A year after the center's grand opening, Davis County officials are conducting a feasibility study to see whether adding an exhibition hall to the Layton facility would attract more customers.
"We heard from a couple of big groups who were interested in coming but didn't because there wasn't enough exhibition space," said Wilf Sommerkorn, the county's community and economic development director.
Some of those events include RV and boat shows.
"We just need to see if there is a market out there we aren't capturing that would warrant the expense," he said.
The $45,000 study will be conducted by Minneapolis-based Convention, Sports & Leisure group, which did similar studies for the Salt Palace and Utah County.
Davis County owns an additional three acres near the conference center. Sommerkorn noted the area around the center is starting to fill in, and the county must decide whether to keep that property and use it for expanded parking or sell it.
"We could probably get a really good price," he told Davis County commissioners, who authorized the study Tuesday.
Otherwise, the center and adjoining Hilton Garden Inn are not lacking for business.
"There have only been two months when we did not hit our sales goals," said Scott Lund, who manages the center and the hotel.
In its first 12 months, the venue staged nearly 800 events - everything from wedding receptions to an America Online training seminar. And the staff is still buzzing about Clearfield High's class of '65 reunion, in which organizers flew in a rock band from California for a "beach party."
The largest event is scheduled for September, when nearly 1,500 photographers will attend the Rocky Mountain Professional Photographers Convention.
Davis County bonded for $9 million to build the center. That money will be paid off over 10 years with revenue derived from restaurant, hotel and car rental sales taxes.
About 60 percent of the Layton center's business can be linked to nearby Hill Air Force Base and its contractors, Lund said.
The hotel - which is owned by Layton developer and former legislator Kevin Garn - had a harder time getting off the ground, due partly to the federal government cutting its daily travel allowances to employees last October to $60 a day. The hotel's expected revenues had been based on the government's previous $69 rate. The county banked on the center running a deficit until 2008.
"It takes a while to get everything set up and going," Sommerkorn said. "But we are right on track with what those previous feasibility studies showed."
lorib@sltrib.com
