Tesla’s sexy but Vegas conventions are big money, too

That appeared to be the message at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority meeting, where its board of directors learned the results of a fiscal impact study of the recently approved $2.3 billion renovation and expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is expected to bring more than 6,000 jobs to Southern Nevada.

“I think it’s the single-most important economic development project in the state,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, authority president and CEO.

The study follows big news in Reno that Tesla Motors plans to build its $5 billion “gigafactory” to produce batteries for its electric cars and other applications, creating more than 6,500 jobs in Northern Nevada. Although the deal represents a major victory for the Reno area, local leaders say the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center is just as important.

“One of our big wins can be the expansion,” said Cam Walker, an authority board member and Boulder City councilman.

Presented by Terry Miller, Cordell Corp. vice president, the study reviewed Thursday arrives more than a year after the authority’s board approved the first phase of the convention center expansion, the biggest since it opened in 1959.

In February 2013, the board unanimously voted to support what is now the Las Vegas Global Business District, which will take five to eight years to complete in two phases.

At a total cost of $2.3 billion, the project would add 1.8 million square feet of space, create more than 6,000 permanent jobs in the Las Vegas Valley and generate more than $700 million in new convention revenue, Miller said.

The expansion represents the authority’s effort to remain competitive in an ever-expanding convention market, citing the “high cost of doing nothing” by sticking to the status quo and keeping the convention center the way it is.

The competition includes Chicago’s McCormick Place, which boasts 2.6 million square feet of exhibition space, and the budding Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

“It really is a definitive moment for all of us,” Ralenkotter said. “This truly will take us into the future for the next 25 years.”

Miller’s study found that losing one midsize convention to another city amounts to a $70 million loss for Las Vegas.

The biggest negative cited by attendees surveyed at major conventions?

“A lack of large, continuous spaces,” Miller said.

So that will be the focus of the expansion, Ralenkotter said. Once the facility is complete, there will be 750,000 square feet of additional exhibition space for a total of 2.7 million square feet, making room for current shows and new conventions wrangled away from other cities. In all, the complex will feature 5.7 million square feet.

The project is expected to generate more than $3 billion in construction work, Miller said.

“This is for the welfare of Southern Nevada,” Ralenkotter said.

Contact reporter Ed Komenda at ekomenda@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0270. Follow him on Twitter @ejkomenda.