Indianapolis Development News 2

[LouisvilleJake]

Originally Posted by cwilson758

I ask this because over in the Louisville thread it was inferrred that Indy and Louisville share the same leve or "status" in terms of conventions. My immediate reaction was that Indy was on a higher level (duh, as with everything else

Hmmmmm. A Tier 1 convention city is a city with over 20,000 rooms in the immediate area of the convention center...I am FAIRLY sure Indianapolis does not have 20,000 rooms in the downtown area...the only one on that list that may make that cut is Las Vegas. Cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and only a handful of others are Tier 1 convention cities.

Tier 2 has a lot of cities in it, including Louisville and Indianapolis. Tier 1 is really reserved for those huge cities with ginormous convention centers and quadruple the number of hotels rooms a Louisville or Indianapolis has.

[LouisvilleJake]

Originally Posted by NaptownBoy

i know that here in indianapolis our top events, the 500, 400, black expo, and colts games certainly contribute to our popularity as being a convention hub. It's almost like we attract the conventions because we're so popular. personally i would not be surprised if naptown was ranked as a tier 1 convention center, and here's something interesting: indianapolis earns more revenue from our conventions that many cities even if they COMBINED conventions! Notice the absence of Louisville from the list.
Obviously Indy and Louisville arent on the same level as far as conventions, they may be a tier 3 compared to us, but if Louisville cant compete with Kansas City, aint no way in hell they can compete with Indianapolis!


Shit, maybe next time a fleet of convention buses bypass a certain river city on I-65 headed for a city 200 miles north...

Jeez...it's a random list of cities to give readers of the Kansas City newspaper a general idea of how they are doing compared to other cities.

Louisville and Indianapolis scrap often for conventions. Three years ago Indianapolis won over Louisville to get the next seven year contract for the FFA...this was before Louisville had built it's new Marriott, Marriott Residence Inn, and Wyndham downtown and we renovated nearly every hotel room...with the new additons we boost over 4000 hotel rooms in downtown alone, plus another 1000 on the riverfront in Indiana.

Indianapolis since then has lost at least one (although much smaller) convention to Louisville...so don't think you blow us out of the water, becasue you really do not.

[jacerw99]

Who cares?

[LouisvilleJake]

Apparently several Indianapolis people did.

[LouisvilleJake]

This whole dialogue piqued my interest enough that I went searching:

Primary Competitor Cities (to Louisville, and probably Indianapolis too)

Nashville
St Louis
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Indianapolis

Secondary Competitor Cities:

Columbus, OH
Charlotte
Kansas City
Dallas
Cincinnati

Hotel Room number/exhibition space (note, after looking, I have concluded these are city totals, not MSA totals, so take as you please)

Indianapolis: 21,800 rooms/400,000sf
Nashville: 30,000 rooms/170,000sf
-Opryland 2,881 rooms/600,000sf
St Louis: 35,000 rooms/502,000sf
Pittsburgh: 14,000rooms/1,500,000sf
Baltimore: 25,000 rooms/1,225,000sf
Cincinnati: 22,500 rooms/300,000sf
Kansas City: 26,500 rooms/360,000sf
Dallas 57,700 rooms/950,000sf
Charlotte 23,000 rooms/290,000sf
Columbus 22,000 rooms/425,000sf
Louisville 18,000 rooms/300,000sf KICC
-KFEC 1,300,000 sf

So thats what I did for the last 15 minutes...saw how different cities stacked up...

[jacerw99]

Actually that is interesting.

[Wu-Gambino]

How much space will the convention center add assuming the RCA Dome is converted into convention center space? Also, since the prospects of a new hotel being built around downtown and possibly one around the new Colt's stadium (let's hope they demolish one of the more suburban looking ones, those annoy the hell out of me), it will be interesting to see just how many hotel rooms will be added.

[KM1410]

Originally Posted by Naptown

How much space will the convention center add assuming the RCA Dome is converted into convention center space? Also, since the prospects of a new hotel being built around downtown and possibly one around the new Colt's stadium (let's hope they demolish one of the more suburban looking ones, those annoy the hell out of me), it will be interesting to see just how many hotel rooms will be added.

When the expansion is completed, the convention center will have 733,700 square feet of exhibit space.

There will probably be around 1500 more hotel rooms in dt indy by 2010, when the expansion is completed.

[KM1410]

Originally Posted by LouisvilleJake

Indianapolis: 21,800 rooms/400,000sf

Indy actually has 27,865 hotel rooms in the metro.

[KM1410]

Originally Posted by cwilson758

Actually Jacer, one is in the works. Kosene and Kosene, who are the main developers in downtown living right now, are working on a deal for the Coca-Cola facility on mass Ave. They want to convert a large portion of the building to lofts, but they are also in negotiations with Target to put one of their urbanconcepts in the building!

wow, an urban Target in downtown would be great. Do you have any idea if other developers are developing plans for the coke site or when a decision will be made on the site?

[gych]

Originally Posted by cwilson758

ahh...makes sense as the other * cities also have domes. I have heard that Indy is considered a Tier 1 convention city and the other cities listed I would certainly consider to be, is that what this is implying? I ask this because over in the Louisville thread it was inferrred that Indy and Louisville share the same leve or "status" in terms of conventions. My immediate reaction was that Indy was on a higher level (duh, as with everything else ), but I don't know too much about convention traffic other than what is reported here locally.

You really are pathetic kid. Keep telling yourself how important Indy is, most of us just laugh at you! Both cities are Tier 2, and if they didnt compete, you wouldnt be worried about Louisville! Once again, you bring Louisville up, its so damn funny lol. Why dont we ask people from some bigger cities whether they think Indy and Louisville are similar? NEWSFLASH-- Indy and Louisville are similar cities. They compete for everything, yet give off different vibes. Case closed.

