This was a fantastic WSJ article about the dying convention business (H/T – Traub);
Take Illinois, an industry leader,where officials have invested heavily to keep Chicago’s McCormick Place, long one of the three most-used centers in the nation, on top. They spent $1 billion in the early 1990s to build a 840,000-square foot expansion financed by fees on auto rentals, a hotel tax and a surcharge on restaurant meals in downtown Chicago. In 2007 they opened a new building, McCormick West, at a cost of an additional $900 million. The result? According to the Chicago Tribune, the center operates at 55% capacity.
Sorry, I can’t post the entire article, because of WSJ’s subscriber policies, but you get the jist.
55% capacity? Get ready to subsidize good people of Sioux Falls.
No wonder Huether is building his kickbacks mansion out of town. Taxes will be outrageous to pay for this new unprofitable folly.
Chateau de Huether
Here is the carp lake he is building it on;
http://southdakotakayak.blogspot.com/2009/06/diamond-lake-june-2009.html
BTW, I waited on a party of contractors tonight laying sewer pipe in SF. And I asked them what they were doing, and one of them responded, “You didn’t see us on the news?” And I said, “Surprisingly not, usually the mayor holds a press conference when these types of events go on.” One of the foreman’s busted up laughing, because he was here the last time they had to do emergency sewer work and remembers the mayor and press. I said, “He thinks pretty highly of himself.” and he grinned really big and said, “I got that impression.”
It’s so sad that the imminent failure of this facility is so obvious, the thing isn’t even built yet, but there’s almost nothing (that I can see) that can be done to stop it. It’s like a runaway train headed for a cliff.