SAVANNAH ― One of the first conference bookings for an expanded Savannah Convention Center came from the National Beta Club’s Bobby Hart.
He and his organization’s school-age members frequent the “Hostess City” for meetings and conferences. Beta Clubbers feel “welcomed rather than tolerated” in Savannah, he said, and the only reason the club’s marquee event, an 11-day national convention, hadn’t been back since 2018 was because they’d outgrown the original building.
Once Hart learned the facility would double in size in time for the 2024 nationals, he locked in a date. What he never expected was that construction delays would force him to make a choice between shoehorning 22,000-plus kids into the smaller space, which has remained open during construction, or holding the convention virtually.
“It was a gut shot,” Hart said of the guidance he received in December that the expansion was not likely to be completed in time for his conference, which wrapped Wednesday. “We didn’t want our students to miss out on this opportunity. So we had to work with the center.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
The National Beta Club’s experience is a familiar one of late. The expansion of the popular convention center remains months away from completion and the delays are projected to negatively impact the facility’s budget by more than $1 million, including $640,000 in lost revenue.
More than 25 bookings have or will be affected, including one conference, a business-to-business trade show that relocated to a Denver convention hall. A handful of consumer shows, such as a baseball card trading convention, postponed their events.
For many convention groups, moving was and is not an option. Like the National Beta Club, their attendee numbers are too large or their length of conference too long to find a new location on short notice. The timeline for the Savannah Convention Center’s expansion has slipped at a dripping faucet’s pace as the lead contractor, Clark Construction, and the state government’s financing agency, the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission, squabble over the flow of funds for the project.
The situation — and the potential for the state to take legal action against the contractor — led to the facility’s governing board, the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority, ceasing discussion of the expansion in the public portion of its monthly meeting.
Since November 2023, all progress reports have occurred during the board’s executive session. The only indication that the expanded convention center will be open by the start of 2025 came during a May budget meeting, when a staffer told the board the next year’s fiscal plan is based on the assumption the larger space will be available.
Even so, the conference sales team at Visit Savannah, the local equivalent of a convention and visitors bureau, is receiving concerned calls from groups booked in the expanded hall through June 2025. Most have shown patience and understanding, according to Visit Savannah’s Joe Marinelli.
“In a post-pandemic world beset by labor shortages and supply chain issues, there’s a general understanding that whether you are redoing your kitchen at home or expanding a convention center, there are going to be delays,” said Marinelli, who is also the vice chairman of the convention center board. “But as time goes by, it’s getting harder and harder to explain.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Discussions with longtime loyal clients such as National Beta’s Hart are the most difficult. The organization is based close by, in Spartanburg, S.C., and its relationship with Savannah goes back decades. Many local business operators remember a day when Savannah tourism slumped in the scorching summer and Beta Club events and other school and youth-related conventions bridged the spring and fall visitors seasons.
Savannah no longer has a tourism offseason, but the Beta Clubbers remain a special group of visitors.
Chelsea Williams’ family-run business operates four River Street eateries, including the Beta fave Spanky’s, known for chicken fingers, burgers and pizzas. She said they schedule staff from their other Savannah restaurants to work at Spanky’s for the Beta Club weeks.
Beta’s pending arrival also means Spanky’s orders extra “chicken hats,” or cardboard crowns with the face of a chicken on the front, beak and all.
“Those kids are so great; they’re smart and well-behaved, and we want to make them feel special,” she said.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Savannah’s hospitality keeps National Beta Club and others coming back, Hart said. Yet he acknowledged convention adjustments forced by the construction delays have harmed Savannah’s previously stellar reputation among organizations and convention planners.
He foresees another issue: hotel room availability. Savannah’s popularity as a leisure destination has made downtown hotels less willing in recent years to reserve large room blocks for conventions. Meanwhile, a new 400-room hotel planned for next to the convention center remains years away from opening. The project is currently in the pre-development stage.
“Once the expansion is done, that’s going to be one of the nicest convention center facilities in the Southeast but some things need to happen with the hotels,” Hart said. “For Savannah’s convention center to be all that it can be, it won’t happen until they solve those challenges.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
For two mother-daughter duos in town for the 2024 Beta Club convention, the biggest challenge was sun protection. Bonnie Walters and her daughter Summer, along with Thifany Aldana and her daughter Kalina Nelson, went to the beach upon arriving from Henager, Ala. and left with sunburns. They found the city much more hospitable the rest of their stay, as they took a dolphin tour, a ghost tour and a trolley tour.
They acknowledged the convention center construction made for a congested conference — the girls were part of Henager Jr. High’s state champion song fest team — but no more so than what they’ve encountered at Beta events elsewhere.
“We love everything about having the convention here,” Bonnie Walters said. “Everything is so kid-friendly, from the tours and the restaurant menus to the people you meet on the street.”
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