Business View Magazine - June 2016 63
Even with an extensive reconstruction project ongo-
ing, Page says that the Center will remain open during
the entire 22 months it will take to complete all 19
phases of the task. “We’re taking certain areas offline
at various time periods and between the hotel (the Hy-
att Regency Columbus, which is also being renovated)
and the Convention Center; we’re adjusting groups be-
tween those two locations as we have to, so there’s no
interruption of business,” he says. “In fact, during this
time period, we had close to 560 events on the books
and as we worked through this phasing plan, there are
144 events between the Convention Center and the
hotel that are going to be impacted - but no one left
and no one had to be given new dates.”
According to Jennifer Davis, GCCC’s Senior Market-
ing and Communications Manager, the Hilton Colum-
bus Downtown, which opened October 19, 2012, has
given the city an additional 532 hotel rooms, allowing
Columbus to bid on 900 more national events than it
could have without the increased room capacity. All in
all, Page reports that there are 2,000 hotel rooms con-
nected directly or adjacent to the Center and another
2,000 in the downtown footprint of Columbus.
Page says that since 2009, the GCCC has increased
its net income every year. “We’ve seen it rise every
year and it’s continuing to shoot north. Coming out
of this project, our anticipation is that it will continue
to grow.” Davis remarks that even during the Great
Recession, the Center’s significant state association
and state government business remained strong. “It
was even more important for them to rally their own
groups and show the value of their associations and
what their services could deliver,” she says. “So even
when the economy was a challenge, it was important
to them to hold their annual events – not only as a rev-
