After a decade of planning, the nearly 33-year-old Austin Convention Center will soon be torn down and rebuilt through a four-year project that will transform six square blocks of downtown.
The $1.6 billion redevelopment kicks off with the center’s closure in April, soon after South by Southwest Conference & Festivals, with reopening set in time for that event in 2029. It’ll eventually boost the local economy and Austin’s national profile, officials said, as well as impact the surrounding area, and city hotel and tourism operations in the years ahead.
Local leaders say the project will better position the center, which is much smaller than Houston, Dallas and San Antonio’s and already losing business due to its size. It’s also expected to help revitalize the area with new public features and a more inviting presence. Following months of planning and review, a final outline for the new facility was unveiled to City Council members Feb. 25.
“We will no longer be a barrier. We will be a gateway that transforms the southeast corner [of downtown] into what we hope will be a bustling community hub,” ACC Assistant Director Katy Zamesnik said. “We really want this to be a convention center where our business opportunity meets our cultural enrichment.”
The big picture
The convention center rebuild is expected to significantly increase downtown’s exhibition space, modernizing the campus in what Mayor Kirk Watson dubbed the “living room” of the Austin community with several additions both inside and outside the building.
“This will not be a big six-block behemoth. This will be individual pieces and parts that collect together and really express the different activities of the convention center,” Larry Speck, senior principal with Page Architects, told council Feb. 25.
The project, funded solely through local lodging and convention revenue set aside for the work, will feature new street-level retail and dining options around the site. Pieces of the current property will be converted into public park or plaza space, and the city also invested millions of dollars in a public art program that’ll install work from 10 Austin-based artists.
The new building will situate convention space belowground, with a larger exhibit hall plus more space for meetings and other activities on a smaller overall footprint at ground level. Visit Austin President and CEO Tom Noonan said those changes should allow for a wider variety of events, including educational conferences in sectors like nursing and education that Austin’s workforce can take advantage of.
“This investment will create an active, modern, efficient and dynamic space that strengthens Austin’s position as a premier event destination while driving long-term benefits for local businesses and the economy for years to come,” convention center spokesperson Derick Hackett said.
“You asked us to be producing a world-class design; innovative ideas not only in the programming of the convention center but also in placemaking in downtown Austin; a real landmark of great distinction that would really make the community proud. And that’s absolutely where we’re going,” Speck said. “We have made big efforts to make this a uniquely Austin facility.”
“It’s got to be a convention center, so that’s got to be a top priority. But the building is designed in such a way that there can be pieces segmented out for community activities concurrent with events, or certainly when there aren’t events going on,” Speck said.
The project timeline is partially based around one of the center’s biggest draws, SXSW. Closure and demolition are scheduled to begin weeks after this year’s event, and the new building will reopen in winter 2028 ahead of the 2029 festival.
SXSW will remain in Austin in the interim, and a spokesperson said event organizers are excited about a “reimagining” for a few years before returning to the convention center.
The city projects the new center and exhibitions it’ll draw will bring a significant financial lift. The current facility has generated an estimated $468.8 million in annual economic impacts, supported more than 2,700 permanent jobs and has helped generate well over $100 million in city hotel taxes a year. The revamp will boost those figures by nearly two-thirds, adding an additional $285 million in economic impact and over 1,600 new jobs.
Austin’s presence in the exhibition space lags behind comparable and smaller cities, especially given the rising demand to host events locally and nationally following the pandemic. Austin is already managing bookings at the center for 2029 and beyond.
Local leaders have pointed to the disconnect of the U.S.’s 11th-largest city, a growing economic hub and travel destination, housing a convention center with less than 250,000 square feet of exhibit space—the 61st-most in the country. With the upgrade, Austin would leapfrog competitors and rank in the mid-30s.
“Austin needed to expand just to remain relative and competitive, even in the Texas market,” Noonan said. “The competition is fierce for convention business because it’s big dollars.”
Today, the Austin Convention Center features roughly 365,000 square feet of rentable space, including exhibit halls. The redeveloped facility is now expected to include about 620,000 square feet of rentable space, including 550,000 square feet indoors, plus room for roughly 140,000 square feet of future expansion.
The downtown project comes as competitor cities like Seattle, Denver and New Orleans are advancing or have completed expansions of their own. Other Texas cities including Houston and San Antonio are looking to upgrade their facilities as well.
Who it affects
High-rise construction on Rainey Street, the yearslong I-35 expansion, the Waterloo Greenway project and other initiatives alongside the convention center will leave the corner of downtown looking like what Watson called a “war zone.”
Project team members acknowledge the work is likely to affect nearby residents, businesses and downtown visitors—especially during the initial 1.5 years of demolition and excavation—primarily along Trinity, Red River and Cesar Chavez streets.
Hackett said the city is actively engaging with anyone “living, commuting or working” within 1 mile of the center to offer real-time street closure updates, information available through text, newsletters, social media and community surveys.
Riley Triggs, the city’s project manager for the redevelopment, said construction team members hope to make “as little impact as possible” despite likely interruptions in the area.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be great; it’s extra traffic. But we’re doing everything that we can in order to minimize that and the impact on our neighbors,” he said.
One more thing
Noonan said downtown’s hotel room count more than doubled in the past decade from about 6,800 to more than 15,000, and several more hotels are now in the works.
Major events will look different in Austin until 2029, as it's highly unusual to close a city's center for four years. After years of growth, the local tourism sector is now strategizing to maintain activity during the project.
Hoteliers have a new plan to market Austin year-round and incentivize events to continue to come to town.
