More Convention Center Money After All

City Council likely will consider Wednesday transferring more than $209,000 into the operating fund for the Duke Energy Center downtown.



The money, currently in an unappropriated surplus fund, comes from extra money the city hadn't budgeted for because of "projected insufficient resources," according to a memo from City Manager Milton Dohoney. "However, actual revenue for the Convention Center in 2007 was greater than anticipated..." Most of the money - $187,300 - will go for sales and marketing, with the remaining $22,000 going toward extra personnel for "enhanced oversight" of the city's contract with Global Spectrum, the private firm that manages the center.



The same ordinance also would transfer and appropriate $300,000 from the same surplus to the operating budget to cover a 5 percent contingencies reserve. That's required, the memo says, by the city's contract with Global Spectrum, which has operated the place since 2006.



Convention officials previously said things have been looking up for the convention business locally - conventioneers booked more than 176,000 hotel room-nights that pumped nearly $52.5 million into the local economy in 2007, an 8 percent increase from the more than 163,000 room-nights and $48.6 million the year before.