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'There aren't a lot of people': St. Louis’ convention business falls 20 percent

Unions, hotels and restaurants are feeling the effects of a shrinking local convention industry.
America's Center. Photo Credit: Dilip Vishwanat, St. Louis Business Journal

ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL — Two hundred workers with Decorators & Displaymen Local 39 often made $45,000 to $65,000 a year setting up exhibit displays for downtown conventions.

Not anymore.

“They may make $30,000 to $40,000 this year and only work 1,200 hours — if they’re lucky,” said Business Manager Frank Condellire. “The bigger, national and professional shows we’ve become accustomed to are starting to slip.”

Unions, hotels and restaurants are feeling the effects of a shrinking local convention industry. Officials with Explore St. Louis, which is also known as the Convention & Visitors Commission and oversees the tourism industry here, in late 2015 warned that a failure to renovate America’s Center, the main convention facility, would lead to reduced business. Competitors across the Midwest and beyond have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrades. The downtown facility last saw substantial work around 2012, when a new roof and other upgrades cost $48 million.

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An Explore St. Louis Spokesperson provided the following statement:

“St. Louis remains a vibrant and attractive destination for meetings and events. As we have known for some time, 2018 is a challenging year as we lost large conventions including O’Reilly Auto Parts and FIRST Robotics, which both outgrew our facilities at America’s Center. In addition, national associations removed us from consideration during the many months following the events in Ferguson and that had an impact on both 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile our competitors have not stood idly by as they have made impressive investments in improving their convention facilities. This underscores the need to invest in the America Center’s Convention Complex to retain our present base of business and grow future opportunities, supporting the jobs of thousands of area residents and local businesses.”

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