New convention center helps Hot Springs attract events.

After three years of construction and renovation, Hot Springs' 240,000-SF Civic and Convention Center is now open, and the city is already reaping the rewards of the facility.

At least two large conventions that were forced to leave Hot Springs when they grew beyond the old convention center's capabilities are returning - the Arkansas Cattleman's Association and the Arkansas Oil Marketers Association.

Affiliated Foods Southwest Inc. held its shareholders meeting at the facility for the first time this year. The Arkansas Poultry Association, which had one of the largest conventions annually with about 1,500 attendees, will remain in Hot Springs. The World Wide Church of God, which brings several thousand people to Hot Springs annually, will also be able to remain.

"This enables [Hot Springs] to regain business that had outgrown the old facility," says Paul Johnson of Pittman-Portis Communications, who has represented Hot Springs and the convention center for years. "And it will enable Hot Springs to retain business that it may have started to lose, as well as get new business they never even went after before."

The $34 million project, paid for with taxes after the city's residents voted for the improvement, has opened in phases. The new building was completed early this year and opened in March. Then a $6 million renovation of the old civic center was started. That phase of the project was completed in early December.

The largest single room in the facility is 75,000 SF, giving Hot Springs the biggest exhibit hall in the state for the time being. The Statehouse Convention Center under construction in Little Rock will feature a larger room when it is finished next year.

"[The convention center] is a great combination with everything else we have in Hot Springs," says Steve Arrison, executive director of the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission. "Convention attendees love Hot Springs but there was never enough space for them to meet.

"Now we have plenty of meeting space to go along with the National Park, the shopping, the water sports, the restaurants. It's worked out real well."

"I think that Hot Springs now will be able to compete on a pretty good footing with places like Little Rock because now they've got a big facility in a town with more to do than some of their competing cities," Johnson says.

Arrison says he will begin working to attract state conventions and then seek regional meetings.

"We're getting quite a few regional conventions now," says Arrison, who took the Hot Springs job this year after holding a similar position in Pine Bluff. "We're not at liberty to discuss it, but we are talking to some national conventions. But we think our bread and butter will be Arkansas [conventions] and regionals."

Marla Crider, the sales and marketing director for the center, will discontinue a policy of sending salespeople to big trade shows to lure national conventions, Johnson says. Instead, she and her staff will focus more on regions near Hot Springs to attract medium-size conventions.

"It's a more realistic strategy," Johnson says.

The old facility had only 75,000 SF of space and was crowded with 1,500 people. Now with the exhibit hall itself being 75,000 SF, Arrison says a concert can accommodate 6,000.

The entertainment events will be a new source of income for Hot Springs, Johnson says. Pro wrestling has already been lined up to begin in January, Johnson says.

"Hot Springs' old facility was not only small, but the floor was flat," Johnson says. "So if you got a seat in the back at a concert, you couldn't see the stage. And the acoustics were bad. The new one has good acoustics, a good sound system and the seats are arranged where you can enjoy a concert or other type of performance."

The convention Center held a grand opening last weekend. Highlighted attractions at the ceremonies included fireworks, performances by the Circus Zoppe and the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, art exhibits, a health fair, a spoof of Broadway musicals by the Forbidden Broadway troupe and a concert by country music performer Tracy Lawrence.