The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is looking for new leadership after Michael Sawaya, who had run the complex since 2018, resigned to take the top job at the Audubon Nature Institute.
As president and CEO, Sawaya, who resigned Thursday, oversaw a $500 million renovation of the decades-old facility and weathered a pandemic that effectively halted business and convention travel. . Over the past two years, Sawaya has also been working on a major River District project, which has led to the facility hosting major events.
Convention Center Board Chairman Russell Allen, who was appointed to the oversight committee earlier this year, said his committee members are embarking on an “extensive national search” for Sawaya’s replacement.
“I can’t thank Mike enough for his leadership in honing our convention center’s mission and vision and positioning us at the top of the national convention, meetings and events market,” Allen said in a prepared statement. said.
The board had no advance notice of the resignation and no immediate plans to name an interim CEO, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly about the committee’s next steps. That’s what it means.
The sun sets over the site of New Orleans’ future River District neighborhood on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, Times-Picayune)
The next CEO takes over responsibility for more than 400 employees and more than $110 million in annual revenue at a time when the organization is facing some major challenges.
The new chief will also be tasked with driving the construction of a $570 million “headquarters hotel,” which Sawaya plans to build on newly acquired land in the warehouse district in partnership with Omni Hotel Group. I’m thinking of building one.
into the fire
Sawaya, 64, said Thursday that he wasn’t about to quit his job at the convention center, but Ron Forman, the longtime director of the Audubon Nature Institute, convinced him to throw him into the ring. It was chosen from over 500 applicants.
Sawaya, a Mississippi native, was hired six years ago to replace Bob Johnson, who had previously run the facility for 10 years. He previously operated convention centers and other facilities in San Antonio, including the Alamodome, and before that was a longtime executive at Omni Hotel Group.
The New Orleans Convention Center plays an important role in the city’s hospitality industry, hosting approximately 80 events and attracting approximately 180,000 visitors annually. Two-thirds of its revenue comes from hotel taxes and other hospitality taxes.
The facility’s leaders have long argued that it fully repays the tax subsidy through economic impact. The economic impact includes generating an estimated $174 million in city and state taxes through money spent by convention attendees on hotel rooms, restaurants and other expenses. The city also claims it needs to have an annual surplus of about $20 million to $25 million to make new investments to stay competitive with rival cities like Memphis and Orlando.
“We are confident that the next leadership will recognize the importance of the convention center to the entire New Orleans community,” Walt Leisure, director of New Orleans & Company, the city’s tourism marketing agency, said in an email. mentioned in.
Sawaya took office as Mayor LaToya Cantrell sought a deal with the state that would redirect millions of dollars in tourism funds, including a $28 million payment from the convention center, to repairing the city’s crumbling infrastructure. Early on, we found ourselves in the middle of intense negotiations.
The agreement that was eventually reached also included a concession that would allow the center’s new headquarters hotel to pay less in lieu of property taxes for the first three years.
The Festival Park section of the 1984 World’s Fair is located on land currently occupied by the Mississippi River Heritage Park in New Orleans’ warehouse district, photographed on March 29, 2019. (Photo by Mike Scott, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune). Hotel plans for the Omni Convention Center will incorporate the park in ways not yet indicated by the developer.
Sawaya originally had a contract in 2020 to build a 1,200-room Omni hotel on the site at the upstream end of the complex, but the project’s financial backers withdrew during the pandemic and efforts to re-plan were halted. It disappeared.
The new hotel proposal would see an 800-room hotel built over 20 floors on the site currently occupied by Sugar Mill event space. It also incorporates the adjacent Mississippi River Heritage Park. Some local residents have started an organization to oppose the plan, saying it would exceed current zoning restrictions and eliminate green space in the area.
