Local
D.C. to spend $10 million to expand convention center
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
December 4, 2008
Faced with stiff competition from outside venues and saddled with limited meeting rooms for clients, the District will spend as much as $10 million to add 40,000 square feet of meeting space to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“We’re not running out of space,” said Gregory O’Dell, Washington Convention Center Authority chief executive officer. “We need the right amount of meeting space in proportion to the exhibition space.”
The 2.3-million-square-foot, five-year-old facility is expansive but nevertheless limited by its 130,000 square feet of meeting space, according to the authority’s board of directors, which authorized the renovation contract last month.
The plan is to transform roughly 45,000 square feet on either side of the grand lobby into prime meeting space, offices and restrooms to accommodate more events and attract more business. “Sky walls” that drop down from the ceiling will be installed to separate the areas, currently used for event registration, when needed.
The $850 million convention center will end the year having hosted about 185 events, O’Dell said, up from about 151 in 2007. But the venue’s schedule is bounded by its lack of an adjacent hotel and its inflexibility for multiple simultaneous events. A consultant retained by the authority determined that the convention center was short about 75,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.
“It is one of the downsides of the convention center,” said at-large D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown, chairman of the economic development committee. “A lot of the clients are asking for more meeting space and they can’t handle that. And you know what happens? They don’t book.”
The National Harbor project in Prince George’s County features 74 breakout rooms for smaller meetings — the District has 66 — and 4,000 hotel rooms. But O’Dell said he’s less concerned about National Harbor than major metropolitan destinations like San Diego or Boston, which offer large convention facilities and slightly more meeting space.
The District’s planned 1,100-room convention center hotel, widely considered crucial to the facility’s long-term viability, won’t open for at least three years. Even a scheduled 2009 groundbreaking is not guaranteed, said Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans.
“What my concern is, and we have no idea, is will the financing be there?” Evans said. “Knock on wood. It should have been built five years ago.”
“We’re not running out of space,” said Gregory O’Dell, Washington Convention Center Authority chief executive officer. “We need the right amount of meeting space in proportion to the exhibition space.”
The 2.3-million-square-foot, five-year-old facility is expansive but nevertheless limited by its 130,000 square feet of meeting space, according to the authority’s board of directors, which authorized the renovation contract last month.
The plan is to transform roughly 45,000 square feet on either side of the grand lobby into prime meeting space, offices and restrooms to accommodate more events and attract more business. “Sky walls” that drop down from the ceiling will be installed to separate the areas, currently used for event registration, when needed.
The $850 million convention center will end the year having hosted about 185 events, O’Dell said, up from about 151 in 2007. But the venue’s schedule is bounded by its lack of an adjacent hotel and its inflexibility for multiple simultaneous events. A consultant retained by the authority determined that the convention center was short about 75,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.
“It is one of the downsides of the convention center,” said at-large D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown, chairman of the economic development committee. “A lot of the clients are asking for more meeting space and they can’t handle that. And you know what happens? They don’t book.”
The National Harbor project in Prince George’s County features 74 breakout rooms for smaller meetings — the District has 66 — and 4,000 hotel rooms. But O’Dell said he’s less concerned about National Harbor than major metropolitan destinations like San Diego or Boston, which offer large convention facilities and slightly more meeting space.
The District’s planned 1,100-room convention center hotel, widely considered crucial to the facility’s long-term viability, won’t open for at least three years. Even a scheduled 2009 groundbreaking is not guaranteed, said Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans.
“What my concern is, and we have no idea, is will the financing be there?” Evans said. “Knock on wood. It should have been built five years ago.”
