Monroeville’s civic and business leaders on Tuesday lamented the planned conversion of the community’s convention center into a craft supply store.
Mayor Nick Gresock said the closure of the convention center, with half of the space slated to be leased to Hobby Lobby, would mean the annual loss of 400,000 visitors and 20,000 hotel stays in Monroeville.
“This news has taken us by surprise,” he said, noting he learned of the move by property owner Oxford Development from concerned vendors who participate in shows at the facility. “The economic impact is staggering for what the convention center brings into the community.”
He said he has reached out to Hobby Lobby but not received a reply, telling an audience at Tuesday’s municipal meeting that he wants to work with the company to find another space for it to lease in Monroeville.
“We’re very much willing to work with Hobby Lobby to find a new spot for them in Monroeville,” he said. “We certainly welcome any private business into the community, … but not at the expense of losing our convention center.
“We are very upset and disappointed with this decision, and we’re going to do everything we can to save it.”
Though he didn’t have any particulars to share about steps the municipality might take, he said Monroeville leaders are “going to be exploring every possible legal action to make sure that it stays in the community.”
According to Gresock, over the past decade Oxford has benefited from about $7.5 million in state taxpayer dollars including from gambling tax revenue.
Steel City Con drew more than 10,000 people to Monroeville for its weekend expositions that were held three times a year.
And while the convention is the main draw, those who attend also buy fuel and snacks at local gas stations. They shop at the myriad stores in and around the center. If they are from out of town, they may stay at a nearby hotel.
The news that the Monroeville Convention Center will close in June sent organizers from Steel City Con and a host of other expositions scrambling to find a new venue for their events.
Oxford Development spokesperson Megan Stearman said the convention center building will remain, and Hobby Lobby will renovate it to suit the company’s needs.
Some restaurants within walking distance said the convention center’s loss will mean an occasional drop in business.
“Usually on the weekends, if there’s a show, we’ll get extra business at dinner and later in the evening,” said Panzy Wong, manager at Taipei Tokyo, a short walk down Mall Boulevard from the convention center.
A server at nearby Patron Mexican Grill said a convention in town usually means a bump in the lunch and dinner crowds.
If not there, then where?
For local exposition organizers, there isn’t another directly comparable option in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Their choice is between stepping things up to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh — which at 1.5 million square feet is more than 10 times the size of the Monroeville Convention Center — or potentially scaling back their events to fit other, smaller options.
The Blair County Convention Center in Altoona is 48,000 square feet, half the size of the Monroeville Convention Center. The Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center in nearby Johnstown is a little under 32,000 square feet, but its exhibition area is only half of that space.
Mary Ann Lambrinos, general manager for the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said she has taken several calls in the past few days from expos looking for a new home.
“We’re looking at dates throughout the next 2-3 years to help some of those folks out,” Lambrinos said.
The 5,000 seats in the center’s arena are collapsible to create more than 19,000 square feet of expo floor space, and the complex includes more than a dozen conference rooms and a 650-seat auditorium. The full complex is just under 150,000 square feet.
“We’ve hosted events of all sizes,” Lambrinos said. “We do a home show, we’ve hosted Keystone State Wrestling, and we host the Pennsylvania State Cheerleading Championships.”
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Lambrinos said she recently reached out to Steel City Con organizers about considering the Kovalchick complex.
“I’d assume we could at least be a competitor and look at their needs,” she said. “I believe we’re absolutely worth a look.”
Any event that took place in Monroeville could fit easily into Pittsburgh’s Lawrence Convention Center, a fact that’s not lost on its general manager, Tim Muldoon.
“We’ve had several conversations with folks who’ve run shows out there for years,” Muldoon said.
At more than 1 million square feet, the Downtown convention center could conceivably host more than one former Monroeville event at a time.
“We’re hoping that can be the case,” Muldoon said. “We want to find a home for them not just from June to December for shows that have been canceled, but to develop some long-term relationships and keep those events here in the Pittsburgh area, which we think we can do.”
The Monroeville Convention Center opened in fall 2009 in the space formerly occupied by Wickes Furniture.
Events and conventions that used to take place at the former Monroeville ExpoMart migrated to the center. The ExpoMart was converted to office space and today is home to CVS Health.