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[The_sandlapper]

Not much too write home about but two significant happenings for Downtown.

Top of the line steak house, and opening of the Convention center.

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Convention Center to open

A landmark event

Among the last capitals in the nation to get a center, Columbia hopes to compete for convention visitors’ dollars after next week’s opening

By TANYA FOGG YOUNG

Staff Writer

Steve MacDougall’s restaurant practically sits at the entrance of the nearly completed Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in the Vista.

In anticipation of the center’s opening, he has increased MacDougall’s Restaurant & Bar’s kitchen and wait staff by about 15 percent. He has added six new entrees to the basic American menu with “Southern flair,” as well as four new wines and several new beers and top-shelf liquors.

“We’re trying to be prepared for the crowds,” MacDougall said. “I’ve even found out some of the conventions that are coming and have tried to cater to those with wine and food selections. We don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

MacDougall and other area business owners are hoping the convention center will be a catalyst for the area economy, helping generate millions of dollars in local business.

The 142,500-square-foot center is being built on Lincoln Street, between Senate and Pendleton streets. The $37.4 million center officially opens next week. It is being funded by tourism development fees, a local option tax enacted by the city of Columbia, and Richland and Lexington counties.

Traditionally, most cities’ convention centers operate in the red. However, they often bring a boost to the local economy, and in Columbia, many businesses are preparing by adding staff and extending hours.

Some workers in the local hospitality industry — such as hotel front-desk staff — are going through friendliness training and learning more about area attractions to better help visitors.

“Hospitality is something a lot of people just think is common sense, but it doesn’t hurt to remind people to be welcoming,” said Dave Zunker, who does sales and marketing for the Columbia Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau.

SPREAD THE WEALTH

Center officials, retailers and others want to make sure the Vista is not the only area to reap benefits from the center.

“Sure, the Vista is the home of the convention center, but additional business needs to spread into other districts,” said Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., the Vista’s economic developer. “Sending 300 people into the streets of the Vista at lunchtime could overwhelm restaurants that are already busy today.”

New trolley routes downtown will help spread convention center visitors around town, officials say.

“The more convenient it is to move around a community you’re unfamiliar with, the more pleasant your visit is,” said Mitzi Javers, executive director of the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority, which administers the area’s public transit system. “If you’re operating on a budget, you don’t have to worry about renting a car for the three or four days you’re here with a convention.”

The trolley will run to and from the convention center from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with stops including downtown, Five Points, USC and across the Gervais Street bridge in Vista West.

“We think the major impact of the convention center crowd probably will be in the evening,” said Dennis Hiltner, owner of The Gourmet Shop and president of the Five Points Association. “The time constraints for lunch can be tough.”

Some merchants, such as manager Perry Lancaster of Brittons, an upscale clothing store on Devine Street, have taken action in hopes of profiting from the center crowds.

Lancaster, also head of the Devine Street Association, recently led a tour of about 10 convention and visitors’ bureau staffers through Shandon’s commercial district.

“When they’re out there selling the convention center and Columbia, I just want them to think about Devine Street,” Lancaster said. “Something like this needs to be done in every district’s shopping corridor.”

COLUMBIA’S NICHE

Columbia is the last capital in the United States to get a first-rate convention center. It also is behind other cities in the state such as Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Greenville, which already have convention centers with more meeting and exhibit space.

“We let them all practice at it, and now we’re gonna get it right,” joked Mack Stone, general manager of Columbia’s convention center.

The impact of a venue that brings spenders into the area for conventions sometimes is overlooked by the public, said Steve Camp, director of the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism.

“Most of what a convention center does goes unnoticed because there’s not an Elton John or Billy Joel performing there,” Camp said.

“The center is here to provide the opportunity for people to come in and spend money without the cost of us having to do things like educate their children or, for the most part, provide police protection.”

However, local convention center officials know they have their work cut out for them in landing the types of events that will yield the dollars they desire.

Columbia’s central location and its capital-city status are the appeal for conventions and conferences, officials and meeting planners say.