[LouisvilleJake]

Originally Posted by KM1410

Indy actually has 27,865 hotel rooms in the metro.

My list may very well be wrong...I found a comparative study of the cities I mentioned in a convention website and used it as the post...the list was done in 2003 from what I could tell...so either Indianapolis has built 30 percent more hotels rooms in 3 years, or somehow our numbers used different boundaries.

[Indyman]

Originally Posted by gych

You really are pathetic kid. Keep telling yourself how important Indy is, most of us just laugh at you! Both cities are Tier 2, and if they didnt compete, you wouldnt be worried about Louisville! Once again, you bring Louisville up, its so damn funny lol. Why dont we ask people from some bigger cities whether they think Indy and Louisville are similar? NEWSFLASH-- Indy and Louisville are similar cities. They compete for everything, yet give off different vibes. Case closed.

Yeah whatever. You don't know much in my opinion. I think you can be descirbed by the saying "The empty can rattles the most". You know what...I havn't meet one nice Louisville forumer. I hope somebody changes that.

[eweezerinc]

Hello, my name is Eric and I think the bickering gych and cwilson do is infuriatingly obnoxious.

I love visiting Indy.

Changed?

[LouisvilleJake]

KM1410:

I'm starting to think the list I made was only city limits because I looked at the Indianapolis Convention website and it said Indianapolis had basically the same number I posted, then the regional number jumped to what you put...so then I looked at the Louisville site and they said "Greater Louisville" (which is the OFFICIAL name of our city after merger dumb dumb dumb) had 17,000 but not a regional count, so then I went to Dallas and they said they had more than 55,000 rooms in the city and more than 70,000 rooms in the region, and the Pittsburgh number is really low for a metro of it's size...so this has to be city totals, and not regional.

Indyman:
I'm a very nice guy, and I'm pretty sure cwilson can attest to that...you simply have a delicate relationship between Louisville and Indanapolis on this forum, and neither side takes criticism from the other very well. And about Gych, he actually does KNOW a lot, but he REALLY REALLY loves Louisville to the point that silly comments make his blood boil and he will defend the city he loves, just any of us would. And to be fair, some comments made by him are meant to piss off people from Indianapolis, but some comments are made to just piss him off...so neither side is exactly all fresh fallen snow in this debate.

The reason I even responded in the first place is becasue I was the person in the Louisville thread cwilson was refering to who said Indianapolis and Louisville are both considered good, tier 2 cities in the convention world...and I felt like I needed to clear up with cwilson why I say our cities are in the same league in this particular field.

[KM1410]

Originally Posted by Indyman

Yeah whatever. You don't know much in my opinion. I think you can be descirbed by the saying "The empty can rattles the most". You know what...I havn't meet one nice Louisville forumer. I hope somebody changes that.

Weren't you the one who made the comments about "being the bigger person" a couple pages back?

[araman0]

Does anyone know if the Market Square Tower has a website yet? My 5 minute search did not yield any results.

[cwilson758]

Originally Posted by gych

You really are pathetic kid. Keep telling yourself how important Indy is, most of us just laugh at you! Both cities are Tier 2, and if they didnt compete, you wouldnt be worried about Louisville! Once again, you bring Louisville up, its so damn funny lol. Why dont we ask people from some bigger cities whether they think Indy and Louisville are similar? NEWSFLASH-- Indy and Louisville are similar cities. They compete for everything, yet give off different vibes. Case closed.

go back and reread. It will render your post worthless. Jeez...can't even make a joke around here without underwear getting in a wad! The smiley, I thought, would have been enough for anyone to know it should be taken light-heartedly. This is what I was referring to...one of your posts:

GYCH: "I dont see why a unique to the metro department store wouldnt work downtown. I mean look at Indy, they get about the same or less convention traffic as us and they manage to support Circle Center with around 50% of the dollars spent there by conventioners (per the Indystar). The fact is, if you could get urban locals to shop there, you could sustain a stores with urban upscale locals (from Old Lou to Highlands, etc) and the rest with convention tourism."

My comment on conventions:

"ahh...makes sense as the other * cities also have domes. I have heard that Indy is considered a Tier 1 convention city and the other cities listed I would certainly consider to be, is that what this is implying? I ask this because over in the Louisville thread it was inferrred that Indy and Louisville share the same leve or "status" in terms of conventions. My immediate reaction was that Indy was on a higher level (duh, as with everything else ), but I don't know too much about convention traffic other than what is reported here locally."

You make a claim of which there is no proof to substantiate it and then get upset when someone questions it? I even said that I only know what the local media tells me with regards to conventions. Admitting I don't know something...humility, something you should learn. You ALWAYS refer to Indianapolis...ALWAYS. Practice what you preach. If you don't want someone from Indianapolis mentioning your city, then stop doing it yourself.

Where do I come across that I am "worried" about Louisville? Again, I don't "worry" about any city. I think it is the other way around. Louisville poses no threat to Indianapolis...I don't think like that. As I have mentioned time and time and time agian, I think it is great that all of Indy's neighbors are experiencing growth. It shows that the region isn't the stagnant hell-hole that people on the coasts seem to think it is. I don't bash your beloved City at all. The only Louisville bashing I do is aimed toward you.

And I agree...It is getting OLD

[NaptownBoy]

actually when our five star Conrad opens downtown (only a handful of cities around the world have them) we will have even more rooms. that and the added convention and hotel space we will have after the new stadium is completed should push our total rooms well around 30,000.

and by the way all of the arguing is pointless

[cwilson758]

Originally Posted by araman0

Does anyone know if the Market Square Tower has a website yet? My 5 minute search did not yield any results.

yes it does, www.OneMarketSquare.com

It is a nice site.