One of the nation's largest convention centers has officially begun a $3.7 billion overhaul that backers hope will make downtown Dallas a bigger player in the increasingly competitive U.S. convention business.
Once construction is completed — not only expanding the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to 2.5 million square feet but also adding plenty of smaller rooms for group meetings — Dallas will have a "two-piston engine" to double the size of its convention business, said Craig Davis, president and CEO of the city's marketing group Visit Dallas.
The improvements come as other cities do more to lure convention business. The stakes are high: Visit Dallas already booked 43 conventions for the new center earlier this year, resulting in a total economic impact of more than $1 billion. For comparison, the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas also generated an economic impact of about $1 billion.
Recent convention center renovations and expansions across the country led to a significant lift in group demand for hotel rooms compared with the previous year. Group hotel demand over the past year in downtown Seattle rose 18.2%, the nation's highest, after completing a multibillion-dollar addition at the Seattle Convention Center that doubled its size, according to Northstar Meetings Group.
The size of a convention center is only a small part of the decision when meeting and convention planners choose a venue, Davis said. Finding a venue with enough exhibit space and having a high ratio of those areas to individual meeting and ballroom space is an even bigger driver of the decision, Davis added. The renovation will take the Dallas center to 430,000 square feet of individual meeting and ballroom space after the expansion from 160,000 square feet, marking a "game changer," Davis told CoStar News.
"The ability to have groups meet in individual learning sessions and plenary sessions distinguishes us and brings us up into the top five convention centers in the country," he said.
More Nearby Hotels
The new and expanded Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will take the aging multibuilding site developed between 1957 and the early 2000s and reorient it from east to west to align from north to south. The plans will free up 21 acres the city is expected to lease to developers to build hotels, apartments and amenities, including more walkable hotels in a city not known for its friendliness to pedestrians.
Dallas has 35,600 hotel rooms, but only 10 walkable hotels to the convention center, Davis said. The city hosts big events that need hotel rooms, such as the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority biennial national convention expected to bring about 28,000 people to downtown, he said.
City leaders held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Dallas convention center last week, marking the beginning of a yearslong project that voters approved in November 2022. Construction is expected to be complete between 2028 and 2029.
Plans include transforming the convention center's current five separate buildings into one cohesive convention center meant to anchor a larger neighborhood.
The new convention center will have a 2:1 ratio for exhibit space to breakout and ballroom space, making it a top contender for big business, Davis said.
The convention center also will have outdoor event terraces offering views of the Trinity River and the city's downtown skyline.
The development group overseeing the project, Inspire Dallas, recently issued a request for proposals from architects and engineers for the project.
Boosting Tourism
"The revitalization of this convention center is precisely what this corner of downtown Dallas needs," Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said during the groundbreaking ceremony. "Connection begins with transformative projects like this one."
Johnson said he expects the project to fuel new residential and retail development, as well as boost tourism in Dallas.
The convention center is designed to anchor a larger district in downtown Dallas and connect to the surrounding areas, such as the nearby Cedars neighborhood and the planned Rail district, to the city's urban core. The city plans to develop atop Interstate 30 to connect the center to the southern Cedars neighborhood.
The parking lots surrounding the convention center are expected to be developed as part of the plans to reorient the massive building to face Lamar Street.
"The moat is being covered and the walls are coming down," Dallas developer Jack Matthews, who is part of Inspire Dallas, the group behind the convention center development, said during the groundbreaking ceremony.
Matthews has developed much of the Cedars neighborhood and was the lead developer behind the Omni Dallas Hotel that is attached to the current convention center.
Inspire Dallas includes Matthews Southwest, Kaizen Development Partners, Azteca Enterprises and nearly 30 subcontractors.