We're gonna go ahead and get started and follow this meeting tour. Our first item on the agenda is to
review the meeting minutes from our last quarterly meeting in March. You'll see those in your packet.
Are there any clarification? Questions?
Okay. Um there's a motion in
Mike Hamilton? Yes. Gary Brown. Next item on the agenda is just to walk through the collections for
the end-givers tax and then our financial summary. We have a packet bill, Steve, of medical collections
going into the month of June.
So you can see what's been collected. And remember, these are two months in arrears of the actual business.
So things that you're seeing in June actually reflect April business volume. So we're still a couple
of months in arrears. But it should be a good year over your comparison now as things are starting to
get better.
And then again, the packet there is March, April, and May. Financial report, I want to spend time on
the May financial. There's a June tentative in there, but that's not official yet as the month has closed.
So just treat that as information only and an estimate. We're going to be working off the May financial.
So collections, as you can see here to date, we're running a little bit ahead.
of where we were prior year. Last year in the month in April, there was a zero dollar amount as the
county did some accounting changes and I got pushed back a week, but that's been over 12 months now.
So as we're looking year over year comparisons, which you're seeing in many in June, equates to the same
month business volume. So if you're looking at May to May, you're seeing an increase there of about
$20,000. And then also in the month of June, you can see that that's $60,000. Bones Well is businesses
recovering from last year's downturn in international travel and other demand factors.
that affected us both on the national and in the state. So I'm going to dwell and move them forward.
I'm going to answer any questions on March, April, but I'm going to spend time on June just as kind
of our most efficient status. You can see that we have a carryover balance on January of $5,142,379.
Fund balance as of May the 31st is at $4,871,931.57. That's the general fund. And then we do have money
in the capital improvement fund of $203,083.03. So we've got a healthy balance to cover. And we do have
claims today.
but we do have funds set aside to cover all of those. So questions on any of the financial numbers is
presented here. All right, a motion and a second. Marsha, would you give us your roll call phone, please?
My handle? Yes.
Yes. Thanks. Uh, Mike's already warned me he's got a link in the board. But he's next up off of Nintendo.
So, uh, bedazzle us, sir. I told you, I practiced it for 90 minutes and 70 minutes. So only about 70
minutes, you guys. So I'm going to send you the best. I do want to say, I know Gene has got an excellent, um,
convention sales report. And so I will stay away from that other than say a couple of things. And so
I'll chime in when she gives her report. But Mike just talked about the lodging or about the numbers
and things that you've, and if you guys look through here, there's, I've got some Smith travel stuff
in here. There's the month of May.
You know, we're up in pretty much every category occupancy rate, obviously, our supply, demand, revenue.
So, you know, knock on wood until well, obviously, orientation just kicked off a couple of weeks ago.
I've got the week of June 7th and June 13th in there showing those numbers and how they're obviously
been drastic.
positive impact on the community and the logic from that. Not gonna go too much into that. The end of
this report, I've got the May short-term rental Airbnb stuff on here. We had 909 available listings
in the month of May, 885 of them were booked. Revenue in short-term rental was up 15%, 2.4 million in
revenue they did in the month of May.
As I keep saying, they're doing 20 to $25 million a year in revenue and market, about a million dollars
in in-keepers tax are collected. The very last page of this is a chart shows market by market comparison.
And as I always state, kind of mind boggling if you look at how many units we have in Wilmington,
comparing the rural county compared to markets of our size. You know, we have 300 more than Ann Arbor
does. We've got just as many as South Bend. We've got way more than Fort Wayne. Anyway, I don't want
to harp on that. You can read the numbers. Especially in the three hotel, there's no ball very well.
But again, with some monthly and weekly data, I've got it and watch it closely. But you know, again,
occupancy, hotel occupancy, although it's up this year, you know, still down a little bit compared to
what it was pre-pandemic, but rate is way up. And as we stated, I think the hotels are giving up a little
bit of occupancy at higher rates. Shore terminals continue to take more market share. The market's up
in overall lodging overall though.
You know, we're holding our own. Everything I'm reading about Americans and the impact of the price
of gas on travel is growing. You know, the negativity of that is growing. We'll see what's happened
in a month or so with the latest headlines on that. But it's just, again, a weird thing when you look
at Indiana and where the physician in middle America
We tend to benefit from that. We tend to benefit from the situation with Canadian travel and international
travel, so we keep our eye on that. Really super excited about our staffing updates. We just promoted
Sean Ballard to Director of Conventional Sales and Marketing. Our new convention self-represented, Maddie
Quiggins, starts on Monday.
recent graduate of the Columbus School of Business. We're very excited to have her on board. I think
everybody in the room is up to date on the situation with Gene coming over to become a Visit Wilmington
employee. That's fantastic. Steve rolling along. I think all know it's great. We're excited about that.
