Trying to capitalize on the new Providence Place, downtown revitalization, and recognizing a need to increase revenues, the Rhode Island Convention Authority is seriously considering opening an upscale steak house and adding retail outlets in its first floor lobby. At least that’s the vision of its new chairman, James Bennett, appointed earlier this year after an unsuccessful run for state treasurer.
Bennett, president of Mitkim Corp., which he founded in 1994, hopes that within two months the authority will have some decision relative to the steak house. A decision regarding retail in the Convention Center is still several months away, Bennett said. He expected to present his steak house and retail concept to the Convention Center Authority late last week.
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Bennett said he became convinced that the Convention Center could support a steak house and retail outlets from his travels around the country, and observations that other similar facilities could successfully support that kind of operation.
Additionally, he said he recognizes that the Convention Center, Westin Hotel and parking complex is still years away from turning a profit, if that is possible. While revenues increase for each of the areas under the Convention Center Authority, they are far from eliminating the public subsidy necessary to keep them operating. The subsidy is slowly decreasing, Bennett said, to about $20 million annually.
Last week Bennett said the Westin Hotel revenues were up 10 percent ($2.2 million), and that the hotel’s profit, exclusive of debt payments, was up 18 percent, or more than $1 million. It is difficult to assess a specific debt service payment, but Convention Center officials have previously estimated the Westin’s portion to be about a fourth of the overall debt service, or $5 to $6 million a year.
Also, Bennett said Convention Center revenues are up about $600,000 a year, food and beverage revenues up $470,000, parking garage revenues up by 21 percent or $800,000, and garage profits up 29 percent or $778,000, exclusive of the garage’s portion of the debt service.
Bennett also said the combined Convention Center deficit was down 5 percent or $108,854.
What Bennett said does not show in the figures, is the additional money spent by convention attendees in the local community, estimated at hundreds of dollars more a day per conventioneer.
Meanwhile, Bennett said he has had contact with some upscale steak houses, declining to name them, but suggesting that at least one is a publicly traded company, and none is currently located in the area.
He suggested the steak house would be on the order of Morton’s Steak House of Chicago, Palm Steak House, or Don Shula’s Steak House, both in Florida. Of the three he mentioned, only Morton’s is publicly traded, a part of Morton’s Restaurant Group (NYSE:MRG).
Meanwhile, Bennett said a decision on the fate of the Westin Hotel, which is still state owned, may still be several months away.
The Authority had sought proposals to purchase the hotel. More important, Bennett said, is consideration to build an additional 300-room tower.
Bennett said the purchase proposal could be linked to building the addition – the hotel currently has 363 rooms – or could be separate. Financing for any addition, he said, would have to be through private sources. He said he didn’t believe the public would support any further public funding of the convention center project.
Additional rooms remain critical, he said, particularly in the Providence Place – Convention Center area. Critics have consistently said the Convention Center is unable to attract some larger meetings because of limited hotel space downtown. A Marriott Courtyard with some 200 rooms is currently under construction across from the Westin, and several other hotel proposals have been discussed.
