Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute the Seventeenth Amendment to Agreement No. 28164 with the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc., to extend the agreement by a period one-year and to provide funding in the amount of $5,058,676 for Fiscal Year 2020.  (Citywide)
And if we can just pull that item, going to hear that item right after this as well. So going here, all the CVB items together, but we're going to we're going to go to item 22. What we're what we've done, I know that we've been is we're taking item 22. I'm going to ask the clerk to read the item first. So please read the item. Report from City Manager Recommendation to execute the 17th Amendment to agreement with the Long Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to extend the agreement by a period one year and to provide funding in the amount of 5,058,676 for fiscal year 2020. City wide. Thank you. And then Mr. Monica. Yes. For this presentation, we'd like to turn it over to Mr. Steve Goodling to give a presentation. Great. And we're going to go ahead and do since we have two items on this. I'm going to Mr. Goodling is going to go a couple of minutes past the ten minute mark for presentation, because we're not going to hear a presentation on the consent calendar item. So we've combined it into one. So, Mr. Goodling. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. City council and also city management. Tonight, we'd like to share with you an update on where the tourism sector is. I. We commissioned Beacon Economics to do a study for us, and I love this graph. I wish it actually was my portfolio at home. I since 2002, it has grown 146% or $18 million. So it's a significant income for the city, actually. And for Vice Mayor Andrews, this is the data every year that you like, for every dollar that the CVB receives, we generate a $6 and 17 cent return. This past year, we were the fourth largest revenue tax generator for the city of Long Beach. That's a significant amount of money. In addition to the transient occupancy tax, there's also taxable sales on things that our visitors buy when they're here in the city, whether it's meals, whether it's clothing or anything else. And that's another 17 million property tax by those business owners is another 19 million for a total of $70 million in taxes back to the city. We are also the second largest sector in the industry for employment behind health care. Health care as at 19% and tourism leisure is at 13%. Pleasure. Travel was one of the areas we focus on. This past year we worked with the Academy, the Pacific, and also the Queen Mary. So we took double page ads. In the past, the aquarium would take an ad, Queen Mary would take an ad, they'd be on different pages. Now, when you go through any of these great magazines were a double track or two pages, and so Long Beach jumps out at you. In addition, we work we're working with these publications in their social media and their digital platforms as well. This is a sample of one of the ads for this past year. Our PR department has brought in over 100 and basically 140 writers this year and bloggers and digital influencers for eight millions impressions. So we've appeared in a variety of stories from L.A., L.A. Times, Orange County Weekly, USA Today and other pubs, but also a growing influence of blog sites. Our followers in Instagram, also Facebook and Twitter have grown 43%. And in just a few weeks, John Keisler is going to Qingdao. And so we created this video. If any of you know what she's saying, you win the award for speaking Mandarin. While you our champion, Tedros Rumanian, your son by the Georgian too young one for which ultimately each I'm sure you're sure about for your too that idea clergy sexual standards. You don't say something to you vetoes you hold hands up like a joystick. Hang on doing the hammer. Do the way you join simple. Yet that's how hunger challenge our strong prototype your. The utility because. Yes, you bet. Is a type of theatrical Jewish, Yiddish. Oliver, you've had me on. I should go back. And if you go with John to Hong Kong and Qingdao, you'll hear that all day long. I, having worked in Asia. I loved I loved hearing. That. So that's another part of our reach out in terms of pleasure travel. In talking with mayor former Mayor O'Neal recently, Beverly and we're talking about basically tourism, the convention business. And she made a comment which I really thought was wonderful. She said, Steve, everyone that comes to a convention is a potential visitor in the future. And that's so true. It's it's what I would call trail marketing. You get to come into our city, and every time I hear people that come into our city, they either say, Gee, Steve, I never knew or, boy, has this changed. I hear one of the other. And that's what they always say. And what's interesting is our convention business is also a generator for repeat visit. To keep us competitive and keep us at the front edge. We have to continue to differentiate ourselves. And this is where all of you are so important. This past year, CMA, a national association of meeting planners of 7000 members, has a magazine that reaches 50,000 people. They commissioned a study with Marriott and it's called The Five Future Trends of Meetings. In actuality, these trends are across the board for most industry sectors. But as it relates to us and conventions and tourism, the two that are really key to us, I believe, is orchestrated serendipity and multimodal design. Orchestrated serendipity is what Google calls human collision is where you create an environment that causes people to