The size of the new facility remains before voters, adding an additional 76,000 square feet to the exhibit hall.
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The nearly $3 billion reconstruction of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will be on a different scale than previously planned and will also tie in several transportation initiatives, including high-speed rail.
Rosa Fleming, director of convention and event services for the city of Dallas, on Feb. 5 announced a new “change of direction” for the future convention center to the Dallas Economic Development Commission in preparation for a presentation to the City Council in March. Submitted to. February. She said the team is moving from concept to design to pre-construction stages.
In the new site plan submitted to the commission, the convention center building itself will no longer encompass Parcel E at the southeast corner of Memorial Drive and Hotel Street along Interstate 30, but will instead encompass approximately It will have a site area of 130,000 square feet. The former Dallas Morning News building on Yonge Street is now a parking lot. It is unclear whether the city plans to acquire any part of the land.
Fleming said the façade of the new convention center will remain the same, but the Texas Department of Transportation has requested the use of the viaduct for Union Pacific Railroad construction and the use of space for construction dirt and equipment. As a result, the installation area has been changed. Interstate 30.
“These requests are coming in, we've talked to them, and not using these spaces is not an option for them,” Fleming said.
According to project manager Inspire Dallas LLC, Lot E may continue to be used in the convention center project for purposes such as logistics, organization, parking, central plant, parking and helipad.
Plans for the new site include:
Things from February last year:
Fleming said the new footprint is also intended to avoid conflicts with construction of the high-speed rail system near the convention center. In January, the Dallas Transportation and Infrastructure Commission discussed the possibility of an elevated walkway, or “people transportation,” connecting the already proposed Cedars high-speed rail station to the convention center and Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station. did. KERA reported that it is being reimagined as an intermodal transportation hub.
The size of the new facility remains as presented to voters, adding 76,000 square feet to the exhibit hall, doubling the size of the ballroom and nearly tripling the meeting room space.
Fleming said the utility has already begun some work on the convention center site. The city will select a design team and begin an 18-month design phase in June, with construction expected to be completed by the end of 2028.
Inspire Dallas, in partnership with Louisville-based real estate developer Matthews Southwest, was named project manager in September for the demolition and reconstruction of the convention center, as well as the construction of a deck park over Interstate 30. Appointed.
Matthews Southwest, founded by Jack Matthews, is developing the Omni Dallas Hotel next to the convention center and will add 8 acres to its planned redevelopment of the former Dallas Morning News headquarters on Yonge Street beginning in 2021. is working with property owner Ray Washburn, who purchased the site. through his entity Charter DMN Holdings LP in 2019. In 2017, the paper moved to new offices in the former Dallas Central Library attached to the Statler Hotel on Commerce Street.
Early proposals for the former newspaper site before Matthews took over included a boutique hotel, apartments and a concert venue. The city did not immediately respond to questions about the use of the DMN site.
Washburn said he has not yet heard from the city. He was waiting for the city to hire an architect to finalize the convention center design before moving forward with the project.
“If they came to me and said they wanted to buy some work, I would be open to that discussion,” he said. “Everything I do is going to benefit the convention center. So I want to do hotels and entertainment that benefit the convention center.”
Craig Davis of Visit Dallas said the prospect of a new convention center is already appealing to event organizers, even if plans aren't fully in place. He said 41 tournaments have already signed leases for when the facility opens in 2029 and beyond, and a further 96 tournaments are awaiting further details before moving forward.
“This convention center in particular is really hitting the mark based on what we know,” Davis said. “So we are very optimistic that we have the potential to close even more business.”
