By Ray Smith, Exhibit City News
Now that the Las Vegas Convention Center is getting a $600 million facelift, the next step will be improvements to “back of house” offices that are cramped and outdated, according to staff assessments.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors approved $4.5 million for design and engineering services related to those improvements at its Feb. 11 regular meeting.
Chief Operating Officer Brian Yost says back offices are “not reflective of the enhanced environment around the rest of the campus.”
He showed pictures of the traffic office, surveillance center, maintenance shop, fire and safety office, security, custodial services and employee break room that are “significantly undersized,” even more confining when occupied by workers.
The break room, for instance, is also used to hang uniforms for about 90 convention center “ambassadors,” Yost adds. The audio-visual office is “small and inefficient.”
Steve Hill, chief executive officer of LVCVA, told the board that financing convention center improvements comes from a portion of the 1-3/8 percent increase in room taxes. Because of construction cost increases following the pandemic, back-of-house projects totaling about $125 million were placed on hold.
Office space was reduced by 12,000 square feet during the pandemic when many people worked from home. That space needs to be reclaimed, Hill says.
“You’re welcome to walk through these places, you’ll see, especially when people are coming through them,” he tells the board.
The convention center needs about 30,000 to 40,000 square feet for back-of-house operations, not including warehouse and maintenance, which also needs additional space, Hill says.
The work includes LED lighting for South Hall, epoxy overlay for cracks in the West Hall lobby, parking shade structures, and ride share and bus driveways.
These improvements fall outside of the scope of work approved for the LVCC renovation project and are necessary to deliver a “quality experience” for customers and to increase operational efficiency.
INTERNATIONAL OFFICES
The board approved $720,000 for Reach Global in Canada for a one-year term beginning in July, and a combined $2.5 million for AVIAREPS Tourism in German and South Korea for two years, also beginning in July.
Fletch Brunelle, vice president of marketing, explained that the international marketing offices host familiarization tours, conduct trade and consumer public relations, and work on air service development to increase visitation to Las Vegas. Canada is the top international market for Las Vegas, Germany is No. 3 and South Korea No. 4.
“It’s real important to have people on the ground in these major markets,” CEO Hill says. “They provide insight and guidance in how to best reach our visitors.”
RENOVATION UPDATE
COO Yost gave a brief update with photographs on the LVCC’s Phase III renovation, highlighting progress on the grand lobby.
Scaffolding is completely in place for the “eyebrow” façade, and front panels are being put in place. Scaffolding has also been installed inside the grand lobby, and steel framing work has begun. The roof system is nearly complete.
New digital “assets” are being installed in the North Hall, including a Samsung theater screen and Samsung LED banner. The North Hall sidewalk is being finished for the entire portion of that project.
QUARTERLY STATISTICS
Chief Financial Officer Jim McIntosh presented a statistical report for the quarter ending Dec. 30, showing a 0.7 percent decrease in room tax revenue from a year ago. Average daily rates were 0.2 percent higher at $161.09, but the occupancy rate dropped to 81.6 percent, down from 82.1 percent in the same period last year.
