City Council says yes to expanding convention center

The Austin City Council unanimously signed on Thursday to a $1.2 billion plan to expand the convention center, granting sweeping, unexpected consensus to an idea that has been a political hot potato for years.

The approved declaration directs staff members to move forward in assessing the financing tied to an expansion and came as part of a broad resolution that addressed several projects in southeastern downtown.

The move represented a policy swing for Council Member Kathie Tovo, who sponsored the resolution after previously expressing skepticism about Mayor Steve Adler's push to expand the convention center. Tovo said Monday that a University of Texas architectural study completed this year showed her how the center could be rebuilt to allow better pedestrian access through its six-block footprint and to better interact with nearby Waller Creek. Seeing that, Tovo said, persuaded her to back the mayor's idea.

“It’s a big thing that the council wants to move forward on the convention center,” Adler said Thursday. “It’s a big deal on many levels.”

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The expansion proposal that the resolution supports is the most expensive of the options UT studied. It would expand the convention center to the west before demolishing and rebuilding a portion of the facility within its existing footprint. The resolution also calls for preserving the nearby historic Palm School, which Travis County owns. The goal would be to tie those efforts into creating a park adjacent to Waller Creek and making infrastructure improvements along Rainey Street.

“This is an area (of Austin) that has had enormous growth and change and has more ahead of it,” Tovo said. “It’ll be just a dynamite area of town, and I hope, if we do our job well, it provides for new needs but also begins with a recognition and respect for the history and the culture of Austinites.”

The convention center expansion ties into a 2017 “Downtown Puzzle” plan, proposed by Adler, that hinges on expanding the convention center in exchange for hoteliers agreeing to increase hotel taxes on their guests within a new tourism taxing district. Those new taxes could help pay for downtown projects, including homeless assistance, Adler said.

Hotel taxes also would mostly finance the expansion, but the details remain unclear. The resolution asks staff members to study and recommend financing options.

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The council’s approval came after a flurry of edits to the smaller details of the resolution. Community members representing arts and service industries turned out to support the measure, saying they believe an expanded convention center will bring in more money for cultural arts funding and more tourists to pay the salaries of housekeepers and bartenders.

“What happens when musicians can no longer live in the live music capital of the world?” said musician Nakia Reynoso. “I urge the council to show their support for Austin musicians by adopting the recommendations. The (hotel tax) funds would increase to directly impact programs and platforms that support Austin’s commercial sector.”

The only stringent opposition to the expansion came from local activist Bill Bunch, who argued the move would hurt, not help, local musicians and artists. He argued that council members should be putting hotel taxes — some 70% of which go to the convention center — into other tourism venues, instead of committing to use future hotel tax money to expand the facility.

“With expanding the convention center and adding 2 cents (in hotel tax), that imbalance will almost certainly get worse,” he said. “It’s time for us to re-prioritize our spending to match what tourists are coming for and what we’re losing.”

Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison emphasized the tear-down and rebuilding of the convention center is vital to making the downtown grid more walkable and the overall area friendlier to visitors and local residents alike with access to new parks.

“I know a lot of people are looking at this as a convention center expansion, but I think of it as an improvement,” she said. “I’m super excited there’s so much agreement on this dais.”