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With business travel rebounding and Las Vegas still one of the nation’s hottest trade-show destinations, a company has begun efforts to develop a large convention center venue near Henderson Executive Airport.
AeroQuestUSA has begun marketing and seeking investors for the 1 million-square-foot International Trade and Conference Center, which would be built on 200 acres west of the airport.
Using a concept similar to the plan to develop downtown Las Vegas’ World Market Center, AeroQuestUSA looks to build an exhibition center for year-round display of aerospace and defense industry products.
Lisa DeRiso-Mayo, who helped market the World Market Center concept, said the $200 million International Trade and Conference Center would use the same business model, dedicated to a niche industry.
Downtown’s World Market Center is a master-planned campus with several buildings dedicated to year-round display of furniture products. Twice a year, major exhibition events are held at the center, drawing more than 50,000 people.
The International Trade and Conference Center would be the fourth-largest exhibition facility in Southern Nevada, just short of the 1.2 million-square-foot Sands Expo & Convention Center. The Las Vegas Convention Center is the largest, with 2.3 million square feet, and the Mandalay Bay Convention Center is 1.7 million square feet.
Las Vegas has hosted the nation’s largest trade shows for the past 18 years. In 2009, the last year that Trade Show Week published a list of the top 200 shows, Las Vegas was home to 45 of them.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported 4.9 million conventioneers — 12.6 percent of all visitors — came to the city in 2011. The overall annual number of visitors to Las Vegas has been increasing steadily since 2009, and the LVCVA is expecting more than 40 million people to come to Las Vegas in 2012.
The aerospace and defense industry is among the sectors the state’s Board of Economic Development is encouraging to diversify Nevada’s economy.
DeRiso-Mayo, business development director for AeroQuestUSA, said the project is in early stages and the company is seeking investors and letters of interest to identify companies that would be interested in participating.
AeroQuestUSA led a study team at UNLV to determine the feasibility of developing an aerospace and defense trade center at an accessible site near an airport that primarily serves general aviation and the Maverick Aviation Group’s air tour operation.
The study, funded by a U.S. Commerce Department grant, found that 81 percent of aerospace companies surveyed expressed interest in developing a permanent exhibition site in the United States, and 83 percent said they would attend or consider attending trade events in or near Las Vegas.
DeRiso-Mayo said when the study was conducted in 2008, AeroQuestUSA identified Southern Nevada’s proposed airport in the Ivanpah Valley as a prospective site.
But when the economy tanked, efforts were put on hold. The Clark County Aviation Department said the need for a new Southern Nevada airport had been pushed back, and AeroQuestUSA responded by reviewing prospects near the Henderson airport.
Company officials said the site would be ideal for aerospace and defense exhibitions. They say there is easy access by helicopter, small aircraft, bus and taxi, and there’s plenty of external space for static displays. The site would be close to aerospace resources such as Nellis Air Force Base, home of the Joint Unmanned Aircraft System Center of Excellence and the Air Force Thunderbirds. It also is close to Interstate 15 and Union Pacific railroad spurs.
DeRiso-Mayo said the development would be built in phases, with trade show space built first, permanent exhibition facilities and small offices second, and larger offices, restaurants and possibly a small hotel third.