As a former hotel executive, spending 24 years operating and building hotels, the last thing Plymouth needs is a convention center. In June of 2024 an article noted that this building should have a column free hall of at least 25,000 square feet and 15,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. That means that entire building would have at least 60,000 square feet of space as you need kitchen areas, storage, open space for attendees’ registration, hallways, and loading docks. There are not enough hotel rooms in the area to support this, especially if it were to be built in the downtown area, which would be an eyesore with the building soaring over three stories. And to move it to an outward location would not support the town’s business owners and create even more traffic. Most small centers only fill for approximately 30 percent of a year (most on weekends), according to a study by Access Intelligence [done] after Covid, and the bulk of regional centers are usually a bit larger than what is being proposed.
Another factor is a hotel would need to be either attached or next to a center. I doubt that any hotel operator would build a hotel in a location other than downtown and in Plymouth there is really no place to do that without moving out retail and restaurants, which seems to me to be counterproductive.
If the town wants to bring in tax revenue, they should focus on new-style manufacturing which can be placed in spots around Plymouth and be a better source of employment at a much higher rate. So I would not like to see this happen. An empty building, especially of this size, would just be an eyesore and waste to taxpayers.
– Steven Eichberg