Pasadena puts pressure on L.A. with Convention Center plans. (Up Front).

In the highly competitive world of meetings and conventions, the City of Roses is quietly nipping away at L.A. business.

Pasadena officials recently gave preliminary approval to more than double the Pasadena Conference Center, which will be renamed the Pasadena Convention Center when the project is completed in 2007.

The $71 million expansion plan will add 61,000 square feet to the conference center that abuts the historic Civic Auditorium and boost the center's revenues by at least 60 percent over the next four years.

Once the expansion is complete, the convention center will have 121,200 square feet of exhibition and meeting space. Onsite parking will increase to 1,030 spaces from the current 180.

While the Pasadena site isn't expected to take away much business from the Los Angeles Convention Center, which has 720,000 square feet of exhibition space and 147,000 square feet of meeting space, it will be a major competitor with L.A.'s Century Plaza, Westin Bonaventure and the Renaissance Hollywood hotels, all of which cater to big meetings and small conventions.

"It's just one more thing to worry about, which is what we don't need right now," said John Stoddard, general manager of the 900-room Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown, whose occupancy level last year was only 54 percent. "Competition is very fierce right now for all kinds of business," he said.

The hotel likely to be most affected is the downtown Westin Bonaventure, which can host small conventions with its 1,354 rooms, 24 meeting rooms, two ballrooms and 20 restaurants.

"We'll definitely have to be more aggressive," said Peter Zen, owner of the Bonaventure, whose occupancy last year was running under 50 percent.

Expanding the conference center is just Pasadena's latest step to grab more convention business.

In September, the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau hired Matt Hourihan, who had been the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau's director of sales for the Western region, as its director of sales.

Friendly competition?

Pasadena and Los Angeles convention officials gloss over any hard feelings that may exist. Instead they talk about how the two bureaus try to work together to sell the area because each city is different.

"Competition is fair," said Bill Buckley, executive vice president of sales for the LAC VB. "If you look at the inventory of rooms and hotels available, it will come down to which destination customers prefer."

Pasadena will be selling itself as the pedestrian friendly city that has beautiful gardens, Old Town, architecturally attractive buildings and cultural destinations like the Huntington Library, Norton Simon Museum and the historic Gamble House.

Pasadena also has a good selection of hotels, such as the Ritz-Carlton Huntington, the Westin Pasadena and the Hilton Pasadena. The latter two are within walking distance of the conference center.

"We have a great destination that people want to come to, but the facilities have never measured up," said James Canfield, executive director of the Pasadena Conference Center, which is 30 years old.

The conference center was never able to accommodate more than one organization at a time because its exhibition space could not be divided into smaller spaces. Also, it was unable to host large lunches or dinners because there was no back-end area to place steam tables, trays and dishes for catering meals. Waiters had to come in through the front of the center to serve guests.

"We've put up tents outdoors to accommodate people before, but that is not the competitive edge we would like to have in the marketplace," Canfield said.

Since 1999, Canfield said the conference center has turned away 40 professional or corporate groups that would have added about $90 million to the local economy.

The first phase of the conference center expansion is a 24,800-square-foot ballroom, which will be tacked on to the back of the conference center. It is scheduled to open in late 2005.

Then, exhibition space will be increased to 57,600 square feet, from the present 32,000 square feet, by late 2006. Instead of one large hall, dividers will be installed to break up the space and accommodate more than one meeting group at a time.

"Right now, if a group wants 15,000 square feet, they get all 32,000 square feet," Canfield said. "That means the rest of the center is off the market."

The last phase would be the meeting rooms, which would be expanded to 38,800 square feet from 28,000 square feet, again with partitions to accommodate one or more groups at a time.

Pasadena already has started to market the expanded conference center, informing meeting planners that a new and approved facility will be ready by 2007. "There are a lot of folks who have said they are interested in coming here once we've expanded," Canfield said.