To view the Las Cruces Convention Center website, click here.

To view a copy of the proposed outside catering guidelines, click here.

LAS CRUCES - It could be difficult for some of your favorite restaurants to cater an event you might want to have at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

There appeared to be a consensus among representatives of Las Cruces and Mesilla restaurants that the guidelines being proposed to allow outside vendors to cater events at the newly opened convention center could be too restrictive for them.

"I'm not in the catering business, but I wanted to come to learn more about it," said Emily Coss, owner of Emilia's Restaurant, in Mesilla. "After what I heard, I'm thinking now that I'm probably out of it."

Bobby Perez, owner of Chilitos Restaurant, added the number of outside vendors who are eventually qualified to cater events - other than Global Spectrum, which manages the Las Cruces Convention Center - might be very small.

"These requirements are pretty strict," Perez said. "I don't think there's too many restaurants that can comply with everything they're asking for. Unless you're self-contained, and can handle all of it by yourself, it's going to be tough."

Ken Mompellier, executive director of the Las Cruces Convention

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and Visitors Bureau, moderated a meeting Monday that drew representatives from more than 25 restaurants seeking more details about outside catering. Guidelines for outside caterers are being developed, and Mompellier said those could be finalized by late this week or early next week.

"There are parameters, but there are also opportunities," Mompellier said. "The truth of the matter is that this is not going to be everybody's paradise. That's why it's important to hear these comments. We do want to try to do our best to make this work out for as many as possible."

But the city, as owners of the convention center, must also consider the five-year contract it has with Global Spectrum to manage the convention center. Global has its own food and beverage services.

Marci Dickerson, owner of The Game, asked if contracts signed by some of her clients, that stipulated that Global Spectrum would cater convention center events, could be modified to allow her business to provide catering instead.

"We're going to have a serious objection from some people," said Dickerson, if the contracts couldn't be amended.

Mompellier said, "At the time those agreements were entered into, there were no other caterers. Those contracts will have to stand."

Restaurant owners and representatives also raised concerns that they would be charged a 12-percent commission for catering an event at the convention center, that liquor served at the convention center could only come from the center, and that sit-down dinners served at banquets inside the convention center would require china and dinnerware that would have to be approved by convention center management.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at (575) 541-5452

Event catering

• Representatives of more than 25 restaurants in Las Cruces and Mesilla attended a meeting Monday for vendors interested in catering events at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

• The convention center is managed by Global Spectrum, which has a five-year contract to oversee operations.

• Outside vendors would be required to be "self containing," meaning they would have to handle catering with minimal assistance from the convention center.

• Outside vendors would be required to pay a 12 percent commission to the Las Cruces Convention Center, based on the total catering cost minus sales tax.

• The commission would have to be built into the per-person price to cater an event.