We've worked closely with Gene and the Insolicious Crew forever and we'll
This is just going to make us communicate more and have a more smooth sales process. So Jean is taking
that in stride and we're talking all the time and things are going great with that. I only think an
already good situation is going to get even better. And we look forward to a continued partnership with
the Connection Center. We are having a sales planning meeting on July 30th when Maddie will have been
on board for a month
Some of Sean's travel, some of all of ours, some of our travel calms down a little bit while I'll be
around, and then she'll get on board in a month or so. We'll work out a few process, you know, we've
got our processes pretty well worked out, but we'll fine tune some of that stuff, come up with some
more detail in our sales plan, that type of stuff. We want to get a regular hotel meeting when we're
inviting hotel sales managers or GMs, anybody up to a,
at least a monthly meeting after that, we'll get that process in place. So that will be happening in
the future. I know, again, Gene's gonna talk numbers, but really excited about the interest in what
we said from the new expansion and the prevention center that Sean was at. I had said to you last week,
three RFPs, I think some of those are on genes numbers, but ASA coming up later this summer, a lot of
exciting stuff. You know, I will say, as I've recorded before, having the larger convention center does
allow us to call on larger groups that are playing a further outbooking window.
And most of the time so far, that has been very helpful to us in getting room blocks. We're requesting,
if a hotel is able to do that, and we're requesting room blocks two years plus out, we've seen a good
response to that. We did just have one that fell into our lap last week for two years out, and one of
the hotels responded that we needed a room block that said they couldn't give a room block out that
far out in demand. So we're gonna see that.
getting this in the market. We still need that hotel as we all know, just because of the sales of aspect
and what it's going to bring to the table. But we'll keep piecing it together and working with what
we have. Like I said, Spring Hill, Hilton Garden have been examples of two that have been coming to
the table, one coming two plus years out, which we've not been able to sub.
Obviously, it's just a lot easier for them to do that than when it's not inside six months. It's easier
to plan around. Yes, we count on that. So again, we keep working hard with that. And we're going to
get a process going with the hoteliers where we're communicating more, and working with them, and bidding
them off. That's from the start of going after these groups, and finding those windows that were really
dead, and slow, and how can we find groups, and things like that.
Next time we meet, we'll be looking forward to sharing more of that plan with you all and helping you
do all that. I do have in here, we're right in the middle of our strategic plan, our new 29. I've got
in here five broad strategic initiatives, as well as about 30 specific items that will be part of our
body of work for the next three years. You can see that.
I just talked about, number one priority for Visit Wilmington is going to be creating demand for that
convention center going forward, and that will be the top of that list, and then filling it in with
all of the center stuff. I do want to point out this attachment here, Visit Wilmington's strategic planning
data co-analysis. You've all received this via Gmail, but there's some great, great data in there. This
is what we think is part of our strategic plan stuff.
Talks about IU driving 345,000 reunites a year, sports tourism to at least 10,000 hotels. I think that's
sports from groups that we're working with. But just a lot of great stuff in here comparing us to West
Lafayette and some of their numbers, regional convention center draw, total trips, visit nights,
Great data that gives a great synopsis of the markets. I don't want to spend a ton of time talking about
what you've got this. I'm happy to. It backs up a lot of what we're saying about weekday demand and
slower times and things like that. So you can look at that and have that data. Please ask any questions
about it. If you have those, visitor center,
It's going very well with the visitor center. I know you're going to approve, well, I hope you approve
some more expenditures there because it's getting time. We're really in a certain state of that money
in July, August, September. We actually have a meeting down there this afternoon in the space.
I've got this, again, in this handout, a layout of the building. Again, as you walk in the door.
The new visitor center. I've switched gears. I've switched gears to new visitors. I'm looking at the
paper, so I... Right. I did want to pass around, yeah, the visitor center. We're in the middle of designing
displays and things like that. I'll pass these two around. These are two examples of displays. These
are one side of display, the back side of it, and the two end caps. Our displays are called Flavor,
History, Compete, Adventure, and Create.
Flavor is obviously restaurants, culinary. History is very creative. It's history. Compete to sports.
Adventure is outdoor recreation. And create is arts and culture. And then we're going to have one of
the walls that's going to be in the university, opening down the road. So skim past these around, take
a look at those. Not set in stone, but that's just what we're working with.
Spring Point is working on, as you can imagine, they're working on building permits and all of that.
We're researching lighting, furniture options, all that kind of stuff. We're going to start tearing
up the floor here in July to put in the electrical, building those displays, working on all of everything.
