Expanding Port St. Lucie's MIDFLORIDA Event Center is answer to an unasked question

Consultants usually do an excellent job of telling their clients what their clients want to hear. In the context of government-commissioned work, private consultants frequently churn out reports or studies that provide elected officials political cover to do whatever they were planning to do, anyway.

So when a consultant actually hints that a government-backed project might not be such a grand idea, watch out.

I believe that accurately describes a report HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting did on the feasibility of expanding the MIDFLORIDA Event Center in Port St. Lucie.

For months, Port St. Lucie officials have been working on plans to redevelop the City Center, a large city-owned property at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Walton Road. As I've written in previous columns, I've generally been impressed with the work that's been done so far.

The city is well on the way to developing a residential, recreational and commercial center that will be a showpiece for the sometimes-overlooked east side. However, I don't understand the city's fixation with part of the plan that involves expanding the event center in hopes of bringing an influx of conventions there.

Geography and decades of history are working against Port St. Lucie's dreams of becoming even a small regional player in the convention business.

Orlando and Miami, two hours in either direction, are well-established convention towns with transportation infrastructure, hotels and attractions needed to attract large numbers of out-of-town convention visitors. At present, Port St. Lucie doesn't have the economic firepower to compete with West Palm Beach, which is only 45 minutes away.

From what I can tell, the good people of Port St. Lucie aren't the ones clamoring for the city to jump into the convention business. I've attended both of the town hall meetings held related to the City Center redevelopment, and I haven't heard anyone in the public say expanding the event center should be a priority.

Nevertheless, the idea is part and parcel of the city's redevelopment plans. The city asked HVS, a Chicago-based firm, to prepare a report on the potential economic benefits from expanding the event center.

To be clear, HVS didn't say expanding the event center would be a bad idea. But if you read between the lines just a little bit, it's hard to escape that conclusion.

For starters, HVS' report suggests that in order to attract more convention business, there would need to be more hotel space adjacent or at least very close to the event center. Since the city's development plans include one or two 100-room hotels at City Center, that problem would seem to solvable.

Except the HVS report goes on to say that even an expanded event center wouldn't produce enough business by itself to support additional hotels.

"A hotel requires a consistent stream of demand throughout the week to generate a profit," the report says. "Sources of hotel demand include individual leisure travelers, meeting and group, and individual business travelers. The MFEC (MIDFLORIDA Event Center) could induce new group demand at a proposed hotel, but not consistently enough to achieve the necessary occupancy."

There's a Catch-22 that, in and of itself, would seem like reason enough to question the wisdom of expanding the event center.

But that's not the only problem. As currently configured, the event center operates in the red, meaning rents and other revenues from events held there don't fully cover the center's operating expenses.

Under the city's proposed scenario, nearly quadrupling the event center's size would increase the number and size of events that could be held there. However, the revenue gains from holding more events would essentially be wiped out from the added expenses of operating a larger building, using the consultant's projections.

OK, I'm the first to acknowledge not all government services should be profit centers. I've used the example before of how foolish it would be to have a police department trying to support itself solely from the money collected from tickets and other fines.

Government exists primarily to provide services to its residents, not make money.

Then if government would operate the event center at a loss, surely you'd think it would produce economic benefits to the community at large, right?

According to HVS, the new-and-improved event center would create 78 new jobs. To put that into perspective, a typical Walmart discount store employs about 200 people.

Of course, taxpayers wouldn't be expected to pay for a new Walmart or other private businesses, although they almost certainly would finance the event center's expansion. No one from the city has thrown out any numbers on what an event center expansion would cost.

I asked Jennifer Davis, director of Port St. Lucie's Community Redevelopment Agency, which is overseeing the City Center plans, to comment on some of HVS' findings more than a week ago. I still haven't received a response.

If the city wants to dream big, I'd suggest trying to convince the Miami Heat to relocate its G League affiliate team from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Port St. Lucie, then reconfiguring the event center as a 7,000-seat multi-purpose arena to hold games there.

Given most National Basketball Association teams have G League affiliates located within a short driving distance of their primary market areas (for example, the Orlando Magic's G League affiliate is based in Kissimmee), I don't think my suggestion is less practical than expanding the event center in the way city officials are hoping to do.

At the very least, city officials ought to look at some other possibilities before they commit to a course of action their own consultant's report puts into the longshot category.

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: Expanding Port St. Lucie's event center wouldn't produce much benefit