Name: James Bennett
Position: Chairman, Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, and president of Mitkim Corp.
Backround: Appointed chairman of the Convention Center Authority in June, several months after losing an election for General Treasurer. Bennett was the Republican Party candidate. He has been on the Convention Center Authority board since 1995. He comes from possibly Rhode Island’s most famous hockey family. He played in college, and played minor league hockey.
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Brown University.
Age: 42
Family: Married, and he and his wife Jennifer have three children
Residence: Narragansett
JAMES BENNETT: ‘Now is not the time to sit back and rest on our laurels.’
PBN: What’s happening with the proposal for a steak house and retail development at the Convention Center?
BENNETT: There’s been no movement there, although we did have another inquiry after your article from a major West Coast firm. The way I look at it the more competition the better.
What’s the time frame?
I’d really like to move the question within the next 60 to 90 days. There’s all sorts of due diligence we’re going to have to do to make sure it pays for itself, first and foremost, and attract more people down to the authority, the hotel, the convention center, that it’s a quality product and ultimately the state will make more money than having empty space. It is going to depend on the economics.
You’d call that a likelihood at this point?
We just had a study done, where they came in and looked at the retail amenities of the Convention Center and they’re recommending maybe using as much as 25,000 square feet, with the advent of the mall, the possibility of building some space for retail. So we’re going to be looking at that and in that include a bistro, shops.
Within the existing structure, essentially the first floor lobby area?
First and second floors.
What prompted the study?
One of our board members was in Las Vegas and he happened to see some of the possibilities they have over there. So I asked SMG, which manages the convention center about it and it turns out Olympia has an ownership with them, a partnership in Toronto, so they came down at no cost to us and did a little study, so that’s the basis.
The study said it would be good to do this?
Yes. I mean you should pursue it. We have to get into the economics and make sure we don’t interfere with the design of the building. That building was designed for conventions and you have to talk about code, but certainly you need to move forward and look at it.
What’s the benefit of a steak house and retail, just another income generator?
Yes. I think it’s another income generator on a number of different levels. It’s space we’re not getting paid for right now, it may be more attractive to the conventioneer that may want to look at Providence as a convention site. One of the biggest issues for conventioneers is retail. Where can we shop and spend our $800 a day, which is what they say people spend when they come to a convention. That’s why it’s so important now that we have the Providence Place mall that has filled a big void. And we’re looking to capitalize on the need for retail at the convention level, now that we’re going to be attached to the mall, and get some residual benefit.
The timetable on that?
We’re looking at it right now. I’d like to see the bridge go up (from the Westin to Providence Place), I’d like to see what kind of traffic we have, I’d like to see the impact it has on our current food and beverage operations (including the Westin Hotel). All those things. We’d like to see the impact of the increased traffic before we make any major decisions. But I think it is incumbent upon us to do those due diligence items now, so as not to waste any time. I’m trying to look at this as if it were a private entity, as if it were my business, so sometimes I may be a little bit more aggressive because I want to move the question. If we find out it is not worthwhile then we’ll go to plan B.
What is plan B?
I don’t know yet. We’ve got to do plan A.
What other projects will be happening at the Convention Center, parking garage, hotel?
You’ve got some major conventions, the Fraternal Order of Police is the larger convention we’ll have here by a wide margin — 15,000 room nights. We’re looking to land a couple of other major conventions. The convention business, like any other start up, takes time to mature and the word is getting out that Providence is an important place to have your meetings, Rhode Island is an important place to have your meetings. It is significant that we won this FOP convention on a number of different levels. First, the business for us. Second, we beat out Orlando and we beat out Las Vegas, traditionally meccas for convention center business and we were competitive and we won. That sends a message to the convention business that these guys are competitive. Maybe we should look at Providence. Now is not the time to sit back and rest on our laurels; now is the time to get more aggressive.
Westin Hotel, we have the ownership situation. Where are we with that?
We have two basic things going on. We’re in the process of sending out an RFP (Requests for Proposals) to get a new manager. As you know we don’t manage the hotel, we own the hotel, but we do not manage it. The existing contract is up and that’s going out to RFP.
Just so I’m clear, who is the manager of the hotel?
The manager is Carnival Hotels and Resorts, based out of Miami. That contract is up.
Are they interested?
They’re interested and they’ve done a tremendous job for us, and we’ll take that into consideration. But you also attract some of the major hotel management companies, Starwoods and Hyatt are interested in managing the hotel. Now the Westin name, when we look at the management contracts, may change and that’s a consideration. Westin is the franchise. We went out to Carnival to manage it. There may be some economies of scale, having a Hyatt name and a Hyatt management.
