Jul. 1--Denver has lost $152.5 million in convention business as the political battle over expansion of the convention center rages on, says the city's leading tourism official. 

And if the city doesn't have a firm date for the opening of the proposed expansion and its accompanying hotel in the next two months, another $150 million will be lost, he warns. 

"If we don't have the space, we won't get those groups. If we don't have a date, we won't get those groups," said Eugene Dilbeck, head of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, referring to the growing number of high-dollar conventions that have canceled while the city struggles through the process of expanding its convention center. 

"They are dropping like apples off the tree," Dilbeck said. "They are getting more ripe every day, and they have to go to other cities." 

The project is tentatively scheduled to be completed in 2004. 

Convention organizers, who have to book their events as much as 10 years in advance, are balking at booking in Denver, opting for other major cities instead of waiting for a firm date on when the $285 million expansion will open its doors. 

The 7,000 delegates for the 2005 meeting of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores have ditched plans for a Denver convention. The 10,000-strong Christian Booksellers Association won't be here in 2003, and plans for a 2006 convention "look shaky," said Rich Grant at the convention bureau. 

And 15,000 to 17,000 delegates at the Design Automation Conference will be in Anaheim, Calif., in 2005 instead of Denver, as originally planned. 

"We had to choose another venue primarily because of the lack of certainty surrounding when the facility will be completed," said Lee Wood, co-president of Boulder-based MP Associates, which manages the Design Automation Conference. 

"We had to go with a sure facility and a sure venue rather than one that is still up in the air," Wood said, adding that the gathering needs about 600,000 square feet of convention space. 

So far, Dilbeck's crew at the convention bureau has managed to reschedule about $94 million worth of business. That is not part of the $152.2 million. Right now, there are 10 large groups -- groups such as Woods' that need lots of space and lots of hotel rooms -- that are booked for 2005. 

Those groups will be moved elsewhere if Denver officials don't have an opening date within two months. That would tack another $150 million onto the city's lost revenue. 

"Technically, they haven't lost money," said Stephanie Foote, Denver's manager of public works. "It's a lost opportunity." 

Early this year, the city-imposed deadline for financing the planned $220 million Hyatt Regency Hotel across from the conference center was moved from March 31 to June 30. 

But the hotel's developers are having trouble lining up investors and lenders, one possible reason being that the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has disagreements with the hotel chain over union organizing rules. 

"The city doesn't seem too concerned about this lost business as they go about their task of building this center," said Dilbeck. "They see no urgency as we do." 

-----To see more of The Denver Post, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.denverpost.com 

(c) 2001, The Denver Post. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.