There's no shortage of anticipation for Ottawa's new Congress Centre, slated to open in 2001.
But for the businesses bumped out of the complex for 30 months, it's a matter of finding a new home.
The Signatures Craft Show, for instance, has been at the Congress Centre since the beginning. This year's event, the 25th edition, has been moved to Lansdowne Park along with the Ottawa Wine and Food Show.
Lansdowne isn't a convention centre, but park manager Rich Haycock hopes the new events will choose to stay.
"We very much treat it as an opportunity to secure long-term business," he told CTV Ottawa.
The Canadian War Museum, National Gallery, and several hotels are also filling the gaps caused by the renovations.
Slow bookings reaffirm need for renovation
The Congress Centre's new president expected a hard time finding space across Ottawa for the dozens of conventions that would likely be displaced between now and 2011.
To Pat Kelly's surprise, only 15 conventions had been booked.
"We fully expected we'd have 40 or 50 conventions on the books during this period," he told CTV Ottawa. "It really reaffirmed that we're doing the right thing. We had become almost irrelevant in the convention game based on that low number of bookings."
The mere announcement of a bigger, redeveloped Congress Centre has sparked a flurry of activity. Kelly said about 40 conventions have expressed interest once the new facility opens.
An estimated 2,500 events were turned away from the centre because of size. Many political conventions are already inquiring about the capacity of the new centre.
That's good news according to Dick Brown of the Ottawa-Carleton Hotels Association, who expects the new Congress Centre will attract more international conventions appropriate for the city's size.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