We will definitely invite you to see work in progress in the fall, but all things are pointing to, we're
going to be on time, hopefully we keep done.
late December or early January at the latest. So one of the questions I have is do you anticipate having
all of your funds invested by the end of this year for the visitor center? Or is that something we need
to consider for next year's budget? We should have all of them requested, at least requested. I think in the
In the next meeting, we would probably request the 200-and-some that's left over. And again, anything
that wasn't spent, I think we would pay for that or spend that in the first quarter of the 27th so we'd
already have as a carryover of our bank account. But I can do that however you'd like. Obviously, I
will reconcile everything with you and don't spend it on that. Thank you. Yeah.
Like I said, I know we've got 300, 350. So we'll probably ask for the other 200, I think for the next
quarter. What's this? And then Michael's. End of December. Now, whether we paid all the bills by then
or not, we would know.
We'll know a lot more here in starting in the fall if we really start spending that money that we can
spend a lot now, spend a lot of playing dollars. AJ, the American Junior Golf Association is in town
right now, all week playing at the foul. There are 76 boys and girls competing. There were 152 here
through Sunday, and they cut it down to 76.
But they're from all over the country, as well as Canada, Mexico, China, several international players.
That's a big thing going on with sports right now. Other than that, I've just got just some pots and
things we've been promoting leisure-wise on new trails, on retail trail, our foodie trail, our booze
trail, burger trail.
Brand Balloon was last Saturday. They sold 1,800 tickets. There were over 2,000 people in the park.
Excited about the possibility of that. For the events we did down there, we had close to 2,000 from
Ball and Tuttle. But this was paid, so now it's on free. I know they had 2,000 in the park on Friday
night. And we're on a Juneteenth at the Jet Biscuit Show. Again, that was free.
But the fact that Grand Balloon sold 1,800 tickets at $40 plus a piece is pretty great. That's really
going to help them go into it. We're not planning anything. That's what we're seeing. So we're excited
about the possibility of helping to turn those into more expensive things. The last thing I have in
there, I don't want to talk about, not talk about yet, is some detail on our budget request when we
get to that.
That's all I've got. Okay. Anything else on this? Not for me, because I know, like I said, I know Gene
is going to talk about it with some of these events. Okay. Any questions? Maybe that's a good transition.
Yeah. Yeah. It can be in the middle. Any questions?
A lot of information, Mike. Thank you for that. One thing I would say, gosh, I love another chart. But
I would love to see what you've got on the books as far as hotel rooms committed for conventions moving
forward. So I mean, past is great. We need that data.
But I would love to see what's on the books for January 2027 through January 2029, at least, by month.
So there's 1,000 rooms. Is it 50 rooms? Are we behind? What are we facing in the months? Where are we
going to draw the convention numbers? And whether it's maybe it's not going to be as busy in convention.
I think that would help this body understand more of the rhythm.
of that connection sales. Okay. Yeah. A support is on my list to do a better job of figuring out exactly
how how we want to do that. I want to be able to supply a couple of different types of case reports.
One is what is what one is what is prospect and then one maybe that is total convention sports and the
user for the market so that we can even look at fall dates when football was on there and things like that.
So that's what we want to do in that July 30th meeting is send her out those data center that are open
and we're working on it. I'm going to put it out there. Is that I'm going to ask again at the next meeting
and wonder where you're going to see that we can have it for this body. What is most important to you
is prevention rooms booked.
I think that's a portion we're not capturing. If we have a change of the volume of the amount that is
coming through from a non-standard event revenue, I'd love to see that as long as we get it right. But
where we don't know is that future piecing in the month. That's really what we're looking to do is to
see if we can see a pattern of that increasing, where maybe there's softer monocytes. For me,
And that's where we need to step it up and do a better job. We've got a lot of times with our rules
being generated, we've got that stuff in there, and then we follow it backwards. It's not really good to put it
put into what actually happened to work or whether it's booked or again, if we did, if the convention
center is doing something that we don't touch, it's not necessarily in our numbers. That's what we're
working on is how we're going to report that stuff back and forth. Do you guys use a sales software
now? Yes. It's all there. It's just that a lot of times they'll have a pace. Oh, it's in there.
It's in there. I just looked at it and it looks, there's just, just all the data is not in there. So
it's been on
Right now, I've talked about this over the last few months, and eventually, it's been realized that
I'm going to put that data in the middle of this, and I want to show you something that is accurate.
I would like to contemplate it and see the sports side, the convention side, all the different things
you're doing. Because the other thing I think we want to make sure we're watching is, obviously, convention
center is a huge piece, a huge investment, and actually, that's good, but what kind of
impact is that having on the other areas that there's a focus on. Is it pulling some of that? Do we
need the repulsor of reality just so we can watch that achieve? It'll run it by what's pending,
what's good, what's in need. It even shoots out economic impact on it. It's all generated in there.
