Not Big Enough For Both (Editorial)

Many newspapers prepare obituaries of prominent people far in advance of their deaths. It’s not that they are eager to see an important person die; it’s just being prudent.

In that vein, we’re preparing obituaries for the two new convention centers planned for Jonesboro. It’s not that we’re eager for one or the other to fail — nothing would delight us more than for there to be enough business to keep both healthy. But because building two convention centers in a city of fewer than 75,000 doesn’t seem prudent, we feel the need to be ready for a sad news event.

Now, businesses fail every day because someone misjudged the size of the market. But these convention centers aren’t just entrepreneurial gambles. Both are being supported with taxpayer dollars, which makes them different in two ways. First, it means that the market reality may be masked longer than in a truly private industry. Second, it means taxpayers are competing with themselves.

The Keller family of Illinois, which is building a 165-room Hyatt Place Hotel and 37,000-SF convention center near the confluence of U.S. 63 and Caraway Road, has received a commitment from the Jonesboro Advertising & Promotions Commission for $300,000 in cash from the city’s 3 percent lodging tax, plus an abatement of that tax of up to $200,000 a year for three years.

O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC of Missouri, will build a 202-room Embassy Suites Hotel and a 40,000-SF convention center on the Arkansas State University campus. The federal government’s Delta Regional Authority agreed to give the O’Reilly project $405,000 for site work.

Even Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Hospitality has said he doesn’t believe the city can support two convention centers. He’s betting his family’s project at ASU will be the survivor, but we aren’t playing favorites. We’re preparing both obituaries, just in case.