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'Middlespace' in short supply

The city looks into building a conference center for gatherings that are either too big or too small for nearby venues.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published June 23, 2006

OLDSMAR - Last year's Christmas party for city employees drew about 160 people, a crowd big enough to force party planners to take the event out of town to a Philippine cultural center in Keystone.

This year's city Christmas party is expected to be even bigger and is expected to be held, once again, outside the city, at the Countryside Country Club.

"It's easy to find a small space; it's easy to find a large space," said Gerald Paradise, Oldsmar's director of planning and redevelopment. "It's the middle space that becomes the issue."

So city officials want to fill the demand for the middle space. This month, the City Council asked Hunter Interests to determine the feasibility of creating a city-operated conference and cultural center.

The city's four hotels routinely turn away large gatherings because they can't accommodate large groups, Paradise said.

The largest capacity room at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites holds 75 people. The Hilton Garden Inn can hold up to 150.

The hotels get many calls from people wanting to host 200 or more people, said Renee Silverman, general manager of both hotels, which are on Tampa Road.

Just last week the Upper Tampa Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce and the city co-hosted a workforce housing seminar.

Because hotel space wasn't available for 150 people or more, the seminar was held at the Woodlands Square AMC movie theaters, said chamber president Jerry Custin.

At the high end of the scale, the Tampa Convention Center can hold 7,500 people, about half of Oldsmar's population.

"We're not trying to compete with the (facilities) in Tampa," said council member Jim Ronecker. "We just want one on a much smaller scale."

Oldsmar needs a home for the various cultural groups that host plays, dances and other events, Ronecker said.

The city owns about 10 acres between St. Petersburg Drive and State Street and hopes to use some of it to build the conference and cultural center by 2008 or 2009, Paradise said. About $8-million has been budgeted for the project.

The feasibility of the center will be determined by Hunter Interests, which is based in Annapolis, Md., but has an office in Clearwater. The study should be done by the end of the year.

Hunter Interests will look at the market potential for meetings and conferences and the needs of user groups, said Donald E. Hunter, president of the company.

The company will study what kind of facility the community needs and how much it would cost.

"Throughout the country, the smaller communities are getting into these facilities," Hunter said.

Part of the study also will consider what kind of competition an Oldsmar conference and cultural center could face nearby. For example, St. Petersburg College has sought to carve a niche in the market for business meetings at its high-tech EpiCenter in Largo.

Both Hunter and Paradise cite Oldsmar's growing industrial areas and location as assets that may draw conferences.

"Oldsmar is between everything," Paradise said. "We're between the airports, we're between Hillsborough and Pinellas, we're 30 minutes from every major city."

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 17:36:54]