Talk of New Convention Center Creates Buzz

It's now all but certain that Oklahoma City residents will be asked to fund a new state-of-the-art convention center - what's not certain is when such an election would take place.

Wednesday, May 13th 2009, 1:34 pm

By: News 9


By Alex Cameron, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's now all but certain that Oklahoma City residents will be asked to fund a new state-of-the-art convention center - what's not certain is when such an election would take place.

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, moderating a discussion this morning on the need for a new, larger convention facility at his annual Development Roundtable, agreed with panelists who concluded a new center is critical to the city's future, and said a MAPS-type sales tax is the only realistic way to pay for it.

More on News9.com:

Study Shows Need for New Convention Center

Read the report on the need of a newer, larger facility.                                   

Convention and meeting planning consultants told the crowd at the Cox Center, the city's current convention facility, Oklahoma City is losing business every year to smaller, less vibrant cities in the region, whose convention centers is more modern, more spacious and within an easy walk of more hotel rooms.

With barely 100,000 square feet of prime exhibit space, experts say, the Cox Convention Center ranks last among comparable cities' facilities in that category. They also say most of Oklahoma City's peer cities have many more hotel rooms within a half mile of their convention centers. Along with recommending construction of a new convention center featuring 200,000 square feet of exhibit space, the mayor and convention officials say the construction of a new "headquarters" hotel for the center, with as many as 650 rooms, would also be critical. The hotel, however, they say, would be privately funded.

The one-cent sales tax that funded Oklahoma City's original MAPS program, MAPS for Kids, and is now financing NBA-related improvements to the Ford Center, is scheduled to go off the books March 31, 2010. If city officials determine their preference is to keep the tax in place to pay for a "MAPS 3," which would likely include several projects in addition to the convention center, they would have to call for an election by October, with the actual vote to take place in December.

"If that's the case, then this building is 50 years old, and I think it's hard to argue with the theory that you have to replace your convention center every 50 years," Mayor Cornett said.

Mayor Cornett says they're not prepared right now to make that determination, owing largely to economic uncertainties.

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