We have a great tool that we have to maximize the use of it. And we were just talking this morning about
having our rep from Greg and spending three minutes with us.
making sure that we are using it in the best way that we can. So we'll work on that. We will have it
for you. So I can't wait for the September. It's going to be something, I tell you. I can't wait for
the September to be 47K. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Jeannie? I'm already going to take in notes and
not read things to send. Oh, yeah.
I will say too that the program that we use to capture reservations has a field where you can enter
room nights as requested by the planner through the RSC process. Getting the accurate follow-up on the
pickup reports and all the information thereafter is different entirely, but I can always add the field
that has what they're requested, I suppose. That's like the planner's best guess, typically it's based
on history. It gives us something to go by until we get to that point. And you know, there's how accurate
those are. Your report is two sided, I do suspect this time,
And so you can see on the front, just a recap of the year date and then July through October, the bottom
of the page that we have yet to experience one new year with IE School of Medicine, Tennessee, a TG
for three days coming up next month. At the top, you'll see that it says draft and that's only because
June 26th is not completed although
the January through June of 2025 numbers are for the full month of June last year. I just don't have
all that yet, but we'll see what's in the system right now. And then we'll get at the numbers I will
say to you that I was looking through this trying to figure out what's really different on the first
half of this year, University Labs, and I've, it has changed since the beginning of the pandemic, but ways
They're not big, they're not admittedly, from a total and generated for you all, but they are in sales
dollars overall for us and at full retail for weddings. And the big weddings of two, three hundred people
have just come down, down, down in size in the six, seven, six or eight over the course of a total of
a year. We have had one this year so far, one wedding, and it was about
So that business has really changed. And it's, as I said, it's a fact that our total sales numbers,
but not really much of anything in the way of hotel projections. If people are still getting married
most times, they're staying somewhere. They're not doing it on their wedding summer. They're going to
have to sell.
Let's get it over to those 20, 27, 15, 16, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17, 17,
17, 17, 17, 17,
The Tourism Association has never been here before, and so they were here once. Now everybody wants
a part of that trip. It was so fun. We had a great time. Just getting them acquainted with the space,
and we went over to them.
So that he could visualize what was going to be where he was out and all of the kind of thoughts or
anything that we have to work with right now. So they are going to be here in touch. And then as we
go into the third quarter,
In July, I wanted to point out that the Early Intervention Conference is going from a plan of attendance
where it would be 500, but it's going up to 600. They need space because they're finding out enough
space to get as big as they think that they can. And then moving on into the third quarter,
The first quarter letter, the Asphalt Pavement Association of Haiti is very interested in being here
for their winter conference in December. 600 for three days, that just came through from Champagne.
We have a site visit set up with them for the July meeting.
First, they've been archived to us. We can get that with them. It looks good. And then looking ahead
into 2028, the Indiana Dental Association, look at this. Thank you, Shani. But also the International
Talent and Gown Association. These are people from all over
It feels different, and they say it's going to, and then you're in here, and you can absolutely imagine.
But it's been just terrific to be here.
director of the Indian Tourism Association went up the temporary ladder up to the second level right
in front of me. She was the first one who went up and she got off to the top of it for it but I'm not
even going to get up because she's trying to look at me. It's just like... There's nothing like it.
It's just really feeling like I'm in the backstage chance.
What do you mean by serious? I'm looking for a comment.
Yeah, there you go. That's awesome.
All right. Okay, great. Well, I will. So, Gene had mentioned the three big conferences that were here
at the beginning of June, and they were all very excited about the construction and seeing the activity. And so,
Well, it has been fabulous, actually. They've worked around the groups coming in. They've moved to whatever
we need, the parking spaces. The customers are interested in seeing the activity and talking about it.
Yes. I don't know if you put a document up or something, but I've lost camera. There's not a document.
Yeah, the camera is not on. I can't see. We can't see the meeting.
We'll just, we'll keep talking. I'll record it. I don't think that goes to, Oh, maybe now that he says
that from the meeting. Well, all right. So anyway, they've all been excited about the construction.
We had a Kirkwood meeting last week and there were about a hundred people there and five who I didn't
know all brought up the convention center at different points of time with like wanting to make downtown
an exciting place and leave people down there. And so even some of them are starting to make plans of
what they want to do when it opens. So it's very visible and they're pretty excited about it. So, um,
They're also impressed that it's on schedule and moving and and that it's really happening. So yeah,
I know. So the just on behalf of downtown Bloomington, Inc.
