With Grand Park’s impending opening Westfield prepares for tourism impact
With the Grand Park Sports Complex opening coming in a couple of months, Westfield will officially create a new industry within the city.
“It’s more than just a sports experience; it’s a tourist experience,” Mayor Andy Cook said. “There’s still a lot to do – indoor soccer and baseball facilities.”
Tourism will become a vital role in the financial makeup of the city. Cook said the tourism opportunity for the city will be evident once Grand Park guests begin arriving.
“We already have 800,000 visitors expected for this year,” he said, adding projections increase to 1.5 million visitors in future years.
As the city works on Grand Junction, development is also taking place directly south of the sports complex at Grand Park Village. The Henke Development recently unveiled its first retail building, two two-story buildings with a three-story clock tower, which will be at 168th Street and Grand Park Boulevard.
“It sets the quality of the architecture out there. It will be very well done,” Cook said. “We’re ready to start building in the spring.”
Cook said there is a lot of interest in private development going on but there are many unsigned deals. One obstacle facing the economic growth in Westfield is the U.S. 31 project, which will not be completed until 2015.
“Next year, depending on the economy, I would predict we’ll see a lot of development, actually probably later in the year,” Cook said. “In 2014-2018 we’ll see a sizeable amount of economic development taking shape and coming out of the ground.”
Hospitality initiative
To help the city prepare for a new industry, Cook has charged Erin Verplank, communications director, and the public relations department with implementing a new hospitality initiative.
“This initiative to provide tools and training on hospitality extends to everyone associated with Grand Park – from volunteers, to umpires, to referees, to the park staff and even to the restaurants. We are looking at ‘super services,’ the project that was implemented with the help of IUPUI and Visit Indy, where 17,000 people were trained (prior to the Super Bowl),” Verplank said. “They have programs ongoing that we will utilize to train our people. We want all our trained volunteers to be engaging, friendly, and knowledgeable.”
The initiative focuses on three major groups:
1) “Existing businesses need to understand, yes, there will be a lot of new competition, but there will be a million new potential customers beyond what has been here,” Cook said. “We want to help them best take advantage of that. They can succeed and as a city we are there to help them.”
2) All of the hospitality businesses – old and new as a group.
“They’re influential through how people return here. People remember the Super Bowl emphasis on downtown Indianapolis, this is what we have to do on a full-time basis not one week,” Cook said. “Year-round, as a city we have to make people feel welcomed 24/7, 365.”
3) “We need to develop our citizenry into being good citizens and dealing with our visitors. They share in the industry also,” Cook said. “It’s an attitude.”
That welcoming attitude is something many business people have adopted, like Nancy Nearon, owner of The Black Plum Café, 303 E. Main St.
“I’ve enjoyed meeting new folks from out of state. From the affluent ‘engineers’ to the ‘hippies’ it’s been a joy to serve up a hot cup of tea and see their appreciation and humbleness to sit and enjoy the cozy ambience and to hear comments on how fond they are of our close knit city. It’s fun to learn what talents they possess as tourists and the places they visit the most,” she said.
Tourism impact
Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brenda Myers said tourism is the third largest industry in Hamilton County with 11.4 percent of employment. It falls behind healthcare (15.4 percent) and retail/trade (11.8 percent). Finance and insurance was a close fourth with 11 percent.
“In 2013, hospitals dropped 7.2 percent, retail continues to grow at a 1.2 percent increase and tourism had a 7.1 percent increase,” Myers said. “The three are so close, they could all change places.”
The numbers come from a recent economic impact study that provides the HCCVB a benchmark before Grand Park opens.
“We’re already seeing full weekends on the calendar and navigating that is exciting,” Myers said. “We have weeks in 2014 where every hotel is booked. We’re suggesting people look into Kokomo, Lafayette and Indianapolis.”
Myers credits a portion of that to Grand Park’s scheduled events.
“The tournaments are so large with 40 to 80 teams – it’s just huge,” she said, adding Hamilton County has more than 3,000 hotel rooms with 65 percent occupancy already for 2014.
Myers said Hamilton County has a unique touring product with “wonderful downtowns in Noblesville and the Arts & Design District in Carmel, the Nickel Plate district in Fishers and Grand Junction in Westfield.”
“One community has four cultural districts. All four are beautiful and unique and offer something different,” she said. “There also are anchor alternatives like the Indiana Transportation Museum, Klipsch Music Center, the Palladium and sports not just at the Grand Park Sports Complex.”
Each also offers different experiences at different times of the year.
“There are so many assets,” Myers said, adding that communities are being proactive about tourism. “They are looking for opportunities and ways to make it better.”
Don’t forget marketing
The U.S. 31 hotels will get a marketing boost with the opening of Grand Park. That’s because they pay the lions’ share of the innkeepers tax which funds the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau – The $1.66 million Carmel hotels paid dwarfs the agency’s projected 2014 advertising budget of $1.13 million.
Innkeepers tax collected in 2013
City Total amount Percent of county total
Carmel $1,662,557 59%
Fishers $911,294 32%
Noblesville $245,143 9%
County total: $2,818,994
Note: Westfield had no businesses that paid this tax in 2013
Source: Hamilton County Treasurer