Camp said the center’s primary targets are state associations that could add Columbia to its three- or four-year conference rotation schedule. Most of the center’s business will come from within a 300-mile radius of Columbia, essentially a “drive-to market,” he said.

“Yeah, they like to go to Myrtle Beach and Charleston, but if there’s meeting space in the state capital, we’ll get a part of the business,” Camp said.

WHO IS COMING, WHO IS NOT

To date, the center has booked about 175 event days — about 80 percent of which will take place in the next year. Two or three of the events are in 2007, Camp said.

The mix of events booked are typical for a fledgling convention center of Columbia’s size, including large corporate and civic organization dinners expecting 700 to 900 people. Also, a 1,000-guest wedding is planned for the spring.

“We welcome those because they are good business financially,” Camp said. “But we need a steady diet of conventions and meetings to be an economic generator for the community.”

To that end, center officials are hosting a Sept. 21 reception for the S.C. Society of Association Executives. Meeting planners make up the bulk of the association’s 250 members from around the state.

The organization’s members also are executive directors and staff members of various trade associations, as well as hotels and convention centers, said executive director Keely hagen.

The association’s own one-day trade show, usually with about 200 people gathering once a year at the State Fairgrounds, will come to the Columbia convention center in February, hagen said.

Meanwhile, Jim Peters, chief executive of the S.C. Association of Realtors, said he would consider the Columbia convention center as a possible site for the association’s three-day midwinter conference that usually takes place in late January. Typically, that event draws about 300 people.

“It’s absolutely critical that the facility be up to date and cost competitive,” Peters said. “And in the Vista, there is access to good restaurants and night life — that’s key.”

Columbia, however, still is not the coast, nor does it offer the bounty of golf courses.

The Realtors organization’s other three-day annual convention, which usually draws more than twice as many people, at about 750, would likely never come to Columbia, he said.

This week, the Realtors convention will be in Savannah. Next year, it is scheduled for Hilton Head, and Myrtle Beach is the location for 2006, Peters said.

There are other obstacles. Not yet having a dedicated hotel open — a criterion many meeting planners use in selecting convention sites — is a challenge for the center, officials said. A 225-room Hilton convention center hotel is planned, but construction has not begun.

Until that Hilton is complete, some area hoteliers, such as the Hampton Inn in the Vista, are trying to be as accommodating as possible to conventioneers.

Bishop Fred Porter, convention planner for Tampa, Fla.-based Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith, said he would consider the Columbia convention center as a venue. Once it gets a dedicated hotel, that is.

Porter has planned a conference in 2006 in Columbia. But the event, expected to draw about 1,500 people, is at the Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center.

“I like Columbia — it’s not real cold in the winter, and we have several churches in South Carolina,” Porter said. “But I try to get the meeting site and hotel together, and the convention center doesn’t have a hotel yet.”

CONVENTION CENTER BUSINESS

Convention centers in Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Greenville have each helped generate millions of dollars in local business in their respective communities, officials said.

But that has come as a result of focused marketing efforts after first determining their niches and selling points, several convention center managers said.

“What sells Charleston is that it’s a destination that ranks high in the polls,” said Ed Riggs, sales director of the Charleston Convention Center. “Culinary, beaches, golf, history — the marketability of the city and its attractions make the convention center an easier sell.”

Charleston competes with the likes of Myrtle Beach, Savannah, Atlanta and Charlotte in landing conventions in the Southeast. Nationally, competitors include Orlando and Tampa in Florida, and Reno, Nev., and Providence, R.I., Riggs said.

Sometimes, convention centers have to be sold to the community, too.

About a decade ago, business license fees increased in Myrtle Beach to help fund the expansion of the convention center, general manager Paul Edwards said.

When business owners complained, wondering what benefit they would see from helping fund the work at the convention center, Edwards said he was quick to point out the “trickle-down effect.”

“With more people coming to town, more jobs were created, which put more money in people’s pockets to buy cars, pay for repairs and other things,” Edwards said.

Never underestimate the reach of a city’s convention center into sectors of the local economy, says John Wilusz, general manager of the Palmetto Expo Center in Greenville.