Cindy is joining us today. She's been our treasurer. She did the first bond on the first building and
got involved with the project. And Joan's snap has been our controllers for the beginning. So I was
kind of to them when I worked for them. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So good solid history with a good team
here at the convention center. And, you know, we just want to do what it takes to make it successful. And
You know, we've been through, you know, when the railroad went, the live train behind us, and you'd
go to the chains that, you know, bought the land to the west so we could have more parking. And the
train would come by five times a day and shake the building. And the, you know, 911, we thought the
world was going to fall apart. Then it was the dot-com bubble. Then it was the mortgage crisis. And
then it was COVID. And so anyway, it's been great having
strong partnerships with the Commission of Visitors Commission and the county. 14,000 events. We opened
in five years before we had a hotel with the first one. Just as an example, we're already starting to
get this interest. When a host hotel opens, it'll explode. It was almost overnight whenever
that opened. So anyway, I just wanted to go down memory lane a little bit as we look forward to the
next steps with this project. And we're excited about it. And capital improvement board members are
here as well. John Weikart and Jeff Underwood, July 1 is the transition time. And I take transition
is the theme with the last 35 years. So this is like that next step.
We're transitioning different financials and we've hired an office manager also. So they'll get started
with getting all that stuff set up as well. So we're super excited about that. Yeah, for me, I'm not
scared about the community engagement or the commencement center and what that would entail for this
town. I'm not scared of that. I'm scared.
that at the outside of the community, too, everybody wanted to come from G or I. So this is the reason
why we built this facility, or wanted to build this facility for so long. So it's great seeing the site
come from all areas. Yeah. Can I just do a quick comment? Yeah. So just in my background in banking,
the most exciting part for me is
here in all the businesses that are looking to invest, reinvest, expand, and contemplate in the future,
given the fact that the Expanded Prevention Center is finally reality, that return on investment for
the community and helping businesses do more business abroad. So that's exciting. That's something we
don't necessarily always capture. And it's like this subterranean talks about the economic impact
It goes outside of just hotel revenue or just convinced the center has been appointed. It goes to the
whole community, small businesses. Yeah. So thank you. It's exciting when they bring that up. We're
considering buying more equipment or hiring more people or expanding our facility because of the potential
business from the Hispanic Convention Center. So it's good for Bob.
Oh, I like the food too. Any other questions, comments, or solutions? Excited. We haven't had a hard
head tour. I have my own hard head tour. We're trying to get one set for 9.30 on July 9. So if that
time works, the asphalt paving association people want to come then. So that'd be a good day.
Okay, that sounds great. Can we do plan on, in the early fall, when we get the time is right to actually
market for that tourism. It's a movie. We're talking about that. Well, just two weeks ago, we talked
to her about that. It's safe for a couple of companies in town.
All right. If there's nothing else on the reports, next thing on our agenda is claims approval for this
current year. So we have several claims that are put before us today. It'll come out this year's budget.
We've got five before us today.
and just move forward with those. Quick, Talisha, could I have you press the camera button up in the
top right so we can turn the camera back on? All right, there we are. Okay, good job. Okay, thank you.
Thanks. All right, the first claim we have before us today is for
Um, so second quarter, uh, operating funds for, uh, the Clinton and Vistras Bureau of Monroe County
or visit Bloomington. This is in the amount of $557,333 and 33 cents. These are for the normal operating
expenses that we're budgeted. Actually, that should say third quarter.
The invoice says they're included. Okay. So any questions or comments on this point? Motion and a second.
Marsha, would you move us to a roll call? Yes.
The next claim is before us today. It's for downtown Bloomington, Inc. for convention services from
the third quarter of 2026, the amount of $148,025. Questions or comments on the claim? Motion and a
second. Marsha, is there a roll call vote, please?
Yes. Serbie Brown, Trent Sites. Next claim that's before us today is for says first quarter professional,
second quarter. Second quarter. Second quarter professional means
Marsha Roach, and $147.50. Questions or comments on the client? Second. Marsha, would you be the first
to roll the roll, please? Yes.
Next playing in this before is out of the Capital Improvement Fund. This is for the kitchen unit replacement.
This is for this existing building, and that is the amount of $21,500. Oh man, I'm sending Felicia in for this.
their advice. Yes. And the kitchen thanks you in advance of your vote. It had gotten to 91 in the kitchen
for a couple of days. And it takes like six months to get those air handlers in. So they have been without
air conditioning for a while. So they say thank you. The second person to move us to a vote vote vote 20.
Herbie Graham, president. Last thing that's before us is for third quarter, this fair center build out
expenses. So we've come out of the general fund and for the downtown this room center expenses that
Mike was talking about, just to start construction of that area. The dollar amount requested is $350,000.
Which is a total of 400,000. This is for your construction.
motion and a second motion for you. The next item on our agenda is CBC and CID operating agreement.
