Visit Fargo Moorhead hires HVS for convention-center market study; Appleton case cited for financing, management lessons

Visit Fargo Moorhead told its advisory group that it has hired consulting firm HVS to prepare a market analysis to accompany a planned request for proposals (RFP) for a convention center and attached hotel, and that the RFP will not be rushed.

The analysis, Visit Fargo Moorhead representatives said at the meeting, will be distributed with the RFP to inform developers and help shape the project. Charlie, Visit Fargo Moorhead, said the consultant’s draft could be available “by around the April maybe by the twentieth.”

The market study and the project’s financing timetable matter because the local lodging-tax mechanism the group is considering will not take effect automatically, Charlie said: “the tax doesn't actually go into effect until this this group recommends and the city commission at a City Commission meeting approves it.” He added that if the project is not selected by 2028, the tax provision would expire under current design.

To help the advisory group evaluate trade-offs, the meeting included a remote presentation from Pam Bridal of the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose bureau supported the Fox Cities Exhibition Center in Appleton, Wis.…