On Dec. 2, officials broke ground on the Williamson County Expo Center West Arena, a project that is expected to finish construction around December 2025.

The big picture

The 175-by-450-foot covered West Arena will be directly north of an existing recreational vehicle park beside the Expo Center in Taylor. According to a Williamson County news release, the arena will accommodate for growth at existing events and support recreational vehicle park visitors.

Amenities in the new facility will include:

• Restrooms and showers
• Two 8-by-28-foot covered picnic pavilions
• Expanded gravel parking

“In Williamson County, we don't build anything—I feel like—[that’s] large enough,” Precinct 4 County Commissioner Russ Boles said at the groundbreaking. “We have so much growth coming our way, but that's a pretty big building.”

About the project

The West Arena is expected to cost $10.7 million, and the 12-month project is funded through the 2023 voter-approved parks bond, Boles said.

“We're going to have a larger covered pavilion behind me than we have currently existing, and that makes me excited,” Boles said.

Prior renovations at the Expo Center started in 2016 and 2022, according to previous Community Impact reporting. Bartlett Cocke General Contractors is the West Arena’s construction contractor, and Parkhill is serving as the architect and engineer, according to the release.

“I want to thank the citizens of Williamson County for supporting projects like this,” Boles said. “I see this as us investing into ourselves and our future and our history.”