This is a draft which is included in your packet regarding
Operation moving forward. The reason for this document is a couple of reasons. We have an agreement
with EPIs, Operating Convention Center, Operation Week. They also have an agreement with the county
in order to retrieve the funds that they could earn as part of the operating
A service would pay them, they would have to pay the county. So the service would bring in the county,
bring in the CDC. We're looking in here, and part of this document is to simplify that to allow the
DBI or the Convention Center management company to work directly with the Capital Improvement Board.
And at the same time, talk to them about what, is there some overlap being
statutes that point to who's supposed to do what with the convention center. In our initial convention
measures commission, it points to us being the operator and, in particular, the marketer in the sales
department. So this document helps to clarify all parties as to who will be responsible for what and
allow us to collaborate effectively.
So if you've had a chance to look through this document, there's a lot of whereas's and witnesses and
so forth in that nature. But as you're looking through that, you can see the abbreviations that indicate
the CBC. And if you're looking on page two, you can see one, two, three, four, five, six, sixth whereas
down, it talks about moving obligation
for the promotion of the Convention Center to the CVC, including the primary obligation for the promotion
from the Convention Center Management Company. It also talks in this document about the CIP being an
oversight and operator of the payment and the operations of the building. The next large amount
Some of these others have to do with accounting, but if you go to article three, point number one, A,
it talks about a timeline, starting on January 1st, from a budget cycle or earlier, by later library
and the CDC shall become primarily responsible for the promotion, marketing, and sales of the convention center.
We should be in line with the terms of the sectional agreement of exhibit one. Those were the previous
documents. It talks about the shift of responsibility for promotion and sales moving to visit Boylington,
which would mean that would be something that would be funded through visit Boylington. So we're looking
at budgets moving into our next item.
We're actually looking at the full convention of sales, promotion, marketing, package, within business.
Does that make sense? Were there other parts of this agreement that you had questions or concerns with?
They don't have any populations for society since they were saved.
So, oftentimes, um,
And for those that are already in the hotel industry, I'll go down this road and you'll understand that
I'll probably not confuse you even more. But in a hotel term, oftentimes there's an owner who owns the
facility. And that really the ownership of the property, although there's some legalese that says that
the building belongs to the city while it's still under bond, it is really a capital improvement
acts as that owner agent, but who is responsible for the operation of the building, the day-to-day operation
of the building, and then owns that property. So the CA, John could probably go talking about that,
but they act as the owner's agent, in effect, that would oversee that, make sure that the buildings
were created, danger done, property and staff,
service driven. The convention center management company acts as that operational one. So looking at
it from a sales perspective, that's really the day-to-day operations of the management company. And then
and also making sure that events are carried off well and so forth like that from an operational standpoint.
The sales beats in promotion and marketing, taking the sales and putting it with the marketing
and promotional items, which is Visit Bloomington, is what this outruns as well, too. So it outlines
that. And a lot of hotels are moving into a commercial office or you may have that moving
which is a company where they combine the technology, revenue, management, distribution, marketing,
it's all under one umbrella. Cambridge has that. I'm not sure who says that. But they have one chief
commercial officer that, in effect, looks like visibility fills that niche to where they're understanding
the marketing, the promotion,
The sales as far as out of market can be a marketing service. It fills the box. So that's what the soundboard
is. So the CDC is helping in that. It's the financial backing to this development and promotion of the
facility. That's part of it. And then we're also funding some kind
a day-to-day or per cycle. And you'll see that equation as capital S go forward. Last year, we had to
offer opportunities. We'll be finding something. So to be honest, I think he was asked to apologize,
go back. He's had to do that once.
It's probably helpful for all of us if I had to do this. So at the end of the day, there's a good reason
to have always worked together, but we do not see that changing. It is an energy is probably a position
that's probably important. So there's a whole realignment because it takes that whole sales from a share
and makes that more complete sale as a team, it knew that. Gotta have a sales team that knows the overall
strategy of build a box and bring themselves to the supermarket. And so having that real short-term
ordinance will make this much better than a larger facility. I felt great in this facility, the way it is,
but it's a larger facility structure organization. And Gina's still located here so that she can share
those details as an inside salesperson with our event stack. Because that's a pretty seamless communication
right now. Before the customers sign the contract, she gets those details. So it saves a lot of problems
way down the road. And they actually have their event
Yeah, I will comment on the way you're to come visit Wilmington. It's a center that works together.
It's an album, and that's interesting. I think I'm just not about to get into the structure behind the
changes. So when you decide I've had my thought, I want to do something else. Or Mike, I'm out bad,
and they'll call me to go spin some records or something.
who oversteps in those other roles, and maybe if there's not as good of a partnership as you guys have
been, I think it's rare in other markets that I've been in to have the good relationship that you guys
have. So I'd like to thank you guys for the cooperation that you've done. It's not all these things.
