Memorandum
City
of
City
Manager’s Office
|
TO: |
David L. Corliss,
City Manager |
|
FROM: |
Diane Stoddard,
Assistant City Manager |
|
DATE: |
January 7, 2014 |
|
CC: |
Cynthia Wagner,
Assistant City Manager |
|
RE: |
Manhattan, Kansas
Conference Center |
This memo will provide information about the
Manhattan Conference Center,
and a summary of the events and action the City of Manhattan took leading up to
the opening of the conference center in downtown Manhattan in late 2011.
The
Manhattan Conference Center Summary:
The Manhattan Conference Center is a 30,000
square foot facility, yielding 15,500 square feet of usable conference space
(see attached
layout). The conference facility can
host events for up to 1,500 people and the space is flexible with one large
room that can be segmented into eight separate rooms. The conference center is adjacent to a new
parking garage and also adjacent/connected to a new 135 room hotel, the
Manhattan Hilton Garden Inn. Other hotel
development in the area will soon yield approximately 400 hotel rooms in the
general vicinity of the conference center with additional hotel rooms available
in the community.
The City of Manhattan has a development
agreement with the developer regarding the hotel, conference center and parking
garage. The developer constructed all
three of the facilities, with the developer financing the $14-15 million hotel,
the City financing the $6.3 million parking garage utilizing half STAR bonds
and half general obligation bonds, and the City financing the conference center
construction with the issuance of $9.5 million in economic development
bonds. The City’s agreement with the
developer outlines developer ownership and operation of the hotel and
conference with City ownership of the parking garage. The agreement also calls for the developer to
repay $5 million of the $9.5 million construction cost of the conference center
over a 30 year period.
Early
Efforts Leading to Conference Center:
The City of Manhattan began looking at the
issue of a conference center, along with retail market potential and gaps in
the late 1990s and early 2000s. A
community market analysis examining the retail and convention market was
completed in 2002 by the consulting firm Hammer Siler George. Manhattan also began a downtown visioning
project that examined redevelopment opportunities adjacent to downtown. This initial work eventually led to the major
downtown redevelopment project generating extensive new retail investment, the
new Flint Hills Discovery Center, new outdoor plaza space, and the
hotel/conference center/parking garage utilizing various financing mechanisms,
including STAR bonds and general obligation debt.
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, which
also operates the Manhattan Convention & Visitors Bureau, hired a
consultant, Tony Peterman from Strategic Advisory Group
(SAG), to further analyze the Manhattan conference center market potential and
also examine possible sites for a conference center. The SAG study
concluded that the top two sites for a conference center in Manhattan was
adjacent to the KSU campus and downtown.
The study indicated more synergy and potential with the campus site, but
for land cost reasons the City opted to pursue the location in conjunction with
the downtown redevelopment activities which were already in motion. The City of Manhattan hired SAG to update the
study in 2006 with more specific projections and with the downtown site
location prior to proceeding with the conference center. Because SAG had extensive experience with the
prior Chamber study, the City did not issue a request for proposals for SAG to
update the Chamber study. The updated 2006 SAG study provided a market analysis
and financial feasibility analysis for the conference center.