer.  I worked in the major venues that will be replaced by this propose project.  Baltimore has a great package to offer to the various associations that hold trade shows and conventions, but our facilities are beginning to be held against us.  If we go forward, we once again become a serious player for conventions and trade shows.  More conventions means more heads in beds, more folks eating in our restaurants, touring our attractions, and pumping money into our local economy and tax coffers.

Now is the time for people with leadership and vision to come forward to lead this proposed project to reality.  Too often in the past, Baltimore has thought too small and wound up paying a much steeper price in the long run.

Photo Credits: (1) Aerial shot of Convention Center / Sheraton from the Greater Baltimore Committee. (2) 1st Mariner Arena – Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun (3) Proposed complex by Ayers Saint Gross

Tagged as: 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, Baltimore Convention Center, Visit Baltimore