The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is projected to double in size by 2015 in a massive expansion project taking place on the South Boston Waterfront, officials said.
The Convention expansion is part of a citywide ‘Top 5’ campaign to make Boston one of the top five convention destinations on the continent and therein stimulate the economy, according to a Massachusetts Convention Center Authority press release.
South Boston’s waterfront, formerly known as the Seaport District, is home to several key features of the city, including the Convention Center and adjacent Westin Hotel, the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center and the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Despite these current venues, Boston lags behind cities such as Chicago and Orlando, Fla. in ‘prime exhibit’ space; those cities boast 2.6 and 2.1 million square feet of space, respectively, while Boston holds a comparatively small .5 million square feet, New England Cable News reported Nov. 23.
The expansion is projected to bring in billions of dollars in income-both short- and long-term-for the Boston metropolitan area and region.
‘ ‘We begin this initiative not with a building in mind but with the region’s future in mind,’ Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Paul Guzzi said of the projected expansion in a news conference about the expansion.
However, there has been much speculation regarding the manner in which such an expensive program will be accounted for. According to a Nov. 23 Boston Globe article, state officials have not clearly explained how the project, expected to top $1 billion in expenses, will be paid for.
Moreover, the state’s decision to implement such a costly expansion program in the middle of an economic recession has further alarmed the public, The Globe and NECN reported.
But the MCCA release states that the economic downturn has, in fact, created favorable conditions for the expansion, and Boston’s conventions industry has a strong outlook through 2017.
‘The downturn in the economy has also produced a favorable construction bidding environment, with construction costs down between 20 and 30 percent in the Northeast, making this an opportune time to consider a major public works project,’ the release states. ‘With local construction industry employment down 16 percent over the past year, a major project of this nature could provide a short-term boost to the economy.’
Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Patrick Moscaritolo said a program of this magnitude is precisely what the city needs at this time, according to NECN.
‘People would say, ‘why now in the midst of this economic downturn?” he told NECN. ‘I think this is mainly when you need a game-changing vision, when the economy isn’t strong.’
The current venue is funded by a state subsidy as well as hotels and meals taxes and taxes on car rentals and city tours in Boston and Cambridge, NECN reported Nov. 24.
The project’s blueprint calls for the construction of an additional exhibit hall behind the center, a 1,000-room hotel, a 5,000-seat auditorium, several parks and a network of pedestrian bridges and walkways, The Globe reported Nov. 24.
The Convention Partnership, which the MCCA release defines as ‘a 25-member working group of key stakeholders, opinion leaders and decision makers designed to steward the strategy, expansion study and analysis,’ is expected to report on how much expansion should occur to the city and state by the end of next year, and the entire expansion is designed to take place over the next 10 years and beyond.
College of Engineering sophomore Ben Weinberg said the expansion could have a positive effect on Boston and the Southie and waterfront areas.
‘The expansion could benefit South Boston by bringing more people to the neighborhood,’ he said.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Peter Chen said the move would attract more people to the city.
‘I think it’d be great for more people to come to Boston, which the Convention’s expansion will allow,’ he said.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
