A new independent economic study has determined that the downtown convention center and stadium created by Measure C will result in a significant positive impact on San Diego's convention and hotel industry, with more than $750 million in new hotel room revenue over the first 10 years of operation.
The study was conducted over the last four months by Hunden Strategic Partners, the leading destination real estate consulting and advisory firm, and was commissioned by Conventional Wisdom, the leading assembly facility programming and management consulting firm
Based on HSP's analysis of the national and San Diego convention markets, the performance of the existing San Diego Convention Center, meeting planner interviews, and economic trend analysis, the following conclusions have been reached:
- More than 200,000 San Diego Hotel Room Nights Annually. Based on the HSP analysis, the downtown project will induce and retain more than 2,000,000 new hotel room nights for City of San Diego hotels in the first 10 years of operation and average approximately 225,000 room nights per year by stabilization. Most of these additional hotel room nights will be due to new conventions and other groups coming to San Diego that currently are not able to be accommodated. Others will be due to the impact of Chargers home games, major concerts and other sporting events to be scheduled. In total, San Diego hotel room revenue is expected to increase by more than $750 million over the first 10 years.
- Event Demand Leads to Major ADR (Average Daily Rate) Increases. Strong demand that pushes occupancy and rates higher and ripples out to surrounding areas generated by large events will increase hotel room revenue by nearly $200 million over the first 10-year period.
- Major Hotel Tax Revenue Increase. HSP expects hotel tax revenue of more than $125 million over the first 10 years solely due to the downtown project.
- Hundreds of New Events. The downtown project is expected to be available for non-NFL events 95 percent of days per year, leading to more than 100 events per year, nearly all of which will be new to the City of San Diego, except existing NFL and college bowl games.
- Hundreds of Thousands of Attendees. HSP estimates that the downtown project's events will attract more than 200,000 non-sports and entertainment attendees per year and more than 900,000 total attendees per year.
In conclusion, HSP's analysis shows that the downtown project would have a major positive economic impact on the City of San Diego's hotels and the overall local economy.
Paid for by Vote Yes on C, with major funding by Chargers Football Company, LLC.
