The Georgia International & Maritime Trade Center Authority board voted Wednesday to extend its management contract with SMG through March 31 as it looks at other options for running the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center on Hutchinson Island.
“We have proposals from SMG and the Georgia World Congress Center, and we also have the option of taking on the management responsibilities ourselves, either alone or in concert with one of the other two,” board chairman Mark Smith said.
“At any rate, we have a lot of work to do as we go through this process, not the least of which is making sure we are comparing apples to apples. Right now we don’t have enough details on how these different proposals might work to make a decision.
“We will be working through this slowly and methodically in the next months.”
SMG, the nation’s largest venue management, marketing and development company, has been under contract to the trade center since before the facility was built, Smith said, adding that SMG helped get the project off the ground.
In 2010, the board revamped its contract with SMG, basing compensation on such benchmarks as convention room nights, customer satisfaction and keeping the trade center’s operating deficit at a minimum. Prior to 2010, SMG compensation was primarily based on sales growth.
When the current contract expired in June, the board extended it for six months in order to take a look at other possibilities.
“We felt that, after all this time, looking at alternatives was the prudent thing to do,” Smith said.
Smith said his executive committee was looking at the proposals and will bring a report to the full board for discussion.
“We need consensus on this,” he said. “That’s why it’s important that we approach this slowly and methodically”
In other trade center business, the board:
• Heard a report that the center has beaten its annual budget for unbudgeted revenue — revenue from events that were added after the budget had been set — with more than seven months to go in the fiscal year. October’s revenue was nearly $161,000 favorable to budget, with projections for ending the fiscal year in June more than $100,000 favorable to budget, putting the trade center on track for a second consecutive record year.
• Was advised that Hotel/Motel Tax revenue is $42,000 favorable year-to-date.
“In terms of local hotel usage generated by events at the Trade Center, our current fiscal year looks even better than the last” said Trade Center Authority Chairman Mark V. Smith. “We’re on track to exceed last year’s record of 85,000 room-nights for Savannah and our area.”
• Was informed that more than 7,000 race participants were at the trade center between 2 and 7 p.m. Friday to pick up their registration packets, while more than 11,200 rode the water ferries the same day.