By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

Joplin could find itself without a place to hold trade shows, conventions and community events if John Q. Hammons is made the right offer.

In laying to rest a recent rumor, Hammons, during a telephone interview from his office in Springfield, said last week that the Holiday Inn Convention Center at 3615 Range Line Road would be for sale if the right offer came along.

“Yes, I would sell it. It needs to be redone, and it would take a lot of money to do that.’’

The rumor making the rounds lately was that Hammons sold the center to Cabela’s, a sporting goods and hunting outfitter, and that Cabela’s was planning to tear it down to build a new retail center. Hammons said he has had no direct, valid contact with any potential buyer.

Joe Arterburn, corporate communications manager for Cabela’s in Sidney, Neb., said Friday: “We have not been looking at any sites in the Joplin, Mo., area.”

A serious issue

But beneath the rumor is a serious issue. The convention center, which can accommodate as many as 4,000 people, needs work and its loss would be problematic for Joplin.

“It’s a tough sell if we did not have it. We would not have much to offer,’’ said Vince Lindstrom, head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It would be a serious development for us.’’

Lindstrom said the city could make other arrangements with other public entities, such as Missouri Southern State University, if the need for a large space arose.

Pete Hall, head of Joplin’s Residence Inn by Marriott and a key representative for Hammons in Joplin, said, “It’s a multi-use trade center that has become a community-event center for Joplin. Do we have to have it to have conventions come here? Absolutely not.’’

Hall said the Holiday Inn and the LaQuinta Inn in Joplin have sufficient space inside to handle smaller conventions that might consider Joplin a suitable place for an event.

But losing the trade center, Lindstrom said, would make it more difficult to sell Joplin’s hotel market to a prospective convention group.

“We have a big group coming in August for the ‘Going on Faith’ convention. This will be for religious travel planners and for tourism officials from all over,’’ he said. “We’re talking 300 to 500 people staying in our hotels. Where else do we put them but there?’’

Lindstrom said he has known for a while that the center might be sold because he was apprised of that by Hall.

“We were asked if the city wanted to buy it,’’ Lindstrom said. “The city did not have the money to buy it, and it needed a million dollars worth of work.’’

Mark Rohr, Joplin city manager, said the city also was told the trade center was on the market.

“No price was mentioned nor has anything formal been directed to us since that time. Vince and I discussed it and he did not know the asking price, and there were significant concerns about necessary upgrades that could prove costly,’’ Rohr said.

“We also discussed the fact that if there was a profit to be made as a convention center, someone in the private sector would step forward and that the city isn’t in the business of running a convention center.

“I mentioned these discussions with the mayor and mayor pro-tem just recently. The administration would be prepared to research and discuss the concept in greater detail should they or any other council member express an interest in doing so,’’ he said.

Rohr said he conducted a feasibility analysis for a multipurpose center after he first arrived in Joplin.

“I recommended not pursuing the idea. In light of our finances at that time, in addition to the downturn of the economy, I believe the city would be near or at bankruptcy had we pursued that idea,’’ he said.

Other players

Other factors are at play with regard to a convention center in Joplin. The Downstream Casino and Resort west of Joplin is ultimately looking at the possibility of constructing a convention center and another hotel.

“But that’s in the future,’’ said Sean Harrison, spokesman for Downstream.

And for years, Fannun Kanan and Richard Joseph Sr., owners of Silver Creek Galleria at the southwest corner of Interstate 44 and Range Line Road, have had a standing offer about the availability of land in their development for a convention center.

Joseph said last week: “We’ve got all that land — 150 acres — out there. We could make a deal with the city just like we did with the land for the AT&T; call center.

“We have a place that would be awesome for a convention center. It would be highly visible from the interstate. It would seen by 50,000 cars a day,’’ he said. “They could get the land for free and place a bed tax on the ballot to pay off the convention center.

“It’s good for the city and it would be good for me, I can’t deny that. But we need that here because it would draw people to town who would spend their money here. We need a convention center that’s three times the size of the one that Mr. Hammons owns,’’ Joseph said.

Rohr said he was unaware of the standing offer involving Kanan and Joseph.

“Those discussions must have predated me,’’ he said,

Mayor Gary Shaw said he was aware of the offer. He said he attended a meeting years ago with council members Richard Russell and Phil Stinnett in which the topic was the land offer from Kanan and Joseph.

“I remember talking to them about making land available for a convention center. They thought it would help us with our tourism,’’ said Shaw. “That was years ago.’’

Shaw also said he is concerned about the possibility that Joplin might lose its trade center.

“That could pose a problem for the chamber of commerce and other organizations that utilize the building, and for our convention business,’’ he said.



Center history

John Q. Hammons, a Springfield developer who now operates 208 hotels in 40 states, constructed what was known as the Hammons Convention and Trade Center in 1987 to primarily serve the Holiday Inn. His name was on the building until recently. It was removed when a management company, Atrium Hotels, took over operation of the Holiday Inn and the center, but Hammons still owns the center.