TAMPA - A conference center in the West Shore Business District should have at least of 90,000 square feet of space, fit in no more than 12 acres and be able to host a wide variety of events, from meetings to indoor sports.

Those were the initial findings of a market demand study performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and presented to the Hillsborough County Tourist Development Council on Thursday.

Robert Canton, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said a conference center of that size would bring an additional 127,000 to 202,000 tourists a year to the West Shore district and Tampa.

In the study, potential groups or individuals in the area who would benefit from a conference center said such a multipurpose buildings would host not only meetings or conventions but tournaments for basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, martial arts and other sports.

The proposed conference center must also be near hotels, have adequate on-site parking and proximity to a future light rail line, according to the study.

Westshore hoteliers have said they need a conference center that can handle those types of events to help fill 9,000 area hotel rooms on weekends when business demand drops off.

The study is in the early stages and no specific sites have been recommended. At least three potential sites will be considered.

"It could be five to seven years in the future until this building is completed," Canton said.

The next phase of the analysis will determine if a Westshore center would take away business from the downtown Tampa Convention Center and nearby hotels with large convention space. A financial analysis also might be completed by then.

The conference center could cost as much as $133 million, Canton said, pointing to a similar three-story, 90,000-square foot facility under construction in Irving, Texas.
Mayor Pam Iorio told the tourist development council in February that a meetings center would need to rely on private rather than public funds and should be located with a station on a proposed light rail line that Iorio and many members of the local business community support.

The conference center in Texas was funded by a dedicated hotel tax the city of Irving had set up years ago, Canton said.

The tourist development council approved spending $82,500 on the study in February. The council already had approved $25,000 for a preliminary analysis on the feasibility of a facility that could serve West Shore hotels seeking additional space to use for recruiting, meetings, conferences and other events.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.