By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Progressive National Baptist Convention, which pulled its 10,000-member annual meeting out of Cincinnati a year ago because of the boycott, might be meeting here after all.

Officials at the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau said this week that they expect the Baptist group would return in August 2006 as the first large meeting for the expanded Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.

Julie Harrison Calvert, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said no contracts have been signed but the bureau is holding time and space for the convention. Organizers from both sides, she said, have begun preliminary talks.

"They have asked us to hold a date for them in a tentative nature," Calvert said. "We are hopeful that they will bring their convention here in 2006."

The Baptist group's return to Cincinnati would be a significant statement because the cancellation of its 2002 meeting was seen as a major victory for the 22-month-old boycott. To date, the group has been one of the staunchest national supporters of the movement.

Victoria Nash, who works in the office of the general secretary of the Progressive Baptists, said that the group "will be returning to Cincinnati because it is the birthplace of the organization." Nash would not say exactly when the religious group planned on returning and referred further comments to the general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Tyrone S. Pitts.Pitts could not be reached for comment Friday.

The Millennium Hotel and Hilton Netherland Plaza have also reportedly worked out a deal with the Progressive Baptists to be the convention's host hotels. Several downtown hotels had threatened lawsuits against the Baptist group for canceling thousands of reservations last summer. General managers for both hotels declined to comment Friday.

Initially, the Progressive Baptists said last summer that they would come to Cincinnati despite the call for a boycott, if certain conditions were met. But after city officials refused to negotiate with black leaders of the boycott - one of the conditions - the Progressive Baptists pulled out, saying the racial climate in Cincinnati was becoming worse.

The loss of the convention was estimated to cost the city $8 million to $15 million.

The Progressive National Baptist Convention, which represents about 2.5 million church members worldwide, was founded here in 1961 by the late Rev. L. Venchael Booth, the father of former Cincinnati Councilman Paul Booth.

Calvert said there is a climate of "anxious excitement" at the bureau over the prospect of the group returning.

The convention and visitors bureau was prepared to offer the convention more than $50,000 in incentives to come to town last year. Calvert said a similar package, which is standard in the industry, would likely be presented again.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com