Some people dubbed the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center a boondoggle. A shameful waste of taxpayer dollars. A business that government had no business being in.
But in its first year of operation under the ownership and management of the Ascension Parish government, the multipurpose event facility has proven anything but.
The center, where bikers and business executives hold their conventions, 4-H members show and sell cattle and pigs, Cub Scouts camp, pizza drivers and sheriff’s deputies train, seniors graduate, couples marry and monster trucks wreak havoc, boasted a $768,789 operating surplus at the end of its latest fiscal year. The facility is projected to end this year with $900,789 in the bank.
“We’re in the black,” Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez says. “We feel very, very fortunate. Lamar-Dixon is the flagship for Ascension Parish.”
Lamar Corporation heiress Mary Lee Dixon and her husband Bill built the 246-acre Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, on St. Landry Road about a mile west of the Tanger Outlet Center, as a livestock and equestrian facility more than a decade ago.
The parish signed a deal in August 2009 to buy the center for $7.5 million, using $4.5 million in federal Gustav and Ike hurricane recovery money, $2 million in state appropriations and $1 million from the federal government. At the time, it was valued at $54 million.
And the agreement occurred after voters had rejected a 3-mill tax in 2008 for the parish to purchase and operate the center. Martinez and the council took some heat for it.
Since then, Ascension Parish has eliminated management firm SMG, which manages the River Center and the Superdome, and started operating Lamar-Dixon on its own. The parish set aside $250,000 annually from its share of state hotel-motel taxes to give the center some stable revenue.
Since then, Ascension Parish has eliminated management firm SMG, which manages the River Center and the Superdome, and started operating Lamar-Dixon on its own. The parish set aside $250,000 annually from its share of state hotel-motel taxes to give the center some stable revenue.
Still, it was a rocky start. The first Festival of Festivals, financed with $200,000 from the parish’s general fund and Lamar-Dixon funds for the purpose of raising money for the center, fell nearly $79,000 short of breaking even.
But then came the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Lamar-Dixon struck a deal with rig operator BP to act as its emergency supply depot and distribution center for Gulf Coast cleanup efforts. The oil giant paid $995,000 last year to lease the 75,000-square-foot 4-H building and much of the center’s parking lot to store equipment and cleanup materials.
Stacks of BP’s deflated bright-yellow-and-orange booms still take up a sizable chunk of Lamar-Dixon’s parking lot. The company is expected to continue paying $61,000 per month through October.
But even with that one-time income, at the very least, Lamar-Dixon was expected to break even and likely finish the year with a surplus. The facility played host to 76 major events last year, from company picnics to regional and state shows.
Other rental fees brought in more than twice the anticipated revenues; and concession sales, initially budgeted at $10,000, raked in $220,000. The center also has a thriving RV park, which earns some $400,000 annually.
General Manager John Vogt credits the center’s success to the fact that it’s being run as a multimillion-dollar business, in spite of being government-owned.
“Our challenge right now is to make this place pay for itself with a minimal impact on the taxpayers,” he says. “We’re operating this as a business, with the idea that we have to be conscious of generating revenue as well as monitoring our expenses and keeping them as low as possible while still improving the quality of the services we offer to the public.”
His current focus is on two strategies: diversifying the center’s marketability and improving its infrastructure. The center is located in one of the fastest-growing regions in Louisiana, on the Interstate 10/12 corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Vogt says the center’s location makes it ideal for smaller concerts, gatherings, shows and events that don’t require the space of the River Center or the Superdome. In particular, the center hopes to bring more entertainment to the community, such as concerts. Earlier this summer, the facility played host to a comedy show.
The center’s ballroom also has begun to serve as a venue for wedding receptions, events in which the previous owners showed little interest. There’s also an increased emphasis on trade shows, banquets and corporate gatherings.
“We want to do more than just horse and cattle shows,” Vogt says. “We don’t want to scale back our agricultural events, but we do want to add other types of events.”
To prepare for that, some major improvements are planned for the facility, starting with the 4-H building currently occupied by BP. Plans call for enclosing the building and adding air conditioning and heating; the center has set aside between $5 million and $8 million for the project. When combined with an adjacent building, the center would have 100,000 square feet of exhibition space, expanding its ability to lure larger events.
Vogt says the facility is expanding its electrical capabilities to support major trade shows and concerts with stage lighting and sound, and a ticket-sales system also is in the works.
“We’re concentrating on providing quality and an excellent customer experience,” Vogt says, “not just for the public, but also for the people who are promoting the shows. People always ask me who our competition is, and I tell them, ‘It’s really just ourselves.’ We have to provide a quality experience for the public.”
Long-range plans call for developing some of the 100-plus acres of open land adjoining the center, creating baseball fields and perhaps a swimming pool.
“There’s just a lot of good potential for us to provide things for the community,” Martinez says.
To keep the center operating in the black, and to finance some of these improvements, the staff initially was faced with some limitations in the law. As a government entity, Ascension Parish didn’t have the same freedom to seek out sponsorships for the facility as when it was privately owned. So officials had to ask the Legislature for permission to do so.
Senate Bill No. 157, sponsored by Sen. Jody Amedee, a Gonzales Democrat, gives the center the right to sell corporate sponsorships for events, projects, programs and the whole site. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the measure on June 24.
“This is really a win-win for businesses and for the taxpayers,” Vogt says. “For businesses looking for an opportunity for exposure to the public in a positive light, there are opportunities out here. And it enables us to go out and get nontax dollars to spend on improvements to a public facility.”
It isn’t always easy operating a business like the center under the auspices of government. Vogt says it’s “a learning experience, trying to translate a multimillion-dollar business into a parish government. We speak two different languages.”
But he says Martinez and the Ascension Parish Council are both champions of the center.
“To me, this was just a no-brainer,” Martinez says. “It’s a good quality-of-life facility for the citizens of Ascension Parish now, and hopefully in the future it will get even better.”
But he says Martinez and the Ascension Parish Council are both champions of the center.
“To me, this was just a no-brainer,” Martinez says. “It’s a good quality-of-life facility for the citizens of Ascension Parish now, and hopefully in the future it will get even better.”
