The Dallas City Council voted on February 9 to tear down Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and build a new $4 billion convention center in downtown Dallas.
The council has approved a $4.2 billion plan that earmarks $2 billion to build the new convention center and $2.2 billion for redevelopment of the area around the center. The development will be paid for with a two-percent increase in hotel taxes, bringing the total tax rate on Dallas hotel rooms to 15 percent. In addition, the city would be allowed to keep the six percent state hotel taxes to put toward the project.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which has 1,386,099 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, was built in 1957. Supporters of the new plan argued that the center is out of date compared to its competitors in other convention destinations and that a new facility would help to revitalize the neighborhood.
The proposal calls for removing nearly all the existing convention center, making room for new parks and other development. The proposed location would put the new center beside the location of a proposed station for high-speed rail between Houston and Dallas.
“The transformation of Downtown Dallas is what this is about," said Councilman Omar Narvaez, who, according to this news report, characterized the current facility as "a building we are literally holding together with Band-Aids, paper clips, and diapers.”
Wednesday’s vote is only the first step toward the new convention center. Next up will be the design phase and a November voter referendum on the additional hotel tax. Construction of the new facility is expected to take about six years.
