Discover Newport permanently closes Gateway Visitors Center

NEWPORT — Discover Newport has informed the city that it is no longer interested in leasing the ground floor of the Gateway Visitors Center, where visitors information, tickets and directions have been provided for the past 32 years.

Evan Smith, Discover Newport’s president and CEO, said the organization is in negotiations with the city to continue leasing the second floor for the sales and marketing team, as well as the third floor conference room. However, Discover Newport is willing to move all its operations to a smaller office space if the city is interested in finding a better use for the whole building, he said.

“We believe the time has come to re-purpose this important piece of real estate,” Smith said. “Discover Newport would like to work with the city toward developing an exciting new future for this facility.”

The smaller space at the back of the ground floor will continue to serve as the Newport terminal for Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority bus operations, which includes a waiting area and restrooms. RIPTA has a long-term lease with the city for that use of the property.

The changes were accelerated by the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown, but were inevitable in the long run, Smith said. Discover Newport had been considering ways to become more efficient and focused before the pandemic hit, he said.

“The Gateway Center was designed and built in the mid-1980s before the evolution of computers and cell phones,” Smith said in a document outlining why the changes are necessary.

The visitors and convention bureau for Newport County, which Discover Newport still is, moved into the building on America’s Cup Avenue on June 18, 1988. Several years ago, the organization became the visitors bureau for Bristol County as well.

“New technology has rapidly changed how people obtain travel-related information, including lodging, attractions shopping, dining and events,” Smith wrote in the document. “Websites and mobile apps have replaced most of the information functions of traditional ’brick and mortar’ visitors centers.”

Back in April, Smith announced Discover Newport had to lay off 18 of the 22 people on its staff. Besides Smith, the staff members that remained were Kathryn Farrington, vice president of marketing; Tim Walsh, vice president of sales; and Alyson Adkins, vice president of finance.

Smith said the organization was able to bring back since then Julie Grant, who handles the Discover Newport website, an important piece of its operations.

Gone are the experienced digital marketing, sales logistics, social media and content managers; the destination experts and other coordinators who worked to bring so many conferences, events and weddings to the city and promoted the city nationally and internationally to bolster the local tourism industry.

More than 90% of Discover Newport’s funding comes from the state lodging tax paid by hotels, motels, inns and other lodging properties. Past annual budgets have been more than $3.7 million.

Besides losing a significant part of its room taxes share, Discover Newport also lost funding from other sources, such as selling advertising on the website and from Gateway Center activities.

For the current fiscal year that began on July 1, the anticipated revenue for the organization is now $1.5 million, meaning $2 million in expenses had to be eliminated.

As those revenue expectations stabilize in the coming months, Smith is optimistic that he can have a total staff of 10 or 11 people by the end of this calendar year, which would be the maximum for the fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2021.

“We are building a new business model,” Smith said. “What we are reviewing and exploring as a company, are alternate options that are much smaller, more efficient and more cost effective for visitor information for the summer of 2021 and beyond, assuming our budget will recover enough to allow us to do so.”

Discover Newport is only at the beginning of these considerations, he stressed multiple times during a phone interview on Tuesday.

Possibilities include a small mobile trailer seen in many cities and resort destinations. Discover Newport currently has a van in which the panels swing out and show a display of brochures, but a mobile unit would have an attendant that could be stationed out of the weather and serve people, Smith said.

“Like the food truck model, it is a more efficient and cost-effective business model to distribute visitor information,” he said.

Another alternative would be to use the smaller space now found at the ground floor of the harbormaster’s building in Perrotti Park, Smith said. That space has all “the elements needed to become a satellite for enhanced information distribution,” he said.

A third option would be assisting with the privatization of information services. At many destination sites around the country, private companies distribute visitor information, Smith said. An example of this locally is the information kiosk at Bowen’s Wharf, he said.

Bottom line though, is Discover Newport no longer needs the 7,000-square-foot space on the first floor of the Gateway, Smith said.

“Discover Newport will be able to shift more financial resources to our primary mission of investing in sales and marketing programs to promote both business and leisure travel to our destination,” he said.

Rental income for the city could be generated by potential new functions at the Gateway, some of which Smith outlined in a document.

For example, both the Museum of Newport History and Bike Newport are looking for expanded space, he wrote.

Island Moving Company is fundraising to establish a center at the former Triplett School on Broadway and the Sailing Hall of Fame is fundraising to reconstruct the Armory. The visitors center location could provide alternative locations, Smith said.

The antique dealers who operated for decades in the Armory could lease collaborative space at the Gateway, he said.

The city may opt to lease the space to a large retail operation like a sporting goods store or pharmacy, or it could be transformed into a restaurant, he said.

The location could become corporate office space for lease to a new bank branch, realtors, or other businesses, he said.

Or, the building could provide “new affordable apartments for younger people,” Smith said. “There are many other options to consider.”

sflynn@newportri.com