actually network. And that's what we've been doing at the Convention Center, because we believe that people come to conventions in conferences to network. We also create areas that they can also power down and just do their iPad or iPhone or whatever they're working on. But more importantly, to network. Multimodal design is using a space more than one way. Today's planners, today's buyers want the ability to take a space and put their own distinct impression on it. So when you walk into the convention center across from the Renaissance, this is entering in through the north side. That space off to the left is a new space. Just this past year that was created again, a great space for networking, but look to the right, look all the way down. All of that is is new. And it's an opportunity for all of our people, all over conventioneers to network in addition across from the Hyatt, this is from that lobby area coming in and during a conference. This place is packed. You're all familiar with the terrorist theater. Thank you, Mayor, for the fountains. And and Janine, also. And it's really. This space has become so hot. This past year, we had a 1000 person banquet out on the plaza. It was a software company. And they again, multi-modal design, being able to use a space more than one way. The code you're familiar with. And believe it or not, this is the fifth year of the anniversary for the Pacific Ballroom. It was an antiquated arena, rarely ever used and multi-modal design at its best. The stats, we've gone from 136 usage days to 250 days a year. You might not see people parking driving up to that arena, but that arena is being used 250 days a year. It's booked over $425 million of new business. And 30% of our conventions use that space. The antithesis of that is if we didn't have the arena, we wouldn't have 30% of those conventions. So there's 40,000 square feet gave us this additional space. And in five years, catering revenues have doubled at the building because of all these new spaces, the newest activated spaces. Many of you saw the email that just went out. This was just finished. This is the area between Bogart's and our exhibit Hall's 9000 square feet. It's great space, part of the Pacific Gallery, which is adjacent to the Pacific Ballroom now, but it's completed. It's a total of 21,000 square feet of unique, cool space. When combined with Bogart's combined with our Pacific Ballroom, the entire place becomes active. And the Ocean View Club. The third floor of the Terrace Theater is also another space that we recently activated. The views are spectacular. The angels have loved going up there and looking out and looking at our ballpark. But with that being said, I'd like to share with you. Recently we had a reception up there for Mark Taylor's farewell, and I'd like to show you what that space is like as it's active. So again, taking a page out of PCM has five steps. Multi-Modal design, activating spaces. All of you were given this. This is a copy of the White Paper that PCMag published. We were the first city in the United States to actually have a white paper printed on it and how we are actually ahead of the curve and subscribing to the five principles of the future transit meetings. This was seen by over 50,000 people. I go into that sector to lead into this. And I coming up here shortly in Chula Vista in San Diego, the port of San Diego has worked out a development plan and it's going to actually shake up business on the West Coast. This project is $1,000,000,000 project. This is the 1400 room hotel that will open up, which is almost equivalent to the amount or size of of some of our larger conventions when they come to Long Beach. And this is the plan. It's going to be up at the top. Middle section is where the resort is being built. Another hotel adjacent to it. And then right around the marina is a lot like our Rainbow Harbor and Rainbow Lagoon and more residential and office space. It will have over 400,000 square feet of space, which is identical to us. It will have 600 rooms and it's also going to be one completed, the third largest hotel in California. It will be completed by 2023 and they'll start selling this next year. What that means for us is we're going to be running into these folks as they start selling. It's owned by Marriott Corp.. Gaylord is a is basically a subset of Marriott. And so for us, the challenge is going to be competing with everything under one roof. Planners love the luxury of signing one contract, working with one general manager, working with one management team when they come to Long Beach. We have to sign on average, 4 to 8 contracts plus a convention center contract. And so as a CVB and as a quite honestly, as a tourism community and a hotel committee, we work hard to make it easy to do business with us. And that's our that is our competitive advantage. Plus everything that I shared with you earlier. I can assure you Gaylord won't look like this like we do. However, it will be a great, great competitor to us. In addition, Portland just completed a $65 million renovation with the new hotel and new Hyatt up there. And. In Sacramento. We also they're investing over $240 million. They're blowing it up. I know many of you traveled to Sacramento frequently. It too will be quite beautiful when complete it. And it's interesting. They're spending 240 million, but they're only going to get about another 20,000 square feet of exhibit space. And they're paying $50 million for a 40,000 square foot ballroom. The Pacific Ballroom cost us 10 million. And so it was quite a savings for us and quite a high impact. But once