Concurrently it has always been the governor’s position and my position that this hotel would be best served in the private sector. We’ve incubated. We’ve done the job that government is supposed to do. Build something, get it through the start-up stage, getting it into an operating business. Government, we believe, isn’t necessarily the best operator of a hotel, so we need to try to move it to the private sector. That’s really our charge right now. We’re looking to sell the hotel at a level so we certainly won’t lose any money.
Which means assuming the debt service?
Assuming the debt service. We want to do it in such a way that whoever it is commits to building another 200 hotel rooms that we desperately need in Providence.
There has been an RFP to find a hotel buyer?
And that is an ongoing process.
Have there been responses to that?
Yes there have.
And Carnival is one of them?
No, Carnival has not responded to the purchase of the hotel.
How about Westin?
I’ve told them that their names are confidential. There’s a number of them that are interested.
About how many responses?
Serious, I’d say about four.
What will determine whether the hotel is sold?
Price, economics and commitment to build hotel rooms.
Are any of these things in the proposals or do we just have preliminary responses?
Preliminary.
What would you estimate the price to be for the hotel?
I wouldn’t want to comment on the price because I don’t want to lock myself in.
What kind of time frame in making a decision?
The next 60 to 90 days. If we can’t get our price now, as long as I’m chairman I’ll be visiting it every three to six months because dynamics change.
Are you optimistic this is going to happen in the near future?
Cautiously optimistic.
If there is not a buyer that’s going to expand the Westin Hotel, what happens to that process?
If we do not have a buyer, we will not seek public funds. The governor’s and my position is we will not seek public funds for any kind of extension. We will only do it with the use of private funds, and if we can’t do then we will go back to operating this business as efficiently as we can, and again revisit the issue every three to six months.
If there is no buyer how do private funds come into play to build an addition?
We have a parcel that’s available, if somebody wants to come in and build a hotel they have to find their financing sources.
The parcel is adjacent to the Westin. If it doesn’t come to pass that there is a buyer for the Westin, you could conceivably sell that parcel to another hotel operator, hotel chain that would build a hotel right next to the Westin?
Yes. We could do that. If we had our druthers we’d like to keep it all under one concept. Not much likelihood that would happen. They could come up with a creative deal, they could share a reservation desk.
All the development in Providence, this Renaissance, is really confined to a few square blocks. It’s the Convention Center, the Westin, Providence Place, Waterplace Park and other development that goes on around there. As we move a few blocks out it’s different. Vacant storefronts, decaying historic buildings, homeless on the downtown streets. What does that do to the convention business?
We’re still in the incubation period. When you say all the development is confined to this area, there are also proposals to move 195.
Proposals but not the development.
That will open up approximately 50 acres of development on the other side of the city. You’ve got one side of the city already being developed with an investment in the infrastructure, that’s how I like to look at the investment here, which has spawned the investment at the airport, which spawned the investment at the mall. Most Northeast cities were devoid of any investment in infrastructure. That’s why we get tax-exempt status, because this was not really looked at as an investment per se. We’re really looked on as a hospital or a bridge. It was an investment in the infrastructure of the state and the city, to incubate and spawn new business. Not too many people are clear on that. That has happened, and I believe it is going to expand to other parts of the city over time. This is going to be big. The number one thing they look for when they come to a Convention is retail space. Now we have the largest retail space in New England.
What do you say to the critics who suggest that promises of other downtown development, like an arts district and downtown cinemas are not happening. There may be a bridge under way between the mall and Westin, but there appears to be no bridge between here and the core of downtown.
I think over time that will happen. We’re kind of absorbing a lot right now. I don’t propose to know the plans they have of developing. If we do well you are going to have a ripple effect on the community. I think it is important we spend money on the arts because that, as it turns out in most second tier cities, it is a bigger draw than a sports stadium.
When you look at conventions that don’t come in here, besides hotel room space what are the other objections to Providence?
We hear retail. Now it’s been addressed. It’s not always 72 degrees and sunny in Providence. We are pricingly very very competitive, vis a vis Boston, New York, Worcester, Springfield. The other thing, and it is also being addressed now, is access to Providence. We’ve picked up in the last couple of years with Southwest. We have more direct flights into more cities. This is very very important, now it is not always easier to get out of Rhode Island, but it is easier to get here at a reasonable rate.
Those Conventions that come here, what is it that they find most attractive about Providence?
The cultural aspects are important. Perceived value we have here. The restaurants are second to none. The increasing accessibility. I’m very impressed at the Convention and Visitors Bureau ability to get convention business. It seems to me they have just a top notch marketing staff. And I think, as a person who has lived out of the state, it is the finest place on the East Coast.
