As Winter Market winds down here in Las Vegas, attendees will be taking their last look at the Pavilion tents that have marked the property for the past decade. When Summer Market 2020 opens in July, shuttle buses will unload passengers directly in front of The Expo at World Market Center, a new 315,000-square-foot exposition facility.
Construction is currently entering the final phase of the facility, adjacent to the existing parking structure and contiguous with Building C, with a certificate of occupancy to be issued in late June. A special Grand Opening is scheduled for Summer Market.
When completed this Spring, The Expo will feature an expansive lobby area housing registration, along with some 98,000 square feet of temporary exhibit space, comprising about 1,000 booths and 750 vendors, approximately 25 percent more than currently exists in the three Pavilion tents. The tents are being raised immediately following this Market, and about 17 of the 25 acres will be converted to surface parking spaces. Two “grab and go” food service areas are included in the layout, in addition to a large commercial kitchen designed to serve special events “of considerable size.”
With a traditional and efficient trade show layout divided into two halls, The Expo will focus on exhibitors in six categories. According to Dorothy Belshaw, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Digital Officer of IMC, “The trade show team is taking this opportunity to create a recategorization of the floor. Obviously, we will have a strong hold on the gift and home sections, with gift covering the traditional verticals of tabletop, gourmet, jewelry, apparel, personal care, kids, stationery and lifestyle. Home will feature smaller accent decor, occasional furniture, textiles and decorative accessories.
“We have continued to uphold our immediate delivery section, about 130 quality exhibitors that are a combination of Cash and Carry Vintage, and also Discoveries, which is really one-of-a-kind unique and antique pieces,” she says. “It’s a tremendously successful division. People love it and it enable retailers to find something unique and different.
“Design which has been in place for some time will grow to 50 exhibitors. This is a juried, design-led presentation of gift and home resources.” Belshaw noted that The Expo will also feature Handmade, a category that has been growing significantly at the Market. “Many of the artisans here are specific to the West Coast and cannot be found anywhere else in the country.” Luxe will be a new division of luxury gift and home products “with a really beautiful aesthetic across both the gift and home categories.”
Says Bob Maricich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, “For those of you who have been coming to the Las Vegas Market from the beginning, the Pavilions have been an important part of the process and we have always viewed the temporaries as an incubator for permanent showroom space, with some 30 to 40 exhibitors converting to permanent showrooms every year. But we knew that there was a better solution, not only for our trade show temporaries, but also the traffic flow through the campus."
“The connection with Building C is going to create incredible synergy between the permanent showrooms and the trade show exhibits, which really, has been a little bit broken because of the distance that has existed over the last 10 years,” Belshaw says. “And we think it’s going to do a great job of concentrating the traffic and creating a much easier flow of traffic, and it’s going to create a much stronger buyer experience, and as a result, exhibitor experience.”
Summed Maricich, “We’re on time and we’re on budget. “The City has been an incredible partner working with us on taxing and financing to the tune of $30 million because they recognize the incredible importance of having something like this for downtown Las Vegas off the Strip.”
