Golden Valley is looking at hiring someone to do its marketing — and the leading candidate is St. Louis Park.
Golden Valley, which doesn't have a convention and visitors bureau, is considering a deal that would designate Discover St. Louis Park as its promotional organization. The City Council plans to discuss a proposed contract at a work session Tuesday night.
"There are a lot of details to work out," said Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris. "We've talked about it in the past, and it was received cautiously by the council. But since the cities of Golden Valley and St. Louis Park have partnered on various things in the past, we see this as possibly another opportunity to work together.
"There are a number of amenities in the west metro area that people want to know about."
Discover St. Louis Park gets its $830,000 annual budget from a 3 percent tax on hotel rooms in the city. Golden Valley has no lodging tax, and would have to pass one to fund a marketing effort. The city currently has just two hotels, but could see some new lodging projects take shape.
Becky Bakken, president and CEO of Discover St. Louis Park, said her organization would welcome the chance to work with Golden Valley. "We would just broaden our efforts to market a little more broadly the Golden Valley assets, which include the hotels, unique event spaces like the Metropolitan, Brookview Community Center and the city's parks and recreation facilities," she said.
The contract would have to be approved by both city councils, Bakken said, as well as Discover St. Louis Park's board of directors.
John Reinan • 612-673-7402
