Longmont eyes potential for new conference center, arts venue

LONGMONT — Since the Plaza Convention Center closed last fall, Longmont has been without a venue large enough to host major events. Longmont city, business and tourism leaders now want to learn whether it makes sense to build a new convention center.

The city, along with Visit Longmont, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority and the Longmont Performing Arts Initiative, recently began seeking a consultant to perform a feasibility study “to determine if a performing arts center is feasible, a convention center is feasible or if both are feasible,” Visit Longmont executive director Nancy Rezac said.

The request for proposals has been sent to about a dozen firms — two in Colorado and the remainder to out-of-state consultants.

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A committee made up of members of those organizations will meet in April to review proposals and select a company to conduct the study.

The study is expected to cost $150,000, with the Longmont Performing Arts Initiative footing the bill for $75,000, Visit Longmont chipping in $50,000 and the city and LDDA covering the remainder.

While the study will explore what type and how large a venue Longmont needs and can support, the demand for some sort of large indoor gathering space certainly exists, Rezac said

Longmont Performing Arts Initiative, an organization made up local choral, dance, theater and symphony groups, “would like one facility that can house all of their performances,” she said. “And that facility could also be used for regional artists to come to town or musicians or comedians.”

From a business and tourism perspective, the city is “very limited in what we can offer meeting planners who are looking for destinations to conduct conferences and conventions,” Rezac said.

The largest group that venues in Longmont can accommodate is about 100. Rezac said “the sweet spot for conferences” is a venue that can hold as many as 300 attendees.

“Longmont would like to have something to offer to that group of people” who scout potential conference sites and are looking for larger venues, she said. “We feel like we are missing out on  a number of opportunities.”