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Today, the San Diego Convention Center Corporation’s (SDCCC) board of directors voted unanimously, 6-0, to acquire a lease option on 8.5 acres of land and water adjacent to the 2.6 million square foot waterfront facility for an expansion that could add up to half a million square feet of exhibit space by 2014. Board member Cheryl Fisher was not in attendance.
In a joint news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Cheryl Kendrick, chair of the SDCCC board of directors, announced that purchasing a one year lease option of the land, at a cost of $1 million, was the first major step in the expansion process. A representative from Comic-Con International, the facility’s largest event in terms of attendance, also spoke.
“Without question, this signature building is one of our city’s greatest assets and investments made by local taxpayers,” said Mayor Sanders, who called for an expansion in his State of the City Address earlier this year and in remarks to attendees of the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership’s annual meeting held in San Diego last month.
“For every one dollar of tax revenues invested in the facility, it has returned $2.36 in tax revenues this past year,” he said. In FY08, the SDCCC had an unprecedented fiscal year generating all time historical highs in key performance categories including: $1.8 billion regional economic impact; $751.8 million in direct delegate spending; $31.9 million in tax revenues for the city; 648,159 out-of-town attendees; and overall attendance of nearly one million.
Cheryl Kendrick, SDCCC board chair, said, “San Diego has evolved into a leading destination and continues to be in strong demand. We turn away approximately a year’s worth of business annually and are operating at maximum capacity year round. It’s very simple -- to remain competitive we must expand.” Kendrick praised Sanders for his leadership, support and proactive role in helping bring stakeholders together to move an expansion forward.
“Many of our most lucrative clients who have outgrown the building, or are nearing capacity, have actually asked us when we plan to expand because they want to stay in San Diego,” said Carol Wallace, SDCCC president and CEO. “I’m pleased to announce we’re acquiring land and moving forward.”
Comic-Con International, whose annual confab attracts upward of 125,000, also attended the news conference. David Glanzer, the group’s director of marketing and public relations, added, "We are presently booked in the San Diego Convention Center until 2012. By then, it is our hope that the Convention Center, City and Port officials will have the expansion well underway.” Comic-Con has been a client of the Convention Center since 1991.
During the coming year, the SDCCC, the City, the Port of San Diego and a design build team will determine what the new addition would look like, square footage specifications, cost and identify funding. At this initial stage, the SDCCC does not have renderings or images.
The proposed land site is owned by the Port of San Diego, the public entity responsible for managing San Diego’s tidelands property and owner of the existing Convention Center. The Port paid cash-in-full, $164 million, to build the original Convention Center, which opened in 1989. Along with the City, the Port also shares the cost of the $216 million expansion, which opened in 2001 and is being paid for with lease revenue bonds.
Because the land is located along San Diego’s signature waterfront, there is ample opportunity to enhance bayfront public access and public-serving amenities to benefit visitors and locals alike. The expansion may also include development of a convention-oriented hotel and a previously planned water taxi. Participation from the public, key stakeholders and community partners will be part of the process.
An expansion would be built with environmental sustainability as a guiding principle. Since the original building opened back in 1989, the SDCCC has a long record of environmental leadership in the industry.
The San Diego Convention Center Corporation is a public benefit corporation created by the City of San Diego. The Corporation is exclusively responsible for marketing, managing and operating the Convention Center. In its 19-year history, the building has generated nearly $16.2 billion in economic impact, over $327 million in tax revenues and serves as San Diego’s premier gathering place.
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