CENTER OF ATTENTION
OKC breaks ground on new convention center
Dozens of civic, business and hospitality leaders gathered Friday to mark the start of construction of the biggest single civic project in Oklahoma City history — a $288 million convention center just south of the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The sprawling convention center, to be linked to the 17-story Omni Hotel, and an 865-space garage, will be east of Scissortail Park along Robinson Avenue between SW 4 and SW 7.
Once open, the convention center will replace the 50-year-old Cox Center and is expected to boost the city’s visitor industry.
“Two years from now, we move up to a new tier, which was our objective, to move to a new competitive set,” said Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. “We’ve turned something we really didn’t have, a hospitality industry, into the fastest growing sector of our economy. It is hiring more people at a higher rate than any other part of Oklahoma City’s economy.”
Unlike the current convention center with its tilt-up concrete walls and outdated design, the new venue will provide guests with sweeping downtown views built with materials designed for
energy efficiency and resiliency against the weather. A fourth-floor 30,000-square-foot ballroom will feature a glass wall that can be opened to a large balcony overlooking Scissortail park.
A 200,000-squarefoot exhibit hall will dominate the ground floor, featuring three operable walls to divide it in up to four flexible spaces.
About 45,000 square feet of meeting spaces are on all levels of the building, and many also have operable walls to make the spaces flexible. The rooms can be configured to provide up to 27 individual meeting spaces.
Tom McDaniel, who has led the MAPS 3 citizens oversight board in guiding design and keeping the project within budget, noted the project includes items bid as optional (referred to as “addalternates”). They include a SW 4 Street plaza, the skywalk, a 540-space surface parking lot, ballroom light riggings, and exterior vertical shade fins.
“We are getting the convention center we hoped for and dreamed for,” McDaniel said. “We had the convention center we knew we could afford. But because the money has come in on the sales tax in excess of what the projections were and because the bid was on the money, we are realizing every one of those add-alternates.”
Mike Carrier, president of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new convention center will tie the city with Tampa, Florida, for the 15th-largest venue among midsize markets.
“Right now there are a lot of expansions and renovations around the country with convention centers,” Carrier said. “There is only one brandnew convention center being built in the United States and we are breaking ground.”
Mayor David Holt, meanwhile, drew several laughs as he compared the community’s feelings about the convention center to how they treat a guest bedroom — a place where they put their son’s old bed and the exercise bike.
Unlike those houseguests, Holt said, convention visitors spend money on restaurants, hotels and entertainment during their stays.
“We know that when we travel around the country, the facilities we have do not meet the standards of the large city that we are,” Holt said. “We are the 27th-largest city. We always need to act like it. And today we are acting like it. We are building a convention center that is worthy of a top 50 city in the United States.”
Holt added the convention center will benefit locals, noting increased convention business will make the city more competitive in adding direct air flights to other cities. He also argued a convention center is as much for locals as it is for visitors.
“It is our modern town hall,” Holt said. “I’m in our current convention enter every week. It is our meeting place. It’s where we gather as a community.”