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Convention center, hotels need to build to keep up with demand

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SEATTLE, Wash. — As tourism growth in Seattle outpaced the national average in 2014, the demand for hotel rooms and convention space are creating the need for expansion.

The group called Visit Seattle said Wednesday that the Washington State Convention Center has had to turn away more than 300 conventions in the past five years, representing nearly $1.6 billion in future business.

The convention center simply does not have the space or dates available to accommodate more groups, according to David Blandford, the vice president of communications for Visit Seattle.

Blandford said Seattle has the smallest convention center of any large West Coast city, so Seattle then competes directly with cities like Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Vancouver, British Columbia.

“A lot of the association business we go for is on an east-west rotation. They meet west one year, they meet east the next,” he said.

He said Seattle's facility is 56th largest in the nation.

“The facility is really, really nice. And it’s centrally located from all the major hotels here,” said Maria Maranga, an attendee at a convention.

Her group has about 2,500 members, but with an expansion project in the works, the convention center could become a convention district, hosting twice as many people.

The Pine Street Group has been hired to oversee the development, which could cost about $1.4 billion.

Matt Griffin with the Pine Street Group said they are in a conceptual design phase, and they hope to us a lot of natural light.

Griffin said the funding would come from the convention center’s cash, as well as bonds issued when the construction starts. The money comes from existing taxes paid for by people staying in hotels.

“There’s a chance here to do something great, about what is connecting all the good things that are happening on Pine Street that are coming up the hill, and all the good things on Pine Street that are coming down the hill,” Griffin said.

Residents in Capitol Hill hope that’s true.

Chip Ragen, with the Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council, said the last convention center project created a walkway that blocked Capitol Hill’s view of the waterfront.

This time, Ragen said he hopes there will be something made for the surrounding neighborhood.

“Imagine I-5 being lidded from the convention center; or I should say north of Pine, maybe to Pike, maybe to Olive. It would create an amazing opportunity to create more park space,” Ragen said.

The preferred plans for the project are bordered by Howell Street to the north, Boren Avenue to the east, Pine Street to the south, and 9th Avenue to the west.

But simply building more convention space doesn’t solve the whole problem. All those attendees need to stay somewhere.

Blandford said there are currently 10,000 to 12,000 hotel rooms downtown, and he hopes to see 3,000 more built in the next three years.

There is also a 1,200 unit hotel proposed next to the expanded convention center.

A member of the Seattle Hotel Association said their rates have grown because of demand, but that the growth is making up for the recession years when rates were stagnant.

Griffin said the occupancy rate is about 82 percent. When the hotel rooms fill up easily, it’s harder to have large blocks of rooms reserved for large conventions.

Overall, Griffin said the project is an exciting opportunity.

"It's a chance to show of our city, which is a great place to walk, and you don't have to get in a bus like in Boston or Las Vegas to get to a convention center."

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