New ideas are being explored for the long-discussed conference center in downtown Greenville.
The city of Greenville released a request for information in mid-February to seek ideas from experienced developers for a conference center with an adjacent or connected high-end hotel. Submissions for the RFI are due April 18.
Until recently, conversations for the project have been between the city and one group of local developers. Previous plans released in 2021 consisted of a freestanding facility on donated property between River and Academy streets, near the Reedy River. Construction costs for the project would have been split between the city, Greenville County and the state government.
Greenville Mayor Knox White said several issues were identified with the standalone conference center idea, including its $100 million price tag and overall scale. The city is now testing the market to see what other opportunities are available.
Interested developers were invited to submit ideas to the city of Greenville for a feasible development in the downtown area. The responses must include information on the project’s proposed location, the hotel brand, number of hotel rooms, a parking plan, food and beverage options, and other mixed-use elements.
In terms of the conference center, the developers were asked to share details on the net rentable square feet of conference space, the number of breakout rooms and the conference center’s management structure.
“The private partner needs to be able to show the experience and expertise to develop a project of this size and magnitude,” said Heath Dillard, president and CEO of VisitGreenvilleSC.
New ideas
For the project, White envisions a privately operated luxury hotel development with conference center space located near downtown’s Main Street. He said the Hyatt Regency at 220 N. Main St. is a model for how the city wants to move forward with the project.
The Hyatt Regency opened in 1982 and includes eight conference and meeting spaces, with the largest ballroom being 14,381 square feet. White said that while the hotel’s event space has worked well for Greenville over the last several decades, it’s not big enough to meet today’s demand.
Flexible conference spaces and breakout meeting rooms are desired for the new downtown conference center. Dillard said the contiguous conference spaces will dictate the scope and size of the meetings that can be hosted, while the breakout rooms determine what type of programming meeting planners can offer.
The hotel component of the development plays a critical role in helping to absorb the room demand created by the conference center. Dillard said the number of hotel rooms for the development will depend on the size of the conference space.
“The more conference space that you’re able to fit into some footprint of land, the more hotel rooms that you need. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that it’ll be in the 200- to 300-room ballpark,” Dillard said.
As part of the RFI submissions, developers were asked to provide preliminary budgets for their downtown conference center concepts. The construction and operational costs for the project would be covered by the private developer, with negotiable financial assistance given by the city.
White said the city is willing to build a parking garage for the development using money from the city’s parking fund. The city could also provide an operational subsidy for the cost of the conference space using the city’s hospitality-tax funding that has been set aside over the last 10 years.
State funding was previously allocated for the project. White said there have been no real conversations with Greenville County about its involvement with the project.
Market need
The city of Greenville has been working to bring a conference center to downtown for the past decade. Dillard said Greenville’s meetings and conferences sector of the tourism industry has grown significantly over the past several years. For example, VisitGreenvilleSC’s group-booking performance in 2024 was up 38% compared to 2019.
“We’re well above pre-COVID levels in terms of meetings and group demand, and so that’s going to be important going forward,” Dillard said.
Currently, the largest local meeting space is the Greenville Convention Center, which is about 3 miles east of downtown. Dillard said the downtown conference center wouldn’t replace the existing space — it would be a different product altogether. It would specifically overcome one of the biggest challenges the existing convention center faces: its disconnection to the core of Greenville’s hotel market.
“Across Greenville County, we have nearly 11,000 hotel rooms available on any given night — 2,300 of those are in downtown Greenville,” Dillard said. “In an ideal world, you want those hotels in as close proximity as possible to your primary meeting space.”
White believes a downtown conference center would also serve as a strong nexus for the city’s economic-development goals. He said the new meeting space would help attract the type of conferences and businesses central to the local economy, including those in automation, engineering and biotechnology. Downtown retail, restaurants and other small businesses would also benefit from a conference center located in the heart of Greenville’s central business district.
Downtown Greenville conference center next steps
The city of Greenville will review the responses to the RFI to determine whether a viable idea was proposed for the downtown conference center. White is optimistic that there will be more than one. VisitGreenvilleSC will serve as an adviser to help city leadership as submissions are evaluated.
Discussions on the specific details of the development will follow the city’s review of the RFI submissions. This process will also include negotiating how much funding the city will contribute to the project.
White expects conversations to carry on through the next six months. Dillard said the groundwork that has occurred over the years provides the city with an advantage as to how it wants to move forward with the development.
“We’re not starting from square one,” Dillard said.
Logistics concerns
Heath Dillard, president and CEO of VisitGreenvilleSC, said meeting planners lead with logistics when selecting a group-travel destination. According to a 2023 survey by Future Partners, meeting planners said the quality of meeting facilities was the second most important element when it came to selecting a destination event.
- Quality of hotels — 78%
- Quality of meeting facilities — 78%
- Geographic location — 75%
- Popularity of a destination — 71%
- Destination culinary scene — 68%
- Walkability — 65%
- General leisure amenities — 62%
- Pre/post-trip opportunities to extend business trip — 60%
Source: Future Partners’ “The State of the Meetings & Convention Industry,” November 2023
—
Lost group events
Removing COVID-19 years, Greenville averages 15 events and 33,000 hotel room nights lost annually due to reasons such as
- No downtown conference center
- No headquarter hotel at the Greenville Convention Center
- Transportation costs
- Other factors
Source: VisitGreenvilleSC
Group booking performance
Heath Dillard, president and CEO of VisitGreenvilleSC, said Greenville’s meetings and events market has successfully rebounded following the COVID-19 pandemic compared to national and regional trends.
VisitGreenvilleSC’s group booking performance in 2024 was up 38% compared to 2019. The national average was 6% below the 2019 total, and the Southeast regional average was 1% below the collective 2019 levels.
Source: Simpleview’s Quarterly Destinations Report for Q4 in 2024
Up-and-coming
Greenville’s West End District was selected as an “Up and Coming Meeting Destination” by Small Market Meetings. The district was selected for the number of restaurants, shops and venues, as well as for a baseball stadium that offer places for meetings and events.
“They’ve got beautiful meeting space. They’ve long been a great partner of ours in terms of bringing groups to the market,” said Heath Dillard, president and CEO of VisitGreenvilleSC.
