Santa Clarita is home to a growing business community, establishing itself as an industrial and high-tech player in the region, leading some business people to say that it’s about time the city had a convention center to attract corporate meetings. Carrie Rogers, marketing and economic development manager for the city, said that the possibility of investing in a convention center will be a serious topic of discussion this year. “It’s something we’re looking into, our vacancy rate is very low, which means our occupancy rate is really high,” said Rogers. “One of our goals for the next year is to have an analysis done by professionals, we don’t believe we have a market saturation yet.” “While we have some meeting rooms, we don’t really have a center capable of handling a large conference,” Rogers said. Currently, the Hyatt Valencia and Santa Clarita Conference Center offers the meeting space in the form of an 8,000 square-foot ballroom and several meeting rooms, but conventions require more space. At a recent meeting in Los Angeles dealing with hotel development, Rogers said, speakers claimed that meeting capacity is extremely important in attracting corporate clients. The question the city is asking itself is “barring expansion at the Hyatt, is there some other complementary use, where another hotel can work with the Hyatt to attract meetings?” Rogers said the call for a conference center has come from a wide spectrum of businesses within the city. “We desperately need (a conference center,)” said Don Fleming, owner of Valencia Acura. “We get 400 people in the Hyatt for dinner and it’s just packed. If we could get a place were we could put 1,000 attendees, it would be great.” Occupancy rates in the Santa Clarita Valley have been consistently stronger than areas like downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica, and slightly lower than the San Fernando Valley. The growing number of industrial companies setting up shop in Santa Clarita and Six Flags California’s Magic Mountain have combined to attract visitors. Ocean Park Hotels, which operates three mid-sized hotels near the freeway, is building a 112-room La Quinta Inn & Suites and a 144-room Courtyard by Marriott. Both hotels are slated to open later this y ear.
