Explanation
This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a grant agreement with the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority (FCCFA) in an amount up to $500,000.00 for the purpose of providing funding for barriers, PPEs, training, and crowd control devices and to upgrade public seating to promote physical distancing at the Greater Columbus Convention Center (GCCC).
The Greater Columbus Convention Center is one of the busiest convention centers in North America. Annually, visitors make 43 million trips to Greater Columbus for conventions, trade shows, sporting events and leisure visits, spending $7.6 billion and supporting 78,600 jobs. Bed tax collections as a result of these visits reached an all-time high of $49.7 million in 2019.
The live events industry came to a standstill locally with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. According to Tourism Economics, the Columbus MSA has lost 47,000+ jobs through Q2 2020 in the leisure and hospitality sector. This specifically includes over 200+ jobs at the Greater Columbus Convention Center alone. 177 groups scheduled to meet in Columbus in 2020 have canceled, representing 246,722 total hotel room nights and an estimated direct visitor spend of $207 million.
The investment in PPEs, training, barriers, crowd control devices, and upgrades to public seating areas is part of a larger effort by the GCCC to provide a space where live events can be held and done so safely and comfortably, both during and after the pandemic ends. The reopening of the travel economy will help lead the region back to recovery.
These services provided by Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority cannot be provided by existing city employees because these services are beyond the City’s current staffing capacity to provide.
Emergency legislation is requested in order to encumber funds in a timely manner so the FCCFA can expend the funds before the end of the year.
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