Wisconsin Dells Convention Hosting Stage II - New Hotels Being Opened

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 is a public - private partnership designed to grow the local economy.

This top down effort includes the Village of Lake Delton providing financial incentives for franchise hotel operators who agree to locate in the Wisconsin Dells area.  The Village of Lake Delton has given the operator of the La Quinta Del Sol franchise hotel  1.8 million dollars to build on the Wisconsin Dells Parkway.

This activity has created a buyers market - meaning hotel room prices are falling because there is too much of a supply of hotel rooms in the Wisconsin Dells area.  This over supply of hotel rooms is expected to continue until the new convention center being built at the Kalahari Resort is open and functioning at the higher end of occupancy.

The community is hoping the new convention center at the Kalahari Resort will become operational in the 4th quarter of 2019.   Once operational the convention center will be able to use local hotel vacancy calculations as a measure of occupancy.  The higher the convention centers level of occupancy the lower the calculation of local hotel vacancies.

This dynamic incentivizes local hotel operators to participate in the efforts to make the new convention center at the Kalahari Resort a success.  This ongoing effort is necessary for the community to receive a return on this hefty investment of public resources.  The Wisconsin Dells area has entered stage II of the convention hosting industry.