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Iorio supports study for new meetings venue

Staff file photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Mayor Pam Iorio says a light rail station could serve a West Shore conference center.

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By TED JACKOVICS

tjackovics@tampatrib.com

Published: November 6, 2009

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio said Thursday she would endorse studying the viability of a meetings or conference center in the West Shore district, tying the proposal to the city's light rail plans.

Iorio, the leading advocate for a regional light rail and bus transit network, also praised the Hillsborough County Commission's vote Wednesday to move toward putting a 1-cent sales tax increase for mass transit and road improvements on the ballot in November 2010.

"I believe taxpayers will approve it; not overwhelmingly, but I believe they will approve it," Iorio told those at the Hillsborough County Hotel & Motel Association's annual meeting.

Iorio said she envisions a light rail network linking West Shore and downtown as a second corridor following one that could be built as early as 2018 between the University of South Florida area and downtown if voters approve the tax increase.

She said a light rail station could serve a West Shore conference center as the Tampa Bay area entered into economic development competition with similar-size cities nationwide.

The Hillsborough County Tourist Development Council is expected to vote on further study of a West Shore conference center at its meeting Thursday.

The center, backed by West Shore hoteliers, could draw business to an area where hotel room inventory will grow from 8,600 rooms to 10,000 rooms in about a year.

The tourist development council spent $25,000 for an assessment by PricewaterhouseCoopers of the need for a West Shore meetings venue.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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