In its ongoing search for funds to host the 2002 Winter Games, Salt Lake City is exploring an interesting possibility: leasing city-owned facilities for use as hospitality suites during the Games at significantly increased prices.
Individuals and groups currently can, and do, rent public buildings such as Memory Grove's Memorial House, the City & County Building and the Art Barn for wedding receptions, dinners, parties and such like.The prices can run from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 for a one-night event, depending on the venue and night of the week. City officials are anticipating that demand will spike during the Games and thus that they can vastly widen their profit margin.
"City policy is that we have to rent them at least at market rate," said city Olympic coordinator Renee Tanner. "I'm pretty sure we can make more than that."
That conclusion is borne out by the level of interest in renting the buildings, even with the Games still 2 1/2 years away. Memorial House at Memory Grove, for example, has a waiting list of 20 organizations that want to use it during the Games, and the city is talking seriously to one national Olympic committee about leasing the Art Barn, located near the University of Utah.
Park City is looking to do the same thing. The city expects heavy competition for public buildings such as the Miners Hospital, library, Racquet Club, barn and public works complex.
Public buildings aren't the only ones. Trolley Square officials are negotiating with several parties who are interested in taking over the common areas during the Olympics -- perhaps even while shops are open and shoppers are shopping. That would allow attendees to sip wine and eat cheese and pick out a nice pantsuit at the same time.
"We think long-term it would be a very good thing," said Trolley Square marketing director Jeanie Van Amen. "It's a win-win situation."
The whole issue, obviously, has the potential of being very lucrative, though at this early stage those involved shy away from saying exactly how much money it might bring in.
"It's really in the exploratory stages still," Tanner said. "(But) you name it -- if we own it, we're trying to figure out how to generate some revenue from it."
Salt Lake officials are now negotiating with the Pathfinder Group about creating brochures touting their facilities. While Park City is not advertising such facilities, Myles Rademan, the city's director of public affairs, said officials have discussed the idea with visiting delegations.
The idea came up as recently as Monday when an Austrian delegation was in Park City, Rademan said. As in Salt Lake City, however, the price tag for using Park City facilities is still unclear.
Salt Lake City, Park City and other venue cities are anxious about projections showing a shortfall -- that is, it will cost them more to host the Games than they will bring in in increased tax revenue. Salt Lake, for example, is looking at a $13.6 million deficit, with Park City's projected at $6.4 million.
The venue cities are now lobbying the state to give them some of its share of the Games-related revenue spike so they can break even.
Other facilities in Salt Lake include Franklin Quest Field suites (nominally owned by the Buzz) and the field itself, airport hospitality rooms, Gallivan Plaza, Memory Grove's Ottinger Hall and even the run-down Chase Mill in Liberty Park.
That last introduces another advantage accruing from leasing facilities. Salt Lake officials are hoping to convince some organization to renovate Chase Mill for hospitality space, which after the Olympics could then be used by Tracy Aviary for office and exhibit space.
Tracy Aviary officials, predictably, would welcome such a move.
It's not unprecedented. Car manufacturer Daimler-Benz had agreed to restore Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell House as a hospitality suite for the 1996 Summer Games -- until a fire destroyed much of it. That shifted the company's attention to the buildings next door, which are now used as the house's visitors center.
Even so, Daimler-Benz still contributed $5 million toward the eventual restoration of the house itself.
The idea of renting out facilities for hospitality suites during the Olympics is not new. The U.S. Olympic Committee will take over several restaurants in Sydney during the 2000 Summer Games there for various functions. Sponsors like Coca-Cola always have a big place for mix-and-mingles and other things. Other examples abound.
"We're certainly not being overly creative," Tanner said.
Deseret News staff writer Derek Jensen contributed to this story.