they're finished, they will be almost identical to us. In Anaheim, we have two new hotels going in for another thousand rooms right next to the convention center. And so, as you can see, we've we've built a lot of great successes. Again, being the only city that PCMag has recognized is putting us out in a white paper as being leaders in our industry with our convention center partners. But at the same token, we've had a real we have challenges coming up, and we have to keep investing into the building. So with that being said, I'd like to share this video. And then, yeah, we're finished. In Long Beach in Southern California. I can look out the windows and see palm trees, water, and the Queen Mary and I really feel like I'm in a destination is unique. It has a great young vibe. Felt like I was in a resort town, but also in a meeting location all in one. It just had a perfect dynamic. When I talk to my peers, I rave about Long Beach, great location on the waterfront, proximity of the convention center, two restaurants, easy airport access. But location, location, location. What I love about Long Beach is the fact that everything you need is right there. It's all walkable. The weather's fantastic. You love to walk around in weather like that, and there's lots of interesting things to look at while you're doing it. Entertainment, shopping, amazing food. It's just one big ball of energy and a lot of fun. Long Beach Convention Center is one of those places that makes me want to actually look forward to the meeting or event that I'm actually going to. There are numerous unique environments where attendees can gather and create their own experiences that they then will remember and take back. And that's what attending a convention is all about. If I could clone the space here and take it to other areas because we have to move around, I would do that. It is a gem. You have to try it. Turkey is especially important to planners. It makes it very simple. To plan your events. You don't have to bring in different pieces because they're all bright. They're available for you. I have to say that there's no other venue that I can think of in the U.S. that would compare to the Pacific Ballet. In about a minute, you go from being in an arena to being in a ballroom, and that's an easy thing. The Cove, this unique. Little area underneath an underpass. Believe it. Or not. There's great lighting features. I've never seen. An underpass. That actually has chandelier. Having amenities like ping pong. Tables and lounge seating and the palm trees and the environment that has been created there. Is phenomenal because it allows for great networking and it really sets them apart from the competition because when you go to another city, you have to pay somebody to put all those things in place for you. Networking. That's really important to us. And so that's one of the reasons we love Long Beach because they have all these fun and. Comfortable areas where people can sit and talk and really exchange ideas and connect. I think that Long Beach is special because of the people that are there. It's all about creating community and relationships, and Long Beach always is a welcoming city. They all know each other, they're a community, and what they. Express and what you see when you go there is. They want the business to come to Long Beach. My CEO always says, Can we pick up the Long Beach Convention Center and take. It with us wherever we go? They built Long Beach Convention Center in a way that every time you go there, there's a different experience. Long Beach is ever evolving. I think the great thing about this city is they're always thinking ahead, step ahead and thinking about innovation, step ahead and thinking about what type of venue is the venue of the future. When you go to Walter Reed, you feel the love. You feel like you want to come back there on a regular basis and it is your second home, if not your first time. Thank you for your. Thank you very. Much, Steven the team. We're going to continue real quick. We have two folks in center for public comment that are actually also part of the they want to say some remarks about the presentation. And so if I can have David Blaine's build up first and then Imran Ahmed also, please come forward. Honorable Mayor Council members, thank you for your time today. My name is David Blanchfield. I am executive vice president and group publisher of the Northstar Travel Group. I am not a resident of Long Beach or California. I come to you today from our company headquarters in Secaucus, New Jersey. But I come to recognize and report on excellence when I see it. And this is a terrific opportunity to give a shout out to to Long Beach, to the convention center and to the Visitors Bureau. My business were all about travel. I mean, we report about travel, all aspects of travel, leisure as well as corporate, as well as events and meetings, incentives and exhibitions. And that's the area that that I am responsible for. We have offices all around the United States. We also have offices in London. And we do have folks who speak Chinese. I don't offices in Shanghai and in in Singapore as well as as well as in Beijing. And, you know, for the past couple of years, you know, we have always been covering Long Beach because of the the excellence that the team here brings to the planning of of meetings and events. I was also formerly a meeting planner and an event owner and organizer and had terrific success in bringing bringing my meetings here a couple of years ago. We initiated a new program, we call it the Stella Awards North Star Stella. It's Latin