LV convention center to be expanded again

John Wilen

Wednesday, June 10, 1998 | 4 a.m.

Prompted in part by the promise of a $40 million investment from several large convention customers, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board Tuesday approved $100,000 to study the possible expansion of the convention center south over Desert Inn Road.

The expansion could give the convention center an additional 750,000 to 1 million square feet of exhibit space, and an additional 120,000 square feet of meeting rooms, boosting the center's total square footage near the 3 million mark.

Originally scheduled to be completed in five years under the LVCVA's master plan, the expansion is needed now, said Manuel Cortez, president of the LVCVA. And expansion is being pushed primarily by large trade show planning companies and trade associations that are having a hard time finding enough convention space here, he said.

"All we're doing is kind of accelerating (the master plan) at their request," Cortez said.

A consortium of trade industry groups has already pledged $40 million to fund the expansion, Cortez said, and that figure is likely to grow as plans solidify. The groups, including trade show planning companies Miller Freeman Inc. and Reed Exhibit Co., as well as the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, would be paid back for their investment with convention and exhibit space.

"We very much endorse an expansion of the building here," said Tim McGinnis, vice president of operations with Reed Exhibit Co., based in Fairfield, Conn.

Reed puts on 350 trade shows worldwide each year. The company wants to bring more here but simply cannot find room, McGinnis told the board.

"You're a tough ticket to get in town with," McGinnis said, characterizing the Las Vegas Convention Center as "pretty full-up."

"We'd like to bring more of our business here," McGinnis said.

"Certainly, Las Vegas is the venue where we all want to be with our shows," agreed Robbi Lycet, vice president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Association.

The convention center currently covers about 1.6 million square feet, of which 1.2 million square feet is meeting and exhibit space. The center is in the midst of being expanded by 320,000 square feet to the north and west.

With an additional 750,000 to 1 million square feet of exhibit space, and 120,000 square feet of meeting space, a southward expansion could push the center's total square footage past 3 million.

The plan, Cortez said, is to build part of a new expansion right on top of Desert Inn Road, which already runs well below the level of the convention center.

"The main exhibit hall would be on the south side of Desert Inn Road, but the meeting hall complex would be on top of Desert Inn Road," Cortez said.

The site is currently used as a parking lot.

The LVCVA has already spent $12 million to $13 million buying the site and demolishing apartments that used to stand there, and $10 million depressing Desert Inn Road below the level of the convention center, Cortez said.

The $100,000 approved by the board Tuesday will fund due diligence on the expansion. Cortez said the LVCVA will try to finish the due diligence process in the next few months and get the project out to bid as soon as possible.

"We'd like to get this project up if it's possible by the end of 2000," he said.

The LVCVA's southward expansion, while large, will not be the only new convention space in Las Vegas. In addition to the existing 1.1 million square foot Sands Expo Center and the 1.7 million square feet of convention space scattered among 71 area resorts and hotels, an additional 1.5 million square feet of convention space is being built by many of those same resorts and hotels. Notable additions include 500,000 feet at the Venetian and 380,000 feet at the MGM Grand.