Do lawmakers own computers? Do they ever go on the Internet and look things up? Things like, “The cost of owning and maintaining a convention center,” for example.
I ask because I’m looking at stories about the Hawai‘i legislature nickel-and-diming the Hawai‘i Convention Center's repair and modernization budget. The place suffered from chronic leaks pretty much since it was new in 1998. In January, the center closed to everything but local events for two years to finally fix the roof. As the costs for that project have grown to now $87 million, state lawmakers said no to funding an additional $55 million in related repairs and modernization.
As a result, the center is likely to reopen for business in 2028 and still leak. And this is really its first major renovation in 30 years.
Over at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser today, Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawai‘i Hotel Alliance, and Teri Orton, the Hawai‘i Convention Center general manager, have their say on the impacts of this legislative penny-pinching.
Its worth a read and it got me looking into what other cities spend on their convention centers.
Hawai‘i competes against the world for meetings and conventions, and what the competition is spending on their centers makes us look like we’re trying win an F1 race with a golf cart.
Take, for example, Orange County, Florida, centered on and around Orlando, with a population little bigger than Hawai‘i’s at 1.53 million.
In 2023, Orange County approved $560 million to expand the Orange County Convention Center, adding 1.15 million square feet of exhibit space. Our reps grumble and cancel $55 million, while one town in Florida says yes to spending half a billion.
Also in Florida, the Tampa Convention Center opened in 1990, just eight years before our convention center. Tampa itself has a population of 408,000 while the greater metropolitan area boasts 3.42 million, double Hawai‘i’s population. In 2023, the Tampa Convention Center completed $44.5 million worth of work: new meeting rooms, upgraded ballrooms, upgraded restrooms and concession stands, improved lighting, painting and carpet throughout the facility and improvements to its riverside outdoor event space.
How about California?
Palm Springs is not big. Just 45,500 live in Palm Springs proper, while just over half a million live in in the larger Indio-Cathedral City-Palm Springs metropolitan area. Populationwise, it’s half of Hawai‘i. The region gets 14 million visitors a year, of whom 6.4 million stay overnight.
The Palm Springs Convention Center was built in 1984 and expanded just 20 years later in 2005. Today? It’s in the project approval phase of $135 million investment to modernize the center between November 2026 and 2029.
“This $135 million project will ensure that the Convention Center continues to serve as the region’s premier gathering place for conferences, exhibitions, and community events,” say organizers at the project’s website.
Note the words “ensure” and “continues.” Palm Springs leaders aren’t sitting around wondering, “How come we have to keep paying for this thing?” They're saying, “of course we have to, or we’ll get left behind.”
Further north, we find San Francisco and its Moscone Center. That center had completed a capital improvement project in 2012 of $56 million (that’s $81 million in today’s dollars). The money was spent not only on the buildings but on a marketing campaign to enhance its reputation.
Did San Francisco then say, “That’s it! We’re pau!”
No, and not just because they don’t say “pau” in San Francisco.
Between 2014 and 2018, it spent another half-billion expanding and improving Moscone North and South.
“According to Tom David, executive vice president and chief sales officer for San Francisco Travel Association, the expansion was driven by the need to both keep and attract convention business,” wrote TSNN.com.
Why?
“The driving force from key convention groups was to modernize the building to keep it relevant,” David said.
But that’s not all!
“San Francisco has secured more than $40m in private-sector funding to revitalize its downtown core,” reported Conference & Meetings World last October.
“The initiative includes several measures to support business events. The city is redesigning its outdoor event permitting process. New entertainment zones will be created on Ellis Street, Maiden Lane, Jackson Square and Claude Lane. What’s more, the city reports that twenty new liquor licenses have been approved for the hospitality zone. This expands dining and nightlife options.”
That’s what San Francisco is doing for the neighborhood around its convention center. What are we doing?
Well, I’d just note that when you look out through the giant glass windows of the Hawai‘i Convention Center lobby, the most prominent nightlife option is … Club Rock-Za.
A strip joint.
Seriously.
What about the rest of world?
Curious lawmakers might want to visit the home page of AIP, the International Association of Convention Centres, which has 203 member convention centers members from 55 countries.
As of May, it welcomed two new members.
One is the Speke Resort Conference Centre in Uganda, a $45-million public-private project that opened two years ago and is able to accommodate 19,000 attendees with “17 futuristic conference rooms.”
They’re really nice rooms. Can Hawai‘i compete … with Uganda?
The other new member is the Sofia Event Center, in Bulgaria. Until 1989, Bulgaria was a member of the Soviet-led Warsaw pact, enemies on the opposite side of the Cold War from us. Now it has a convention center with a room where entire walls are floor-to-ceiling flat-screen TVs, like some kind of sci-fi holodeck.
Can Hawai‘i compete … with recovering communists?
Not with this track record.
Lawmakers grumbling about the escalating costs of fixing the convention center in 2026 should look in a mirror. The center asked for $64 million for all this work in 2022, and all it got from the Legislature was a measly $15 million. Of course, the project costs more now. The water leaks, and inflation, have had four more years to do their damage.
By all means, lawmakers, expect the center to spend the money wisely. But you have to realize, this is a state facility competing in a global market. What the convention center is, and what it could be — that’s on you, not on Orton or Gibson. Our competitors are making investments of half-a-billion while you won’t spend a tenth that to keep the place from leaking when it rains.
If comedian Sebastian Maniscalco hasn’t trademarked the punchline by now, I have to ask, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”
A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.
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A. Kam Napier can be reached at kam@alohastatedaily.com.
