Kentucky State Fair Board Seeks Luxury Hotel

{Louisville, Kentucky}...The Kentucky State Fair Board is seeking proposals for a luxury hotel they say would lure larger conventions and trade shows to the area. The $100 million project would be located near Gate One and serve as a headquarters for trade shows and conventions. It would have an elevated walkway connecting it to the fairgrounds' South Wing exhibit complex. Linda Edwards, the fair board's vice president of sales and marketing, says the fairgrounds lost the Pumper Cleaner Expo, a trade show for environmental service professionals, due to no hotel at Gate One, and a signed contract for Memorial Day weekend 2013 with NAFSA, a youth convention with 20,000 people, was canceled due to lack of a convention hotel at Gate One. The board sent requests to 30 hotel-development companies asking for a minimum of 600 rooms and full-service amenities. Fair board President Harold Workman says the fair board set a March 21st deadline for proposals and hopes to get at least five responses. He said the earliest that a new luxury hotel could open is mid-2014.