The Du Page County Convention and Exposition Authority will ask the state legislature for as much as $60 million so the county can double the size of its proposed convention center.
For months the authority has discussed a 125,000-square-foot exhibition hall to be financed with a $20 million grant from the state Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. But two consultants` reports indicated that such a facility would operate at a deficit, said Daniel Goodwin, authority chairman.
The consultants both concluded that a facility of up to 250,000 square feet would better serve Du Page by attracting more conventions and
exhibitions, thereby eliminating the deficit, Goodwin said. By comparision, Chicago`s McCormick Place has about 1.7 million square feet of exhibit space.
The authority voted Monday to go ahead with the application for the $20 million grant. But authority members also will ask legislators from Du Page to support an appropriation of between $50 million and $60 million to finance the larger facility, Goodwin said. The lobbying will begin as early as this week, he said.
”In light of Chicago`s request for $1 billion for `McDome,` we don`t think our request is out of line,” Goodwin said, referring to plans for a domed stadium for the Chicago Bears as well as an expansion of McCormick Place.
”If Chicago with 3 million people can get a billion, then Du Page County with 800,000 people probably should be able to get a quarter of that. But we won`t ask for that much,” Goodwin said.
Still, the authority has yet to choose a site for the exhibition center, no matter how big it might be. Goodwin said a site in Woodridge, south of Interstate Highway 55 and west of Lemont Road, remains the leading candidate. But a Warrenville property owned by Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Co., straddling the East-West Tollway, is rapidly gaining ground, Goodwin said.
”The more authority members review that site, the more they like it,” he said.
Goodwin said he is negotiating with the Hammerschmidt family, owners of Elmhurst-Chicago, on the site. He is seeking to have the family donate up to 25 acres in exchange for improvements to the roads and property; zoning for the facility would be subject to Warrenville`s approval.
Critics say Du Page has no need for a publicly financed convention center. Hinsdale attorney Aldo Botti repeatedly blasted the idea during his successful primary campaign against outgoing County Board Chairman Jack Knuepfer, who has made the center a pet project.
And Botti`s opponent in the November election, Democrat Michael Donohue, visited Tuesday`s meeting to ask authority members to drop the plans.
”You had said that if a consultant found that there was no local support for the hall, you would disband,” Donohue said. ”And from reading the summary of the latest report, there seems to be very little support for the center. I think it`s a project whose time has not yet come.”
Donohue proposed using the $20 million state grant for property tax relief, if it were possible, and pledged to try to do that.
But authority members responded that the $20 million would be an insignificant tax break for all the county`s citizens. ”I wonder if the reduction would be even 1 percent,” said member Walter Carroll. Goodwin estimated that $20 million might mean a one-time tax cut of about $60 for each taxpayer.
Botti could not be reached for comment.
The authority now has to meet a July 31 deadline to apply for the $20 million state grant. Even though the site is not yet final, Goodwin said it could be added to the application package after the deadline.
If the county receives the state grant, Goodwin said, the authority still would try for additional money from the legislature, for a total bankroll of up to $60 million. ”My personal opinion is that we would be hard-pressed to go forward with the convention center if we only got the ($20 million),”
Goodwin said.
The authority contends that a bigger hall can be run more profitably than a small one. For example, Goodwin said, the facility could accommodate up to three trade shows at a time-one dismantling its booths, one in the midst of its exhibition and the third setting up for the next week. It even could have two exhibitions running concurrently, he said.
Moreover, the most recent consultants` report, written by Chicago-based Real Estate Research Corp., suggested that the 125,000-square-foot facility was too small and needed more ”breakout” areas, smaller rooms for smaller seminars. Goodwin hinted that those rooms would be incorporated into a bigger hall.
Though the consultants contended that the Woodridge site is too far from O`Hare International Airport and existing hotels, Goodwin said both the Woodridge and Warrenville sites probably will be developed extensively over the next decade, bringing in the hotel rooms needed for such a large convention center.