It makes everything much more fun. So thank you guys for everything you've been putting in there.
We have a couple members from the Capital Improvement Board sitting over there, and I summarize what
this document is reasonably well served. You know, it was admirable. You know, I'm not going to say,
excuse me, Jim Whitlatch is on remotely, the attorney from Capital Improvement Board. So if you have
any questions about the document itself, Jim is certainly available. Jeff Underwood is our controller.
the best question about budget when you move into that part of this has been a remarkable exercise.
You were involved in those first meetings that we had, we've worked our way through lots of things that's
been alphabet soup, trying to figure a lot of this out, cd, cd, c, i, b, c, c, m, c, a, p, i, trying
to figure out how long it works together. And for me to oversimplify, we're primarily looking at that
reassigning the contractants with the county to the CIB. So the relationship moves from Memorial County
to the capital and through the board with all of you. And including the CCMC who's been involved in
these conversations. I think it's just been admirable the way we've all worked our way through this.
And then secondly, to Mike's point, I think it was important to all of us that we recognize the separation
of duties, if you will,
you know, the promotion, the marketing and the sales, where does that belong versus where is the operation
and management of the convention center belong? And I think this document succeeds in doing that. I
want to thank Jean for her help and cooperation as we worked our way through this and Mike and Sean
as well. So I followed Cindy out and said, Cindy, how's everything going? Okay. And she said, yes, everything
seems to be going very well. So I congratulate
like for having sunrise work will be the nicest resummarize what this is all about. And it's certainly
exercising the vocabulary and working things through. If you have questions, if you have any, we'll
ask you some questions. Yeah, so we would need to have the motion approval. And if it is accepted, I
would sign them.
and then shoot it back out. I like that. So, the river. Okay. My handbook? Yes. Very good. Next item
on you, Janet.
And so, as far as to start off, and by the way, this is one of the things that I'm sure. A couple of
words, please. A couple of things that we're looking at in this worksheet, put down some
I didn't put it in colors because I tried to print this in color, but apparently... You can imagine
colors in these areas, but it does have an inverse forecast and that's half the forecast line towards
the bottom. And then also sort of surplus deficit in the anticipatory overtones.
If you're looking at columns, I'm starting to call out numbers, but looking from where those are, the
carryover budget going into this year was $5,544,244. At the end of this year, we're anticipating carryover
balance, or I'm sorry, that would be the end of this year
that we are anticipating for the balance. But we are looking at the carryover balance in the proposed
budget. You can see that one. I've put in a couple of different options just for your perspective. We
did a 10% increase in both this one and to the CCMC. You can see what those dollars are.
traditional, they've been at three to five, sometimes 10%. Wanted to give you some perspective there.
Last year, we raised this by 17% in anticipation of an opening. That's that next set of columns. We
raised the CCMC by 37% last year. So you did the same thing, but this would be that number.
When we have in the next column, it's the proposed budget for 2027. That's what we're gonna be asking
for today. So we are looking at a 24% increase for visit Wilmington to include the additional marketing
promotion and sales. In addition to the other things that is important for that. But the largest portion
of that is the sales.
Mike has presented to you with his budget. So if there are questions on where that books funds would
go for that two, five minute or we can certainly talk through that. But that would represent a 24% increase
versus one of us. So now, women anticipate 134% increase.
It says that in unusual circumstances, we have been saving for this for a couple of years in the anticipation
of the growth of the connection. So building that, doing some of the infrastructure things, in advance
of that, being able to fund some of the construction. This would be spending, we're anticipating this
in late 2019,
over the course of the next seven years. The other number that increases is in the CCMC budget. That
would rise, we're proposing 136%, which is what it is this year. So it would move from 592,000 to augment
the current operational expenses. So 1,397,000
$1,423. That would probably say for the next few years, or somewhere down that. In our last meeting,
we approved and agreed to a budget. I've also allocated that there, and that number is $1,593,819.
So with this budget, if approved, we would be expending, all things are expended, $6,237,732 in 2027,
and only collect estimated $1.4 billion in need to purchase, which would generate a deficit to our carryover balance.
of a little over 1.8 million dollars a year to draw down that carryover to about 3.7. I don't know about
you guys, but I can't just think about next year. I'm looking at what it will be in the next few years.
So put in carryover balances are estimated over the next few years. This is at no new hotels are open.
