Considering the financially devastating alternatives they might have faced, Pittsburgh's civic and business leaders yesterday embraced the March 9 reopening of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center as "wonderful news."

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"Under the circumstances we're just glad that we're able to be here, and we're also glad that they've identified the problem," said John DeSantis, executive director of the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, which will be the first event to occupy the convention center since it was closed for safety checks after the Feb. 5 floor collapse.

The home show, which features 1,600 exhibitors and vendors, had been scheduled to run March 2-11. Its new dates will be March 9-18.

"The Home and Garden show will still have its 10 days," Mr. DeSantis said after yesterday's news conference in the convention center. "People will still come here and enjoy the show. ... The most important part is that nobody has to even think twice about whether or not it's safe to come here."

Richard Sieber, spokesman for Duquesne Light Co., title sponsor of the home show since 1997, said the weeklong delay shouldn't be a problem because most of the vendors who participate are local.

"We're thrilled," he said. "It's a lot of work preparing for the show, and the show has a great economic impact for Downtown restaurants, parking and other interests."

Mark J. Leahy, general manager of the convention center, said he was happy with the way the Downtown business community rallied to help accommodate the conventions, conferences and meetings that were inconvenienced by the monthlong closure.

"We had 20 groups that have been and will be affected," he said. "Large and small, as big as the auto show and as small as some simple meetings that we book."

Of that 20, he said:

Eight events, including the Learning Disabilities Association's International Conference and the Pennsylvania Bar Exam, were relocated to facilities in and around Pittsburgh.

Four, including the Pittsburgh Auto Show, Kidapalooza, and two corporate meetings tied to the auto show, have been rescheduled for spring.

Three events were canceled. Those were a Ford Motor Co. meeting that was part of the auto show; a fur show; and a one-day regional meeting of Arby's restaurants, which took its 900 participants to another city.

Five groups, scheduled for the first week of March, are still exploring their options. Two of those events are the Pennsylvania School Business Officials, set for March 12, and the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Environmental Symposium, currently penciled in for March 16.

"Those officials are very nervous right now," Mr. Leahy said. "We've been trying to keep them up to date with what's going on. They've been doing some prudent planning on their end and actually looking at other destinations. But as of right now, they're still with us.

"It could have been worse in terms of lost business," he said. "There's economic pain."

Mr. Leahy said he could not put a dollar figure on the pain, saying it would be "a matter for the insurance companies." The Sports & Exhibition Authority, which operates the convention center, has business interruption coverage, he said.

Rachel Wimberly, author of a cover story on the convention center problems that appeared recently in California-based Tradeshow Week, an industry magazine, said the financial impact to the convention center might lie further down the road as safety concerns play into the decision-making of organizations looking at locations for their conventions and conferences.

"As much as you want to make everything seem like it's fine, sure, it's a black mark," she said of the closing and safety inspections. "Rescheduling a show costs money. Moving a show costs money."

Still, at least one vendor, Richard Lamb, 40, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., said he remains excited about bringing to Pittsburgh the custom photo mattes and frames that he markets.

"I'm very happy. These dates are still good for me," said Mr. Lamb, who passed up an opportunity at a show in Boston to make his first trip to Pittsburgh next month. "I had heard good things about the Pittsburgh Home Show from other vendors and was looking forward to coming there."

"It's just such a relief to have a decision," Mr. Leahy said. "We've had clients in limbo because we didn't know [when the reopening would be]. But now, these reports are in and March 9 is the reopening and we go forward. Limbo is not a good place to be."