Correction — The marketing team for the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Hotel in downtown Lancaster has eight consumer shows booked for 2009. The story below, posted on LancasterOnline Friday, misidentified the type of event.

•••

Developers of the hotel/convention center in downtown Lancaster have designated April 21, 2009, a Tuesday, as the official opening date for the $170 million project.

"It's a milestone," said Art Morris, chairman of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority, after the group's Thursday afternoon meeting at Southern Market Center. "It's exciting to have a date, the official date. It's something to celebrate, but we have a lot of work to do inside the building."

Developers plan to have the building substantially completed by the end of March, according to a news release. At that stage, the site will be deemed safe for employee training and similar preparatory activities, and a certificate of occupancy can be obtained.

The convention center authority, private developer Penn Square Partners and the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster have teamed up to construct the project. The budget consists of substantial public money combined with $35 million pledged by Penn Square Partners.

While crews continue to labor on the 200,000-square-foot convention center and 300-room Marriott Hotel towering over Penn Square, the sales and marketing team is working to book the exhibit halls and hotel rooms, a task that becomes harder as the economy tumbles deeper into trouble.

Despite the slowdown, the sales team continues to announce new bookings. Joshua Nowak, director of sales and marketing, said during Thursday's meeting that three more major shows had reserved the center.

Although Nowak did not name the clients, he said a three-day consumer show with an expected 1,500 to 2,000 attendees was set for October 2009. Two other shows, one consumer-oriented and the other a trade event, were booked for 2010.

The team has yet to meet its goal of landing seven trade shows for 2009: So far only three have signed on. However, the marketers are ahead of their trade-show goal for 2009 by one — eight shows versus a goal of seven.

"I'm not sure you are going to book four more shows," convention authority member Kevin Fry said Thursday. "We might be able to make up the difference ... with additional consumer shows."

Penn Square Partners consists of general partners Penn Square General Corp., a High Industries affiliate, and Penn Square Ltd. LLC, an affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News.

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com