There's no unusual increase in tax income created through the increase in tax. But really looking at
around a 3% increase. I have forecasted upwards to visit Bloomington and the Convention Center management
company for the next couple of years. And then in 2030, probably some people are wondering why there's
a negative effect
And that what we're hopeful that the dollar on the stage being generated in the center would be high
enough to where the intersection being pulled back in order to not necessarily subsidize the day-to-day
operations. The sales generated by the sales marketing
That's true. But we found that number up, and some of it we're able to look at it from the one from
the strategy. So that's what some of those numbers are. This year, we're going to have this penicillin
numbers for the next meeting. And this is to show that we're not going to necessarily have a bike ride
in year two, and then have to come
And so the proposed budget for 2027 is we're not increasing the commissioners expense, not increasing fees,
We will still retain or claim or retain a capital improvement fund. That will probably be mostly for
banks that are outside of the convention building. It's a center building on the community. So we're
spending a lot of that. And then, again, as I mentioned, it's a plumbing center.
for the Convention Center. So both of them, I think, Talysha had handed out the budget for 2027 for
her operating budget. And with that, she's included space travel revenue, service revenue, and innkeepers
tax revenue as her income streams and the expenses that are outlined.
And I have control groups in the room, which is offering all of those numbers and records to them. Questions
or concerns? Would you like to say how long that will take?
questions or thoughts on that gesture or anything you wanted to add. And then the next item is the outline
for the requested amount for this point. So this is a 2017 proposed budget.
It's got categories at the top here, salaries. It's got visitor center operations. It's got other operations
marketing. And then where that goes out to, you can see that chunk on the back side of that page. But
it's a two-sided.
in some rough calculations on what the direct cost per prevention center sales is due to salaries. It's
about $611,000 to $630,000 as far as direct costs and then there's some others that are related but
not necessarily as direct as some others.
So it's substantial now in this budget for convention center. Mark and I'll say it all the time. Questions
for consumers on the different kind of visit buildings and budget.
All right. So that being said, if there are no questions, then I would discuss as a recommendation
in motion for Mike Campbell for the proposed budget for 2027 as output is $2,994,000. Commissioners
expense 200,000 fees, professional fees for 2,500. The Convention Center Management Company slash
capital improvement forward operating costs of $1,397,423. For the capital improvement fund, that line
item, $50,000. And then the recommendation to fund the convention center alternates from $1,593,000
$819, and considered the last one. That would mean a total expenditure of $6,237,742. That's the motion.
Is there a second
Nothing. Any other questions or concerns? One of the questions. Marsha, would you like us to go fight?
Yes, Pamela. Yes. Debbie Brown. Okay. Fight. So one other thing to note on this. There is no money set
aside for the downtown Bloomington. Ms. Ripson in the 2027 budget.
So if money is not spent before that time operation, we will have to wait for a couple of months to
go back in front of the county council and get that evidence that all shows expenditure. So that's it.
No. All right. I think that's the budget. That's the agreement. Let's see. Next cycle of this is that
big business. Big business.
I just wanted to catch up quickly on where we are with the hotel RFP process.
We have responses that are due next Tuesday, the deadline for responses. I will tell you that we have
had multiple responses to the first part, which is signifying intent to submit a proposal. In fact,
we've actually had more than we had last time. But that doesn't lend anybody to doing it. So we'll see
what happens next Tuesday. We have a special meeting Wednesday to hear from JSL, our owner's rep,
on who responded. We will then set up interviews with respondents for a meeting on July 8th. We will
turn those interviews and that information over to our hotel evaluation group, which includes as advisors
to that group, Mike Campbell and Mike McAfee, if they're available, help us with that. With the intent
being that on July 15th, that our regular meeting would have a recommendation back from the evaluation group,
on what we should take on the proposals for the hotel. So I just wanted to catch you up on that.
Thank you. To make sure we're aware of what's happening with the total situation. City Council, local
government, all this year,
City administration, city staff have been advised that they don't want to close it. Because to close
it, they want to get done with the property sources, the staff, and the problem that they need resources.
So they're recommending against it. The city council decided to create an ordinance to close it anyway.
I just wanted to point to you all that when it comes to tourism
visitors, and bendies, DDI, and my relationship with DDI, and even making, looking to become more attracted
to people, moving here, and professionalism is like that. I think that having a close crew with them,
again, that was properly supported, had the money to put together, we created a shade, we worked together,
we had a long-term plan in place,
I think to everybody who's open to the idea of that, it's just people who are saying we're not ready
to do that right now. Don't just throw it out. Don't just close it, put it in the trinity. That's the
current state of the thing. We're kind of hearing that that would be where we go. And then in the future,
when we could close it and then turn it into a new attraction, an extra mall, that is deadline.
So, huge tour is a draw, a huge commitment for our team. First one, I'll say. Okay, maybe. Yeah, there
are all this for public comment. Saying the very good. Maybe it's adjourned.