The surge in planned and completed convention and conference centers in the region has some experts questioning if there will be a glut of space available for conferences and entertainment venues.

Several convention or conference centers are open, opening or in the planning stages between in the Dayton/Cincinnati area:

Jacquelyn Powell, the Dayton & Montgomery County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau president and CEO pointed to the increase in meeting space in the region over the last two decades noting the Roberts Convention Centre in Wilmington, the Northern Kentucky Convention Center and the Sharonville Convention Center in Northern Cincinnati.

It is a very competitive industry,” Powell said. “Buildings have to be able to sustain themselves when there isn’t a conference going on.”

Generally, convention centers fail to fulfill the promise of becoming community economic engine drivers, according to some experts.

“Convention centers don’t make money and they don’t particularly make money these days because the market is so overbuilt, there is so much more convention center space,” said Heywood Saunders, a public administration professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Because of the influx of supply for, some convention center operators give space away for free, Sanders added.

The influx of convention centers is part of a nationwide trend across the county where cities and municipalities build a convention or conference center in hopes of revitalizing an area and pump tourism dollars into the local economy. However, the assumption that “if you build it, they will come” rarely proves true, said Heywood Sanders, the author of a 36-page report published by the Brookings Institution, in 2005, on the realities of using convention centers as an economic development tool.

In the report, Sanders notes that attendance and exhibits in 2004 had dropped to similar levels reported in the previous decade.

“Convention centers don’t make money,” said Sanders, who is also a public administration professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, during a recent interview. “And they don’t particularly make money these days because the market is so overbuilt. There is so much more convention center space.”

Because of the increased amount of space which has outpaced the demand, some conference and convention center operators have resorted to giving away space at no charge, Sanders added.

The Greene County Department of Development released a 147-page feasibility study, outlines plans for a 220-room hotel and a one-story 30,000 square foot conference center that would be located south of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Construction on the facility would be completed in 2015.

There has been a demand for a conference center in Greene County for some time, said Kathleen Young, the Greene County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau executive director. Young said in the past the county convention and visitor’s bureau shied away from trying to lure large events to the county because of the lack of venues that could accommodate large groups.

“There is a need,” Young said. “Something like that would be really good for this region.

Despite the less than optimistic outlook for conventions, Sharonville Conference Centre Executive Director, Jim Downton, said there is an opportunity for growth for a smaller segment of the convention and conference market.

“That’s where the market is growing —small and mid-size (conferences). “It’s just more cost effective.”

The Sharonville Conference Centre tripled its size in April and added a ballroom that can accommodate up to 1,000 people; 15 break out rooms; and a new 20,000 square-foot exhibit hall.

“We have great possibility of building events here because we have a facility that can grow with the small to mid-size conventions,” Downton said.c

The number of attendees and events held in Montgomery County has remained relatively flat over the last three years, said Jacquelyn Powell, the Dayton & Montgomery County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau president and CEO.

“Competition is good,” she said. “A little of it is pulling business from one place to the next. I understand Greene County would like to have that type of facility in their community, but there are a number of different types of conference facilities and meeting facilities that do exist in the region.”

The prospect of a convention center in Greene County comes at a time when the Dayton Convention Center is financially struggling. The Dayton Convention Center, which is owned and operated by the city, recently asked the city commission for $100,000 from the general fund for 2013. The convention center experienced a $112,243 loss in 2011 and is not expected to make a profit this year or in 2012, according to convention center budget data.

The convention center also received $443,866 in city funds in 2010.

“There are trends with military and government spending restrictions that have actually caused different events to cancel, or drastically reduce spending in comparison to previous years,” said Michael Cashman, the interim director for the Dayton Convention Center. “The addition of casinos to other cities competing for regional conventions will give those cities an extra advantage in winning bids for convention locations.”

Jane Dockery, associate director of Wright State’s Center for Urban and Public Affairs, said the idea in the 1990s was that convention centers were not built to be money makers. Surrounding communities benefit from hotel taxes and spending at nearby hotels, shops and restaurants.

“The economic impact for convention centers (as well as other developments) depends on drawing from outside of the region—otherwise the impact is a zero sum game,” Dockery said. “Much depends on the ability of a convention center to draw from outside of its region.”

A convention center in Greene County could enhance sales at Wright State University’s Nutter Center, said Jim Brown, the Nutter Center executive director. The arena, which is used for a diversity of events including performances, concerts and sporting events, would not be competing with the conference center.

“If you got conventions coming in, we could have programing going on that could entice other people that could not only showcase the Nutter Center, but also Wright State University,” Brown said.

In March, a new 6,000-square-foot conference center is expected to open at Austin Landing, the mixed-use development taking shape just east of the interchange to Interstate 75. Part of a $15 million complex centered on a 125-room Hilton Garden Inn, the conference center can handle events for up to 350 people.

“It probably will take some business away from some of them,” said Doug Steinke, a partner in the Botkins-based company opening the complex. ““We’re hoping we’re getting new business coming to the area.”

While smaller than facilities such as the Dayton Convention Center, Steinke said they expect to capitalize on being in the vicinity of companies at or around Austin Boulevard.

Five wedding receptions have been booked, starting in June, Steinke said. There was room for new facilities in the market, he added.

“There hasn’t been anything new for awhile that would really hold that many people,” he said.

Clark State Community College’s Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center in Springfield opened in 2011. The 27,000 square-foot center was designed to host conferences, trade shows and special events.

The conference center, built with $5.6 million in public and private funds, stands between the school’s Performing Arts Center and the Courtyard by Marriott.

“Clark State Community College is all about economic development in the Dayton region,” said Stu Secttor, a spokesman for the Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center. “We’re excited that others are doing the same types of things that we’re doing in Springfield.”