CANADA – The Ontario City Council has reluctantly re-signed a two year deal to retain Philadelphia-based SMG management company as operator of the Ontario Convention Center (OCC).
SMG have managed the city-owned OCC for the past 10 years, but the council deferred its contact extension in December “to explore other options”.
Councilmen Jim Bowman and Alan Wapner were tasked to form a sub-committee, but found that, even though the council still intends to seek new management, it needed more time to properly conduct the search.
It therefore re-signed the existing operator, who also manages the Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau, with a reduced fee by US$100,000 for the two years.
"We didn't feel we would have enough time if we started the request-for-proposal process now," Wapner told local newspaper, The Sun, adding that the council will now request proposals from companies interested in operating the Center two years from now.
The reason for the hesitance in re-signing SMG seems to be down to the room nights the 23,700sqm Center is currently attracting to the city. "SMG is doing a good job operating the convention centre, but they are not bringing enough to generate room nights," said Wapner.
SMG also operates San Francisco’s Mascone Center and the Long Beach Convention Center, as well as 250 venues globally.
