Citing business lost to other cities with larger facilities, state officials on Monday outlined plans to potentially double the size of the five-year-old Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, an effort that could spark development of thousands of jobs, new hotels and billions of dollars in economic activity.
But the plans are still in the developing stage – officials at a press conference at the BCEC said they don't know how much the project would cost or how it would be paid for, critical questions that will be discussed over the next year by a 25-person task force chaired by Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Director James Rooney and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief Paul Guzzi.
At 516,000 square feet now, the size of the BCEC could grow by 300,000 to 500,000 square feet under the plans, which call for a new auditorium and ballroom, with a phased-in approach to construction that would take between five and 15 years.
Officials say cities like Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, and New Orleans have more than one million square feet of convention center space and Boston needs to expand its capacity if it wishes to compete over the long term for the largest conventions.
While lacking specifics about the project’s scope and cost, convention center officials, citing “early estimates” and projections by the Convention Sports and Leisure consultant group, said it could create 9,000 permanent jobs, 5,000 construction jobs and billions of dollars of new economic activity.
A proposal to expand the 62-acre, 516,000-square-foot BCEC would include the construction of a fixed-seat auditorium, a second ballroom to enable simultaneous conventions and increased support for the hospitality industry. To emphasize the importance of the expansion, official said 72 shows that could’ve generated $336 million in economic activity passed on coming to Boston in the past year because of space limitations, scheduling difficulty or high hotel rates.
In addition to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the Patrick administration offered full-throated support for the initiative through Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki, who vowed to be personally involved as the convention center authority gathers public input between now and Dec. 31, 2010.
“We’re very excited that this could be a catalyst for future growth in all of our key industry sectors,” Bialecki said at a press conference at a BCEC function hall Monday morning. “There really is no better time to begin to make our collective plans for the future than right now.”
The initiative has been dubbed “Top 5” for what officials say could launch Boston into one of the nation’s top five North American destinations for large conventions. Boston currently ranks ninth in that category, a status officials say would be difficult to maintain without a long-term strategy.
Las Vegas, the top ranked convention destination in North America, offers convention sponsors about 2 million square feet of space; Chicago, the second-ranked city, offers nearly 2.6 million square feet of convention space. Orlando, Atlanta and New Orleans all offer upward of 1 million square feet.
Although convention center officials say the BCEC and the Hynes Convention Center are booked for use by conventions into the “foreseeable future,” the timing for a large-scale expansion is ideal because construction costs are down – a result a weakened economy – and many of the prospective conventions match up with key economic growth sectors like life sciences, medicine and technology.
Part of the initiative includes expanding hotel occupancy around the BCEC and throughout Boston. The working group, expected to include stakeholders from the city, state and business community, will discuss how to develop and finance “a major hotel project,” a move that would save conventioneers millions of dollars on financing bus trips to distant hotels. Researchers will also look at creating more mid-priced hotel rooms in Boston. In accordance with expanding the hotel industry, hospitality must be treated “as an industry and an economic driver” as important as biotech or other industries supported by the state, according to convention center officials.
Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston) said an expanded convention center could be a turning point in the development of Boston’s waterfront district. He said he envisions the area as home to major harbor cruise lines, a pair of movie studios and a casino “six minutes away” at Suffolk Downs. Upgrading the BCEC, he said, “could be a catalyst for all that stuff.”
The BCEC, opened in 2004, was billed, at the time, as the largest building in New England, an $850 million venture that officials said Monday was once viewed as a near-boondoggle. Cost overruns and a delayed opening, just as a new wave of Big Dig contract abuses were piercing public consciousness, soured the public to the project, said Gloria Larson, chair of the convention center authority board.
“For several very long years, the success of the BCEC was anything but a foregone conclusion,” she said, calling the move toward expansion “the right approach at the right time.”
Financing concerns, at the time, forced officials to scale back the size of the BCEC. Sen. Jack Hart (D-South Boston) said Monday that the goal was always to reach about 1 million square feet. He and Rep. Wallace offered strong support for the project.
Asked whether there was any concern on the part of surrounding communities over the potential effects of a large BCEC expansion, Guzzi said the convention center authority has an “outstanding” track record of working with the Boston neighborhoods.
BOSTON —
