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San Francisco Travel warns Moscone expansion needs nearby hotel rooms to capture lost conventions
Summary
San Francisco Travel told the Planning Commission the Moscone Convention Center expansion and additional nearby hotel rooms — ideally a 600-room convention hotel within walking distance — are essential to avoid losing large conventions and recover hundreds of millions in visitor spending.
San Francisco Travel President Joe D’Alessandro told the Planning Commission on Aug. 1 that visitor demand in San Francisco is at historic levels and that the city risks losing convention business unless it pairs the planned Moscone Convention Center expansion with substantial nearby hotel development. “We’re at historic levels in terms of visitor demand for San Francisco,” D’Alessandro said in the department presentation.
D’Alessandro said visitors generated roughly $9 billion in spending last year and support tens of thousands of local jobs, and he estimated that losing a major convention could cost the city more than $100 million in economic activity. He described the Moscone expansion as a public‑private partnership, roughly a $500 million project, expected to add large contiguous exhibition space and to improve neighborhood connectivity. “Our clients are asking for additional contiguous exhibition space,” he said.
Why it matters: Convention bookings drive room nights across neighborhoods and underpin tax revenue, payroll and hospitality jobs. D’Alessandro argued the city needs both an expanded Moscone and the hotel capacity to host larger events; San Francisco Travel is urging zoning and planning tools to support a convention‑scale hotel near Moscone as well as smaller boutique and neighborhood hotels.
Details and context: The presentation said the industry needs at least a 600‑room convention hotel with 23,000–27,000 square feet of meeting space within a 10‑minute walk of Moscone. Forecasts cited in the presentation put citywide hotel occupancy near 82% for 2013, well above the U.S. average. Commissioners asked about the timeline (D’Alessandro said construction could start next year with completion targeted in 2017–18), the role of Airbnb (staff estimated about 5,000 non‑hotel rooms but noted tax and data gaps), and neighborhood distribution for new hotels.
Next steps: Commissioners asked staff to keep hotel capacity and transit access part of waterfront and Central Waterfront planning as the Moscone expansion and related EIRs move forward.
