Anaheim Unveils Plan for Convention Center

Moving to solidify its place as one of the nation’s premier tourist locations, Anaheim announced plans Tuesday for a $150-million project that would nearly double the size of its Convention Center and make it one of the nation’s largest such venues by the end of the decade.

Word on expanding the 29-year-old facility comes during a week in which the Walt Disney Co. plans to disclose designs for a long-anticipated, $1.4-billion companion park to Disneyland.

Together, the projects are portrayed as crucial to the region’s battle for a greater share of convention business and tourist dollars.

“An enhanced convention center combined with Disney’s intention to build a second theme park in Anaheim will place the city at the forefront of tourist and convention destination resorts for many years to come,” Anaheim City Manager James D. Ruth said.

The Convention Center will keep its landmark domed-shaped arena--at least for now--but the rest of its image will be completely remade under the theme of “Southern California as Paradise.” The design features exotic landscaping, a picturesque stream, tramways and an elaborate new lobby.

A new, second entrance between the Marriott and Hilton hotels will sport a dramatic laser beam shooting from the top of its entry rotunda, said Steven Brubaker, an architect with Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, the firm that drafted plans for the expansion.

HOK designed the Pond of Anaheim--where Disney’s Mighty Ducks play--and other major sporting venues across the country. They city paid the firm $1.2 million to create a master plan for expanding the Convention Center over a 20-year period.

The city will issue nearly $400 million in bonds to cover much of the cost of the expansion as well as public works improvements and new parking associated with both the new Disney park and the Convention Center enlargement.

After the first phase of construction--scheduled to begin next March and end by October 1999--only convention centers in Chicago, Las Vegas and Atlanta will be larger.

“We need to have this,” said Disneyland President Paul Pressler, who was among the more than 100 community leaders who attended the unveiling. “The amenities that we will build are essential for the continued success of the convention business in Anaheim.”

Tourism officials said the city had no choice but to expand. Some 60 organizations threatened not to return to Anaheim unless the Convention Center were expanded. Without an upgrade, officials said, the city would lose nearly $4 million a year in tax revenue because it would lose some major trade shows and conventions to larger convention centers.

“It’s not a pretty picture for the future,” said Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau. “There is a sense of urgency to this. We can’t stay where we are.”

The first phase of the expansion, seen as the most critical to retain current business, would be a total of 700,000 additional square feet. That includes 200,000 square feet of exhibit space and 160,000 square feet of meeting room space, with the remainder for a large meeting room, hallways, lobbies, storage and service areas.

The existing 985,000-square-foot Convention Center would grow to 1.4 million feet during the first phase of expansion.

If the market calls for it, future expansions would take place in seven phases over 20 years. The final phase would call for the removal of the facility’s arena and its landmark dome to make room for more exhibition and meeting space.

Several City Council members were impressed with the plans.

“This is a very sensible and beautiful master plan,” Mayor Tom Daly said. “It is clear that there is strong support from the business community, including the hotel industry, to move forward with the first phase of this master plan.”

The council took no action Tuesday but next week is expected to approve a new contract with HOK to complete detailed design drawings for the initial expansion phase.

Anaheim Convention Center General Manager Greg Smith said the expansion will benefit the city by providing 7,300 additional jobs and creating a $7.5-million increase in hotel occupancy taxes. The Convention Center and the hotels around it already sustain 16,000 jobs, officials said.

The convention industry means big business, officials said. According to estimates by the International Assn. of Convention and Visitors Bureaus, a modest-sized, four-day national convention with 5,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors injects $5.6 million in new, direct spending into the host community.

Although many convention centers host local and regional events, the big prizes are the out-of-town conventions that fill local hotels and pump new money into the area economy. Industry watchers say Anaheim, like other major convention cities, needs to attract those outside dollars to make its expansion strategy pay off.

“The key is where the money comes from,” said Michael C.R. Collins, senior vice president at the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The local boat show may be a nice event. But it’s the large national conventions that bring in the cash, and as those events expand, the amount of cash continues to rise.”

Still, experts say bigger places aren’t always better. The type of space being added is just as important as the amount of space. In the past, trade shows required large swaths of exhibit space, while professional associations wanted meeting rooms for their conventions. Today, many trade shows and conventions are hybrids, requiring both exhibit space and meeting rooms, according to Steve Sind, president of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research in Bethesda, Md.

Sind said Anaheim’s plan to add both types of space as part of its expansion would help it to capitalize on the industry trend.

“It’s the right thing to do at the right time,” he said.

The Anaheim Convention Center has undergone four previous expansions, in 1974 and again in 1982, 1990 and 1993. The original building was 400,000 square feet and cost $6.1 million.

On Monday, city and Disney officials outlined the financial framework that will pay for the Convention Center expansion, public works improvements related to the new Disney project, and some parking.

City officials said a total of $550 million will be needed to pay for the Convention Center expansion and to improve streets, landscaping, utilities and build some parking for a larger Convention Center and the second Disney theme park.

Anaheim plans to issue nearly $400 million in bonds for the work, which would be paid off through hotel and sales taxes along with tourist revenue. In case of a shortfall, Disney would guarantee about $200 million of the debt, agreeing to step in and pay investors if the city can’t.

Disneyland’s second theme park is scheduled to be unveiled today to coincide with the park’s 41st birthday. Officials have already released some details of the long-awaited $1.4-billion expansion project, which will include a 750-room luxury hotel, a night life and shopping district and a theme park called Disney’s California Adventure.

Casting a cloud over this financial scenario is a statewide anti-tax initiative on the November ballot sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. The measure calls for voters to retroactively approve all new taxes and tax increases implemented after January 1995. This would include the increase of 2 percentage points in the hotel bed tax passed last year and dedicated to the Convention Center expansion and tourism area improvements.

The city has placed a measure of its own on the November ballot, asking voters to retroactively ratify the bed tax increase.

Also contributing to this report was Times correspondent Alan Eyerly.

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More Coverage of Anaheim’s Makeover

* BUSINESS APPLAUDS: The business community praises the plan to expand the Convention Center, improve cityscape. A12

* CUTTING-EDGE DESIGN: Architects for the project are noted for state-of-the-art sports venues including the Pond. A12

* CONVENTION COMPETITION: Cities across the nation are building or adding exhibition space to take advantage of convention growth. A13

* JUST THE TICKET: Center’s veteran box office manager thinks expansion will restore its former glory as a performance venue. A13

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The Center’s New Look

The first phase includes new construction and remodeling. More exhibit space and meeting rooms and an expanded lobby will be added.

Architectural structure: two glass towers and a steel framework

Expansion: two and three stories high, each story at least 20 feet high

Exterior: clear and translucent glass in various colors

Main entry: new glass-front lobby with terrazzo floor

First floor: expansion of existing exhibit halls

Second and third floors: new meeting rooms

Source: Anaheim Convention Center, Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum