Construction crews will soon get to work on the biggest single project in Oklahoma City’s history, the MAPS 3 Convention Center. Breaking ground June 15, the new $288 million venue will replace the city’s Cox Convention Center once it opens in 2020.
The new center will include a 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall on the ground floor, divisible into four spaces; a 30,000-square-foot ballroom, with a 10,000-square-foot pre-function space and a 4,000-square-foot balcony; and 45,000 square feet of meeting space, which can be configured in up to 27 rooms.
In addition, the city approved an agreement last year to share development costs with Omni Hotels on a full-service hotel to be built just north of the new convention center and connected via skywalk. The hotel is also scheduled to open in 2020, with 600 guest rooms and 50,000 square feet of ballroom and meeting space.
The MAPS 3 Convention Center is one of eight projects in the city’s MAPS 3 capital improvement program, funded through a seven-year, 1 percent sales tax that ended in 2017. MAPS 3 projects also include a new 70-acre downtown park (the first half will open in 2019) and a new street car system (with a stop at the new convention center).