Wilusz recalls getting an oil change at a Jiffy Lube two miles from the center and meeting a convention-goer getting an oil change before heading home. The conventiongoer was wrapping up a week-long stay as part of a Philadelphia Church of God conference.

“Economic benefits can go far deeper than restaurants and hotels,” Wilusz said.

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Upscale Steakhouse

Upscale steakhouse in works

Ruth’s Chris to become main restaurant at upcoming Hilton

By C. GRANT JACKSON

Business Editor

The premier steakhouse will be in the Hilton hotel that developer Bo Aughtry is building to serve the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

Aughtry said he has signed a letter of intent with a Ruth’s Chris franchisee to operate all food service in the hotel.

Aughtry hopes to break ground for the hotel before the end of this year. If that occurs, he will try to open the facility by Dec. 31, 2005.

Columbia Mayor Bob Coble confirmed Aughtry has told the city the hotel’s restaurant would be a Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

The steakhouses are prized as major corporate meeting places in metropolitan areas. Rumors of one of the restaurants locating in Columbia have circulated for the past couple of years. Much of the talk had focused on the new Meridian office tower on Main Street.

“That is obviously a destination restaurant,” Coble said. “We are making progress on every front in Columbia, and we just have to keep the momentum going.”

Ruth’s Chris, headquartered in New Orleans, is the largest upscale steakhouse company in the world, with 88 restaurants worldwide. There are no other restaurants in South Carolina. Georgia has three, all in Atlanta; North Carolina has one in Greensboro and another in Raleigh.

Ruth’s Chris specializes in aged, corn-fed USDA prime beef. The restaurant received the 2004 award for best steakhouse in the United States by Restaurants & Institutions magazine. The restaurant was judged on food quality, menu variety, value, service, atmosphere, cleanliness, reputation and convenience.

Steve Camp, director of the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism, said the addition of a Ruth’s Chris is “another example of how a lot of people look at Columbia’s future with optimism. I am certainly encouraged by the fact that it is going to be in the convention hotel.”

Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses are normally open for lunch and dinner, but the operator also will serve breakfast, Aughtry said.

“We will have areas outside of what you would consider the main restaurant proper where they will do breakfast service,” Aughtry said. “But it will be done by Ruth’s Chris.”

The operator will handle all food and beverage service for the hotel, including banquet, catering and room service, Aughtry said. He did not reveal who the franchisee is, but said the operator will be “at our table” at the convention center gala Sept. 23.

[Spartan]

Columbia needs an upscale steak house downtown somewhere.

I hope the convention center is successful. Once the Hilton is completed I see no reason why it wouldn't be. The Article failed to meniton that Spartanburg has a convention center- it is just part of the Marriott, and not stand alone.

[vicupstate]

Looks like another delay in the Convention Center hotel...

• Developer seeks time to rework hotel design

A Greenville developer is asking for more time to submit a revamped design for a Hilton hotel to serve the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

The city’s Design/Development Review Commission rejected last month the initial architectural renderings of the Memphis-based architect who is working with Bo Aughtry of Greenville to build the hotel. Commissioners described the look of the proposed hotel as sterile and dark.

Aughtry was to return to the commission with new drawings Tuesday, but asked for an extension until Feb. 1.

[Spartan]

I agree that the Hilton was rather bland. It didn't fit in with the rest of the Vista. I thought the hotel had been scrapped altogether?

[JW2]

I'd certainly give the Ruths Chris restaurant some business!  I'd love to see one in Columbia!

[waccamatt]

I love Ruth's Chris. I can't wait for it, and the Hilton, to open.

[vicupstate]

Editorial from The State on Myrtle Beach's difficulties with its city-owned Convention Center Hotel.  Thank goodness Columbia dodged that stupid idea, albeit at the last moment.  Unfortunately, that  delayed the hotel construction.  The hotel was suppose to open simultaneously with the Convention Center.  Of course, as it is, construction has not even STARTED.

Editorial on MB Convention Center losses

[Hybrid0NE]

Does anyone have renderings of the proposed Hilton Hotel? I can't remember what it's suppossed to look like.

