By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The first Campbell County Mayors’ meeting, one of four planned this year, at the Campbell County Building in Newport featured an extensive report from Julie Kirkpatrick, President and CEO of meetNKY.
Kirkpatrick gave an overview of the Convention Center and presented a study on Amateur Sports, projecting what could happen to economic development with a newer, larger convention center and increasing the field capacity of Northern Kentucky.
“The average visitor in Campbell County spends $240 per person, versus the $200 in the rest of Northern Kentucky,” Kirkpatrick said. “Sixty-eight percent of restaurant revenues come from visitors who travel from more than 30 miles.”
meetNKY is a three county multi-jurisdictional destination management and marketing organization for Northern Kentucky. It was established in 1974 with the approval of all three fiscal courts.
The 76,000 square foot Northern Kentucky Convention Center, 25 years old this year, is a great, medium-sized convention center, according to Kirkpatrick, but it has not had any significant money put into the center since 1998. It is outdated, and needs to be modernized, she said. To leave the convention center as it is would ensure that it is a no-growth, or a negative growth situation. She pointed out that having an airport in Northern Kentucky is a giant plus in the column for attracting conventions to this area.
Kirkpatrick brought up that Cincinnati is preparing to close their convention center in July for two years in order to put $200 million into its total renovation. She did say that there is a good inventory of hotels on the horizon, but she felt the convention center would not be adequate for the conventions that would bring the people to the hotels.
“We absolutely need to improve the entrances,” Kirkpatrick stated. “That egress is a steep staircase and is not ADA accessible.”
The near term recommendation for the center, from the design company CSL who did the study, is to secure the land adjacent to the center, to the south, to create an outdoor event plaza that can be utilized while the long term recommendation, which is major renovations to the center, are made to the main part of the convention center. They also recommended another 450-room hotel to the west of the center, and more connectivity to Covington and Newport attractions.
She said the city of Louisville paid for the enhancement and expansion of the Kentucky International Convention Center through an increase in taxes, as well as hospitality taxes, and a 30-year bond.
Judge Executive Steve Pendery brought up that the Northern Kentucky Convention Center is the only one in the state that covers its own operating expense, and Kirkpatrick said yes, that it runs very lean and is operated very efficiently. She said the state has not given them any money toward the operation of the center, whereas both the centers in Owensboro and Louisville receive biennial operational support from the state each year. She said lawyers are researching how a quasi-governmental county organization can work with the state of Kentucky to improve a facility that is a state of Kentucky entity.
She also talked about improving the number of rectangular and diamond fields in the area, and ventured an opinion on how increasing the fields would increase the impact of amateur sports on the Northern Kentucky area.
“Northern Kentucky does not have that signature, big amateur sports facility,” she explained. “Do we have the ability to support one in Northern Kentucky, and what would be the economic impact if the investment was made?”
All of these plans, she summed up, are being shared because meetNKY is looking for the way forward to get partnerships with the county and the state to see about the trajectory for the convention center, and to generate more impact with amateur sports in the area.
“At the end of the day, it is about bringing more people here and getting them to stay here,” Kirkpatrick concluded. “The more cheese we can put on the mousetrap, the better we will eventually be.”