for recognizing stellar work. And the process we brought to this was a very rigorous one. First was putting the nominations of visitors, bureaus and entities that provide services to tourism, putting it to a public vote over a period of time. And then after the public votes are tabulated, we then take the top players in each category, in each region, and invite a group of seven independent, experienced judges to evaluate the the entities that have been voted among the top players in the industry. And we break it up by region. Over the past three years, no other convention and Visitors Bureau has appeared in the top two other than Long Beach. And No Convention and Visitors Bureau has had both the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Convention Center winning these awards. So it's a it's a terrific, terrific a testament to the value of the services that that your city brings to to our industry. Although we are not making a public proclamation today, this is this is all somewhat embargoed because we are not officially launching these awards until November, when we publish a special issue to the tens of thousands of people who who subscribe to our magazines and get our content online. But, you know, when you're competing against the likes of the San Francisco's and the Seattle and the Los Angeles of the world in the Far East, obviously it's a terrific, terrific testament to the work of. Thank you so much, Mr. Paintsville. So I'd like to, you know, bestow these awards on Steve and the team and thanked him very much for the services they bring to the industry. Thank you very much. And Enron has come forward and its public comments. Imran Ahmed. Good afternoon, honorable mayor, esteemed council members. My slides are not here. But we have all heard of Beacon Economics in the first light that Steve Goodling showed, in which I am here to let you know honorable mention that we were able as a as as a chair of CVB. I'm letting you know that we were able to generate over $1.7 billion for the city of Long Beach and supported over 18,000 jobs for the city of Long Beach. So this is with your support that we were able to do so. So thank you so much. In addition, I would like to give out a shout out to all our CDB associates if they could please stand and remain standing. Please. Further, I would request the CDHB Board and the Executive Board to please stand and remain standing. Please. And then the convention center, Charlie Burns and his team, if he could stand with his team through. And finally, who's here to support the CVB? And that includes all our team. If you can please all the hoteliers. If you can stand and remain standing, please. And everybody. Honorable Mayor. Voila. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Let's give the entire. Team a big round of applause. Thank you. We do have we have one more member of the public wants to say that wants to make a remark. Mr. Goodhew. Europe. Nope. Okay. Oh, great. Councilmember Then let me start with the council, Councilmember Pearce. Thank you. I just want to give a big thank you and congratulations to everybody that's here today for this presentation. Long Beach has come a long way in the last ten years, and our hospitality industry would not be what it is without the CVB, without the work that you guys do every single day. And I want to say personally, I really appreciate it. I have seen the convention center completely transformed. I've seen it transform not only the workers there, the businesses that surround our convention center, but our entire city. Obviously, the numbers that you guys laid out are phenomenal numbers. And I want to say that I've enjoyed partnering with you guys and I really appreciate the partnership and return. I know sometimes it's been tough, but what I what I see today is a thriving tourism industry that has deep partnerships, that's going to continue to thrive even whenever our economy might do whatever it does in the next ten years. But that today we've got new hotels coming on the market in this city. Thanks to your hard work and Imron, very proud of you and your efforts at your hotel. I've always told you how much I appreciate you and really I've enjoyed getting to know you and I look forward to next year's presentation. But thank you guys so very much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman. Councilwoman Price. Very much. I want to share those sentiments and thank you all for being here. It's really impressive to me. Every year when we have this item, how many of you turn out to support the item? Because your work is really a year round thing, whether it's trying to support new ideas, whether it's attending the events, whether it's participating in a change in terms of messaging or themes. In terms of Steve's big ideas, you're all there 100% to give everything that you can. And we really appreciate that as a council, you and the work that you do make us look good. I mean, that's the reality, the work that you do make us look good as a city. And yes, we have great assets and assets that that have a lot of opportunities and potential in the future. But the work that you do to make the assets come alive and attractive is is really transforming the city in terms of where we're at in the tourism industry. So thank you for everything that you do. And I want to I'm glad that our hoteliers are here today because I think it's such a a necessary partnership. And to have that very positive communication with all of our tourism outlets and offerings is critical. And so I want to thank you for collaborating and working through difficult challenges