Wisconsin Dells Convention Hosting Stage II Lease Failure

The Village of Lake Delton has given the Kalahari Resort 10 million publicly collected dollars to build a convention center ( 212 thousand square feet) capable of serving large regional - national groups.  This effort is to attract a huge new population of shared customers in to the Wisconsin Dells area.

The Wisconsin Dells area is a small rural community where the primary industry is a short summer tourist season.  The community lacks the population to support the staffing needs of the resorts and convention center.  The area has become dependent upon more and more individuals from the J1VISA Program to staff their businesses.

Importing labor carries a higher cost than staffing a business with the local population.  The Village of Lake Delton to compensate has been providing financial incentives to property owners who build housing for temporary work staff.  Noah's Ark has plans to build on Lake Street with the 750 thousand dollars per building the Village of Lake Delton will give them.  This means access to employees ( Labor) is in short supply due to increase demand.

Driving along the Wisconsin Dells Parkway a line of visible signs read Hiring - 300 Dollars Sign on Bonus.  Labor cost - the expense of staffing a business in the Wisconsin Dells area is much higher than a typical community which results in an abundance of business lease failures.  High rates of business lease failures plague the Wisconsin Dells area which can be both frustrating and costly for participants.

Business lease failure within the Resorts will result in the corporate board requiring the property to be administered and staffed by the Resort rather than leased to a private operator.  The Resort can no longer rent the building out to a private operator because the business is not generating revenue for the investors.  The increase in unit labor cost is squeezing business profit margins which results in higher rates of lease failure.

The Wisconsin Dells area has entered stage II of the convention hosting industry.  The community is hoping the new Kalahari Resort Convention Center will be operational with the last quarter of 2019.