The Appleton Redevelopment Authority Exposition Center Advisory Committee met 09/07/2021. Linda Garvey from the Red Lion Paper Valley Hotel gave a report on how things are going for the hotel and expo center.
In introducing her, Mayor Woodford mentioned that the Red Lion Paper Valley Hotel was soon to become the Hilton Appleton Paper Valley Hotel.
Ms. Garvey said that that last time she spoke to the committee she had alluded to some exciting things happening at the hotel and becoming a Hilton was one of them. She then launched into her presentation.
2021 is their recovery year. They first housed a testing facility and then became a vaccination clinic. They will have 12 events in 2021 besides those two Covid functions. The Home and Garden Show, in fact, is happening this coming weekend and she encouraged people to stop by. They also have a very large convention definitely happening October 3-7 for which they have listed 5 other hotels to handle the overflow lodging.
She then moved on to their 2022 plans. At the time she put the slideshow together they had 6 definite agreements for approximately 2,800 room night. That was an increase of 1 since May. Since putting the slideshow together, they got another agreement.
They also have 15 prospective holds that would result in another 2,000 room nights. If those all become confirmed, they would have 21 definite holes on the books for 2022 with 4,800 room nights contributed. However, they are still hearing a lot of hesitancy, and the morning of 09/07/2021 they had a conference originally scheduled for January cancel due to the virus. It was a large conference.
Prior to Covid, they had been ramping up nicely. They had 57 events and 4050 room nights in 2018 and 72 events and 550 room nights in 2019. Then the pandemic happened.
She noted that they have a new facilities manager starting on 09/08/2021. Their previous facilities manager was sadly no longer with them, having left in May/June. A former employee named Mike was returning to the hotel as the facility manager; he had previously been Linda’s setup manager so she said he knows the ropes.
She said they were also looking for a Director of Sales and Marketing. Linda has been performing dual roles for the last couple of years and she was hoping to give that position up to someone else. She noted that that all of the sales and catering staff was selling both the hotel and the expo center together. All of our sales and catering staff is selling both the hotel and expo center; however, they did have an employee taking the lead on the facility for sales. There has been some turnover and rearranging of staff.
In 2021, so far, they are facing a net loss of $63,000. She briefly reviewed their revenue and expenses and mentioned that they had been able to get a grant.
Going forward, they are focusing on marketing. Now that they’re officially going to be a Hilton, they’re in the beginning states of all the design work. They’ve also been welcomed to put the Expo Center facility on the Hilton website as part of the hotel so that it gives the big picture. That is a huge deal, and was not something they were able to do under Red Lion. Their conversion date to become a Hilton is currently January 18th. They’re going a quarter at a time. The West Wing will be completed this coming weekend.
That was the end of her presentation and things were opened up for question.
A committee member named Maria asked if the conventions at the Expo Center mostly draw from within the US or internationally.
Linda said they were all from within the United States and most of them were Wisconsin-based.
A male committee member asked if the grant they had gotten was a state or federal grant.
Linda said it was a grant from the State.
The man asked if they had looked at all other options for free money like that.
Linda said they have a legal department that goes through all of that looking for options.
The man thought that with the facility getting hurt so bad during the pandemic that they ought to qualify for more money.
Linda agreed that one would think they would qualify for more. [But it seemed they did not.] She said that every time a grant comes out, she sends it to the legal department for them to investigate and see if they qualify.
The man asked how many rooms were in the West Wing.
Linda said there were 96 in the West Wing. Of the 388 rooms in the hotel, they have 96 in the West Wing, 97 on the 3rd Floor Main, 97 on the Second Floor Main, and 97, soon to be 98, in the South section.
Mayor Woodford noted that he had had the opportunity to see the project at a couple of different stages, first when they were developing the concept room and now as they are in the middle of the project. He said it was a major undertaking that would result in significant improvement. It was a huge investment in the facility and they should be excited about that and grateful. He thought it was really going to turn the place around in terms of the guest experience and the ability to sell it. He was excited to see it come online.
Linda thanked him and added that their clubhouse, sports bar, and grill had also been renovated. They expanded the kitchen a little bit and have new equipment coming. The golf simulator is also being replaced, but there is a supply chain issue with that right now. However, the rest of the clubhouse was opening on Thursday, 09/09/2021. They were excited about that. She noted that the construction crew had been working 7 days a week, sometimes for 12 hours a day, and was working very hard to get the project done.
A committee member named Dana asked about the Hilton name. They all understand that name would bring recognition and it sounded like Hilton was putting the facility on the website which would help as well. She wanted to know if Hilton was offering anything else that would help them get back on their feet after the pandemic.
Linda said that would be interesting as they go through the marketing plan. The biggest thing will be the Meeting Broker and offering of preferred placement. Hilton has a very robust national sales team which will help both on the group side and the transient side. That contrasted with the Red Lion sales department that was more limited.
Community And Economic Development Director Karen Harkness asked if what people could expect to see if they walked down to the Paper Valley and what was the Paper Valley planning on doing.
Linda said she would be happy to walk them through the room model if they hadn’t seen that yet as well as the clubhouse. She could not take them to the West Wing since it was a construction zone and wouldn’t be safe right now.
A committee member named Chuck was curious if the change from Red Lion to Hilton would impact the management agreement.
Mayor Woodford answered not at this time. They are operating under the existing management agreement. When the management agreement comes up for renewal they will begin those discussions, but they’re currently operating under the existing agreement.
Chuck asked when that would expire, and was told that that was coming up next year.
He asked if that had been discussed at Linda’s level, and Linda told him no.
Chuck said the reason he was asking is because when you see a $63,000 loss, he didn’t know any company that could stay solvent and continue that way. He wondered if they were going to be up against a rock and a hard place in renegotiating the management agreement and if they should be cognizant of that.
Linda said that one of the things she looked at was her was her ballroom that was 13,000 square feet. If they were to pull the food revenue out of that and just look at the expenses and the meeting room rental, that would also run a deficit. With the Exposition Center foot revenue not being on the Profit and Overhead it doesn’t show up in the financial snapshot. She said that she did also have to really look into snow removal. They paid $45,000 this year in snow removal which she admitted was atrocious. She said if the committee knew any contracts to please let her know. She finished by saying some of those expenses needed to be controlled better, but it also was a matter of what landed on the Profit and Overhead report and what was not included. It wasn’t the whole story. [It seems like it would be helpful to give a fuller picture of things if the financial snapshot doesn’t tell the whole story.]
Chuck said that was interesting because he had thought about asking what they were doing to mitigate expenses but he hadn’t wanted to throw her under the bus in front of other people.
Linda appreciated that.
Mayor Woodford asked if there were any other questions, but there were not. He finished up by saying he hoped that they had the opportunity to look at the model room and see the incredible investment that was being made int the facility. He also appreciated the partnership they had had regarding the Covid testing and vaccination. Over 32,000 vaccine doses were administered out of the Expo Center vaccine clinic and that wouldn’t have been possible without the great work of Linda and her team.
Linda joked that they would be there if they needed third doses. She appreciated being a part of the solution. Obviously, the Expo Center had been impacted severely by the pandemic and restarting the business at this time is difficult. They have a few starts then steps back, then start again, and they’re not sure if they’re moving forward yet. She said that as long as they could just keep taking a few steps toward normalcy they would be in good shape.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=880660&GUID=35EEF511-04CA-4885-B6A1-5F80C0342F1A
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