and also predicting what the market will bear in the future. We've been meeting, I know, several of my colleagues and I, you know, when we're thinking about how the market is changing, for example, it's changing in every industry. We have conversations almost daily now with how the retail markets are changing as a result of online shopping. And we're trying to make adjustments. Everyone's trying to make adjustments. The Conventions and Visitor Visitors Bureau and the hoteliers work really well together to be proactive about those trends in the marketplace rather than putting it on us to come up with the solutions. You're the subject matter experts and you allow us to follow your very solid and thorough lead. So I appreciate that and I thank you for everything that you do. And I also thank you for the support that many of you give personally and as members of the CVB and the hotel industry. To the arts organizations, you do tremendous work in partnering with us to encourage and highlight all of the assets in the city. So thank you. Thank you very much. Councilwoman Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I know tonight first, when I came on, I thought that all these people will come into a council meeting and I knew better. Then when I heard about the CVB awards, it just the crowd that they bring in. Then I thought, I going to have one of those long, long council meetings, but now this is going to be much, much shorter. But I just wanted to say that and take a moment to take time to thank the sea. VB Of all the things that they do for the city of Long Beach, you know, under the leadership of the CEO Steve Gatlin, it has performed at the highest level in every test that he's been asked to perform. Staveley leads a team of commandments professionals that always make the city look good, and I applaud them for their achievement. Thank you, individuals again. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Steve, to the whole team, there's not much I can say that most folks have already said. You know how I feel about our convention center. Your leadership, frontline staff, the entire family. You're really part of this Long Beach tapestry. And when people come to Long Beach, you are the hospitality committee. You're the welcome committee to the hundreds of thousands and millions of individuals who come to our city. You're who they see first. And so you're incredibly important and we value you. Our city council does value. I think it's important and it's great that every year you start off and make the economic case, you make the economic case, you prove, you show every time you know the dollars and cents of why it's important to make sure that we continue to invest in our our facilities. We've transformed those facilities, invest in the arts and the performing arts that we have. So so thank you for doing that. I have to tell you, you know, it seems like so this would be the third year we've host it. So next week we'll be welcoming Legacy Cities back. And this is when a lot of our elected officials buddies come in and host and they party downtown and host a lot of sessions and meetings. And it's great to see that every time they come back, there seems to be another venue, some new space, and that's activated. So we look forward to welcoming the whole state of California, public officials, local officials across state California next week to the League of Cities. So, again, keep up the good work. We're incredibly proud and honored to serve on the city council with with partners like all of you. And we look forward to the many great things to come. Thank you. And Councilman Ringo. I want to also agree with you all your comments been said, but also the Nutter convention coming up in November, which would be the Democratic Convention, state convention here in Long Beach. And all our we will be on on on on tab to make a real good impression because we're going to get the candidates also visiting California , visiting Long Beach. And great job, Steve. Great job to convention visitors bureau, great job to our hoteliers and great job to everybody here today because I'm really looking forward to Long Beach getting placed on the map. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm just going to I want to just add first, I think, you know, Steve and Charlie, especially the two of you, are just an amazing team. And I want to start. You know, Charlie, I think you and and the SMG team just really do a great job and we're waiting now. It's SMG. Is that the right? The new name. The SMG team are doing a great job always with our facilities and our events and just we rely on you so much for for that work. And of course, to Stephen and the broader team and the board, I think our our economy in many ways is a tourism economy , especially in this part of the city and the hotels that get full and the visitors and the restaurants. And it's all part of a really great ecosystem that we've created and we're really thankful you guys do a fantastic job. And I know that the the best days for all this work are really ahead of us still. And so just thank you for the partnership. Let's give them all a round of applause for our entire CVB team. And congratulations. And with that, we have a most honor and a second for the four item 22, which is this report and this action item. So please, members cast their votes. Motion carries. Thank you. And we're going to do item number, the consent calendar, which is going to include item seven in the consent calendar, which is a CVB item which was on consent originally. So if I can have a motion in a second on consent, Mr..