Ithaca Downtown Conference Center predicted to grow the local economy.
Visitors to downtown Ithaca can see construction progress for the new conference center. (Photo by: Jillian Bleier/Ithaca Week)
Construction of the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center is currently underway downtown. The center will feature meeting rooms, ballrooms and a full-service kitchen.
The conference center construction is next to the newly renovated Green Street parking garage. The center will support local tourism through drawing people to Ithaca during the week when hotels and businesses do not see as much traffic.
Teamwork & tourism
Suzanne Smith Jablonski, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Local Development Corporation (LDC), said the center will show off downtown and bring in new folks to the area.
The LDC is a nonprofit organization that will own and oversee the center. ASM Global, a company specialized in conference center management, will be operating the center.
“I think of my own personal experiences, of having traveled to cities big and small for conferences, and know that I would personally love to have the opportunity if I didn’t already live here to come to downtown Ithaca for a conference experience,” Jablonski said.
In a study conducted for Ithaca and Tompkins County, “For a meeting or conference” was found to be the second primary reason for a trip to the area. (Visitor Profile Report 2019 Ithaca and Tompkins County)
The center’s website showcases interactive floorplans and a time lapse camera of the construction progress.
On the center’s website, people can view different potential set ups and capacities for the meeting rooms and ballrooms. (Ithaca Downtown Conference Center Website)
Several groups are supporting the center, including the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, Tompkins County, the City of Ithaca and four Downtown Hotel Partners: Canopy by Hilton Ithaca Downtown, Ithaca Marriott Downtown on the Commons, Hilton Garden Inn and Hotel Ithaca.
Teri Tarshus, regional director of operation for Baywood Hotel, the owner of Canopy by Hilton in Ithaca, said the center will allow new people to get a taste of the area.
“The goal is to have a larger meeting space, to bring more people in to support the overall room need nights in the market,” Tarshus said.
Table 21 includes a projected number for new room nights at hotels, showing how the conference center is predicted to increase business for hotels. (Hunden Strategic Partners Feasibility Study)
Deirdre Kurzweil, owner of Sunny Days of Ithaca on the Commons, said Ithaca is a hard retail market because students are not in the area year-round.
“The conference center will help to stabilize [traffic]so that businesses can maintain a stable influx of sales that will enable them to then have a stable workforce, like be able to offer employment and then not have to lay folks off in the first quarter, so I’m very excited about that,” Kurzweil said.
Funding & feasibility
The major sources of funding for the $34 million project include a city bond, a state grant, hotel payments and the five percent room occupancy tax in the city.
The room tax was created to be a revenue source for the project.
To help combat risk for the project, feasibility studies for demand have been conducted over the past couple decades to show that the city is ready for the center.
Table 3 shows lost business from 2015 to 2019 in terms of meetings and events that were not able to be hosted in Ithaca. The new conference center will provide a space for such events. (Hunden Strategic Partners Feasibility Study)
Fossil fuel free
The center will be the first all-electric conference center in North America, adhering to the city’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2030 through the Ithaca Green New Deal.
Thomas Knipe, deputy director of economic development for the City of Ithaca, said it is exciting to be part of a unique project with sustainability as a selling point.
“Groups that value sustainability … they’re going to look at us a little bit differently because we have this,” Knipe said. “I think that helps us with the overall financial success and achieve the goal of the conference center, which is to bring more people here to experience Ithaca.”
The center will feature an all-electric kitchen and the Vecino Asteri apartments, affordable housing on the top floors of the building, are also carbon neutral.
Construction is scheduled for completion at the end of 2023, with booking starting in the beginning of 2024.
Construction above ground is making progress. Elevator shafts are being built for the building, as well as other structural components. (Photo by: Jillian Bleier/Ithaca Week)
