Whatever happened to the Stamford convention center?

This week the Connecticut hospitality industry gathers in Hartford's new convention center for the annual Connecticut Restaurant & Lodging Show. By day, attendees will sample fare from celebrity chef Jasper White; by night, they will crowd Hartford restaurants in the vicinity of the 1-year-old Connecticut Convention Center.

It is the business infusion the Fairfield County hospitality industry envisioned 16 years ago, when the state General Assembly passed a bill authorizing the formation of a Lower Fairfield County Convention Center Authority to create a 100,000-square-foot facility in Stamford.

Instead, the 540,000-square-foot Hartford convention center moved forward, as did smaller facilities at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino. Last week, New York City's Javits Center began construction to add more than 500,000 square feet of space, increasing its capacity by nearly half.

Meanwhile, hotel space in FairfiAeld County has nearly tripled from the 2,800 rooms in the region when a Stamford convention center was first proposed 16 years, ago, keeping pace with the rapid proliferation of offices during the past few decades.