Convention Center under new management

Michael's on Lake to continue catering large events

MOSES LAKE — For a while there, the staff of the Moses Lake Convention Center was expecting the building to turn into landscape.

"The first people that were going to buy the place were going to turn it into land development," said Convention Center sales and marketing director Judy Wade. "So the community would have really lost out."

No longer.

On Monday, the Convention Center, previously managed by Mike and Krista Hamilton of Michael's on the Lake, entered under new management who plan to continue to operate the location as a convention center.

"It's like business as usual," Wade said. "Not going to miss a beat."

The Hamiltons managed the Moses Lake Convention Center on a year-to-year contract basis, she said. Wade took the bookings, while the restaurant did the catering. Wade said that the Hamiltons were concerned about where they would be if the building sold, and made the decision to open Krista Hamilton's shop, Elements Inside and Out, all while a sale was in progress.

Wade declined to name the convention center's new owners, who also manage the Holiday Inn Express and the Inn at Moses Lake.

"They want to be known as the managers, not the owners," she said.

That new relationship means that it will be easier for function holders to access local hotels.

"Now we can do overnight conferences," she said. "That's something that we now can offer."

The change also means the Convention Center will continue on in Moses Lake.

"There certainly is a need in this area, because this is the biggest facility, overall, for meeting space," she said, noting that the center has the capability to offer both of its rooms to groups.

Of the other spaces for functions in Moses Lake, Wade said everyone has something that the others don't have.

"We have a lot of companies in this town that have a lot of employees," she said. "With some of the smaller facilities, they can't have holiday parties or meetings and that kind of thing because there's nothing big enough."

The Moses Lake Convention Center specializes in weddings and receptions, fund-raising events and business meetings, Wade said.

While the sale of the center was up in the air, Wade said that those looking to hold a function there were directed elsewhere for the last few months.

"We've got quite a book of business that we've been telling everybody to take elsewhere, which they've been doing, but now we're back in business and I think down the road, things here will get bigger and better." Wade said. "I want to see them succeed here again. We were on top of the world, until we found out that we could be sold, and ending our business."

Wade herself has been with the center for two and a half years, and was asked to stay on to help things get up and running again. She also organizes catering for Michael's on the Lake, and will work part-time for both places. In addition, Michael's on the Lake will continue to do larger catering jobs for the Convention Center, she said.

"If we have a meeting and they're just doing coffee and doughnuts, they won't come up to do that," Wade said. "We can make coffee here and get doughnuts, but they will do all the big events."

The number of employees at the center will remain the same, but Wade said that they will all probably be different employees.

She said that she already has a number of functions on the books, including several fund-raisers and Christmas parties.

"Our calendar is wide open, because we cleared it," she said. "We took no more bookings, we started referring them elsewhere, and now we're sitting here, we've got a completely wide open calendar from now until the rest of the year."

In order to hold a function at the Moses Lake Convention Center, call 509-766-1416.