Schaumburg convention center could generate $1.3 billion by 2025
Based on their first nine full years and current conditions, Schaumburg's decade-old convention center and Renaissance Hotel are projected to generate $1.3 billion in total spending and $150 million in taxes by late 2025.
That amount of visitor spending - estimated by a new economic impact study - is 6.4 times the village's construction investment of $208.6 million.
Tom Reifert, executive vice president of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, presented his company's findings to Schaumburg village board members Tuesday.
Reifert considered the economic impact of the convention center and hotel to be large. But he said some factors working against its progress were the relatively slow economic growth in the Chicago area of 1.9 percent per year since 2007, and that building convention centers was a very popular avenue for U.S. cities seeking stronger growth last decade.
Nevertheless, Schaumburg's facility generated $567 million in direct and indirect spending in the village from 2007 to 2015. That produced $62 million in taxes during the same period - $19 million for the village itself.
And while 260 jobs were created at the hotel and convention center themselves, they also generated another 210 jobs elsewhere in the community, Reifert said.
Trustee George Dunham said he thought that figure sounded too small, but he shared his fellow board members' satisfaction with a positive economic impact.
Trustee Tom Dailly said the study showed the facility had generated growth in the community, which was exactly what was intended when the board voted for its construction in 2004.
He added that he was skeptical of Reifert's advice that lowering the village's approximately 20 percent vacancy rate for office space could be a way to maximize returns at the hotel and convention center in the decade ahead.
"I think the convention center stands on its own," Dailly said. "It brings in business that otherwise wouldn't be there."
Mayor Al Larson said he, too, was satisfied with the study of the convention center and hotel's past and future.
"I think it indicates it was a good investment on the village's part and continues to be a good investment," he said.