[waccamatt]

I found this rendering online. It isn't as spectacular as I would like to see, but I'm sure the city wanted it to fit with the rest of the architecture in the Vista.

[Spartan]

Compare it this one:


I don't like how it is not built to the road. Who is going to use that grassy space around the base of it? I don't see any cafés like the old design has. Wasted space. How much you want to bet they will have a "do not walk on grass" sign there. And what about the median on Senate? So much wasted space. It should follow the Hampton Inn's design.

I do like the bricks better though. That will fit in to the Vista better. But it could be that we are overdoing the brick thing.

[The_sandlapper]

I like the original version better.

[krazeeboi]

So do I.

[Hybrid0NE]

I prefer the original design also but I'd like it taller. It would start a chain reaction of highrises in the Vista. I can settle for another midrise, guess they'll help to densify the area faster.

[The_sandlapper]

The second design just looks so dull. If it were an original building in the Vista that was renovated I would say cool. It looks like something my mother would like.

[waccamatt]

I prefer the original design also but I'd like it taller. It would start a chain reaction of highrises in the Vista. I can settle for another midrise, guess they'll help to densify the area faster.

I agree about the design and I agree about wanting it taller, but this building will probably reach the Vista's height limit. I believe there is a 100 foot height limit for new buildings built West of Assembly street.

[Spartan]

waccamatt, on Mar 30 2005, 02:37 AM, said:

I prefer the original design also but I'd like it taller. It would start a chain reaction of highrises in the Vista. I can settle for another midrise, guess they'll help to densify the area faster.

I agree about the design and I agree about wanting it taller, but this building will probably reach the Vista's height limit. I believe there is a 100 foot height limit for new buildings built West of Assembly street.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is true. It can't obstruct the view of the state house. However, they can still get alot of density in 100 ft.

[Hybrid0NE]

waccamatt, on Mar 30 2005, 03:37 AM, said:

I prefer the original design also but I'd like it taller. It would start a chain reaction of highrises in the Vista. I can settle for another midrise, guess they'll help to densify the area faster.

I agree about the design and I agree about wanting it taller, but this building will probably reach the Vista's height limit. I believe there is a 100 foot height limit for new buildings built West of Assembly street.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's pure EVIL at work. I could understand my an area surrounding the heart of the Vista near Gervais but everything West of Assembly? That kills my dream of seeing a highrise corridor development near riverfront park where The Pavilion is located or even further south near Blossom Street. The State House dome is gonna be green in couple of decades anyway, they might as well block it out now. It'll de-value the the skyline, lol...

[vicupstate]

Hybrid0NE, on Mar 30 2005, 09:24 AM, said:

That's pure EVIL at work. I could understand my an area surrounding the heart of the Vista near Gervais but everything West of Assembly? That kills my dream of seeing a highrise corridor development near riverfront park where The Pavilion is located or even further south near Blossom Street. The State House dome is gonna be green in couple of decades anyway, they might as well block it out now. It'll de-value the the skyline, lol...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The point is to maintain the views to the river and the slope of the land between Assembly and the Congaree.  The view from the top of the Findley Park cafe, will make a believer out of you.

Speaking of Findley Park, someone needs to post pics of it.  It's the showplace of Cola.

The State House dome use to be green before.  It looked as good, or better IMO.

[The_sandlapper]

Here are a few I took when I was home last. The others are from a website.

Mines:













Website:















My Fav.

Edited by The_sandlapper, 30 March 2005 - 12:18 PM.

[Spartan]

vicupstate, on Mar 30 2005, 12:20 PM, said:

The point is to maintain the views to the river and the slope of the land between Assembly and the Congaree.  The view from the top of the Findley Park cafe, will make a believer out of you.

Speaking of Findley Park, someone needs to post pics of it.  It's the showplace of Cola.

The State House dome use to be green before.  It looked as good, or better IMO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it looked better green. I know it is essentially "rust," but it makes the thing look older and more distinguished.

Great Pics of Finlay Park sandlapper!