Chinatown Chamber studies new McCormick West building 

By Susan Fong 

The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce on June 26 welcomed Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) CEO Juan Ochoa as its keynote speaker at a meeting at the Phoenix restaurant in Chinatown. His lunchtime presentation focused on the McCormick Place Convention Center’s West Building project.

When the project concludes later this month, McCormick Place will be the largest space of its kind in the western hemisphere, expanding from 2.2 million square feet of exhibition space to 2.7 million square feet.

The expansion comes on the heels of a record year in 2006. According to MPEA, McCormick Place generated $3.4 billion in estimated direct expenditures and brought 79 conventions to the area.

Still, Chicago is not number one in attracting convention visitors. Ochoa conceded Las Vegas, NV, and Orlando, FL, draw larger numbers with their 133,000 and 92,000 hotel rooms, respectively, in comparison to Chicago with its 32,000 rooms.

By 2010, Las Vegas will add 38,000 more rooms, compared to only 4,000 to be added in Chicago by then. Las Vegas also opened a tourism office in China in 2004.

Ochoa urged business leaders to bring their concerns to State, City, and business officials and to recommend strongly that they invest in making the area even more competitive for future convention business.

Luncheon attendee Richard Tam, director of the Hong Kong Development Council, expressed worry about a lack of transportation to Chinatown. Although the neighborhood is a destination for many locals, out-of-town visitors may not want to use public transportation to get there. Also, it is difficult to find a taxi to the neighborhood on weekends and evenings, Tam noted.

“We are close, but not close enough to walk from McCormick Place," he said. "If a taxi driver can earn $5 on a shorter route to Chinatown versus a longer route north and earn two or three times more, he will take the latter.”

            “Convention attendees have complained” about this behavior and about taxi drivers who take them for longer rides to increase the fare, admitted Meghan Risch, public relations director for the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau (CCTB). “Not everyone is going to the airport.”

Risch explained the Chicago Department of Consumer Services is addressing this issue with reeducation programs for taxi owners and drivers about the importance of all neighborhoods to the local economy.

The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce’s incoming president, Ray Spaeth, said he hopes to build partnerships with the MPEA and South Loop communities to bring more traffic into Chinatown from all areas. He wants to increase the numbers of regional, national, and international visitors.

“Previously there had been a trolley into the area as well as a contract with a cab company,” Spaeth said. “But neither worked out.” 

            “Many of the travelers to the area are Asians and Southeast Asians who already know us,” Chinatown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susan Ng said, “and we would like to become better known to non-Asians.” 

            This year the Chinatown Chamber received $50,000 from the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and the Chinatown Parking Corporation to create a marketing brochure, the Chinatown Visitors Guide. Chamber members' goal is to bring 250,000 visitors to the community by highlighting its attractions.

            To raise Chinatown visibility, the chamber also held events for concierges and destination planners to increase awareness of the area’s 59 restaurants, groceries, and gift stores as well as its annual festive events.

            One challenge that remains, Risch explained, is converting convention destination attendees into leisure destination attendees. To succeed, neighborhoods such as Chinatown must develop entertainment, cultural, and dining attractions that entice travelers to come to Chicago earlier or stay later after finishing their convention business.

The process has begun in other neighborhoods, as developers are turning land near the McCormick Place West Building, the South Loop's old Motor Row, into restaurants and entertainment spots. Jack Johnson, MPEA chief of governmental and community affairs, stated he hoped this effort will spawn growth in surrounding communities, such as Chinatown.

Spaeth hopes the MPEA will form an advisory board from the Bronzeville, Chinatown, and Pilsen areas to work together in fostering growth. By the end of the luncheon, those attending reached consensus that recent developments represent a call to Chinatown and its neighboring communities to work collaboratively on a vision of developing this area into a final destination in the future.

As part of the proposed 2009 China Gateway project, Spaeth wondered whether it would be possible to create a trade and cultural center near Chinatown that could serve as a meeting place and site for future Asian business events.

            “Although there are no firm plans," Johnson said, "there has been some discussion of reserving one of the motor berths in the new building for a trolley or shuttle between the neighborhoods.”

He added that two portals along King Drive and the expressway going north and south will alert drivers they are in Bronzeville with all of its new offerings.

Risch affirmed the CCTB would gladly list any events on its calendar and make them searchable on its website, but the attractions have to exist rather than merely be ideas or plans for the future.

For more information about business development in Chinatown, call the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce at (312) 326-5320 or go to www.chicagochinatown.org.