A convention center, hotel and museum at Indian River State College? Why do we need this?

Two wrongs don't make a right, we were told as youngsters. In that same spirit, hearing a dubious idea from two sources doesn't make it any less questionable.

That's as good a starting point as any to consider a development team's proposal for a $326 million building project on Indian River State College's Fort Pierce campus.

CGHP Developments, a Boca Raton-based consortium, submitted an "unsolicited" proposal last March for a major building project at the college.

That proposal, which is being reviewed by William Ward, the college's associate vice president of capital planning, includes a convention center with a 38,000-square-foot exhibit hall; a museum with a 12,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant, pool and outdoor gallery space; and a 120-room hotel.

Familiar idea, familiar problems

If some of that sounds familiar, it's because Port St. Lucie city officials are thinking about expanding the MIDFLORIDA Event Center and building a couple of hotels in hopes of attracting more convention business to the City Center property near U.S. 1 and Walton Road.

As I've written in previous columns, trying to turn Port St. Lucie into a convention town doesn't make a lot of sense. Trying to turn Fort Pierce into one, with the IRSC Massey campus as the focal point, seems like a fool's errand, too, for a lot of the same reasons.

For starters, neither St. Lucie County city has an airport with regularly scheduled commercial flights. That considerably limits the community's marketability as a convention destination.

I'm hopeful Treasure Coast International Airport will get there someday. Yet even if commercial air service started tomorrow, it would probably take decades for Treasure Coast International to land enough flights to become a viable alternative to airports in the well-established convention markets of West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando.

Finding the fun

There's another fundamental problem with trying to market IRSC as a convention center destination: Where would people go during the off-hours when they're not attending events there?

I've been to conventions in different cities over the years, so I know what conventiongoers expect. When they step out of the convention center or the hotel where they're staying, they want to find restaurants, entertainment and attractions a short walking distance or Uber ride away.

That doesn't describe the area surrounding IRSC's Fort Pierce campus. I'm not suggesting there's a lack of options in the Sunrise City. In fact, there's plenty to see and do there. However, most of it is concentrated either downtown or at the beaches.

Sure, conventiongoers might, with effort, be able to find their way to at least some of the good stuff. But the name of the convention game is making it easy for people to unwind after they're done with their meetings or seminars.

If visitors are forced into impromptu scavenger hunts to find fun, they're not going to want to come back and they're not going to recommend the area to their friends.

And the academic payoff is ... what?

Here's another show stopper: Why does any of this make sense on a college campus?

To be fair, the CGHP proposal also calls for construction of 300 units of student housing, about 60,000 square feet of new classroom space, a proposed "auxiliary" building and another building without a designated purpose.

There might be some academic value in some of those facilities. However, also to be fair, CGHP's approach to construction would prioritize the convention center, museum and restaurant in the first two phases of construction, along with the new classroom space and some parking.

Take the convention and hospitality-related elements out of the proposal, and you're looking at a vastly different project.

IRSC would have to negotiate operating agreements with the development team for the new facilities, which CGHP promises to finance. CGHP and Capstone Development Partners also would like to buy and operate River Hammock, an existing student housing community.

I didn't get responses from either of the development team's representatives I tried to contact prior to my publication deadline for this column.

When I emailed Suzanne Seldes, IRSC's associate vice president of communications, about the project's educational benefits, she replied that she wasnt' completely familiar with the proposal but "the prospect of more space for student housing, classrooms and events (job fairs, commencement, sports, etc.) will expand the educational environment and improve the index of belonging, a critical factor in student engagement and retention. Like the Coast Guard Building redevelopment, the proposed facilities also encourage hands-on learning through internship and employment opportunities for our students."

In other words, students interested in careers in hospitality might work at some of these proposed facilities. And, even though Seldes didn't say it, maybe the museum could have some academic value, too, depending on how it's curated.

No need to be rash

Still, it seems backwards to say you're going to build a museum without deciding what type of museum it will be first. And, if you get right down to it, the same applies to the additional classroom space and other facilities.

IRSC shouldn't just be building buildings, then trying to figure out how it would fill them. Identifying the college's needs should be the first step in the process. Then, and only then, does it make sense to talk about the facilities that would adequately meet those needs.

It's possible this development proposal won't go anywhere. After Ward has completed his review and made whatever recommendations he might make, the proposal presumably would be forwarded to IRSC's Board of Trustees.

Maybe the board won't make any rash decisions. If the trustees don't kill the proposal outright, they should at least start asking some very tough questions.

Starting with the most basic one of all: Why?

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Could IRSC become a convention mecca? Do we really want to find out?