Some events planned at Dallas’ new downtown convention center are opting to relocate amid concerns about the facility’s 2029 opening timeline.
Jane Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Inspire Dallas, the group overseeing the more than $3 billion convention center rebuild, confirmed Tuesday that a “handful” of conventions scheduled for 2029 have requested to move to other cities. She declined to say how many and described it as “standard procedure” to offer relocation options for events booked during a year when major construction is occurring.
“In many cases, these are multi-year contracts,” Hamilton said. “So we want the client to maintain a level of comfort while also retaining the client for future years.”
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Hamilton said new convention center is still on track to open by 2029. Rosa Fleming, director of Dallas’ convention and event services, and Craig Davis, CEO of Visit Dallas, which is helping organizers of events booked in 2029 to find new locations, declined to comment and referred all questions to Hamilton.
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Demolition and construction work is expected to begin in earnest in 2026, after the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center hosts the International Broadcast Center for the FIFA Men’s World Cup next summer. The designation makes the Dallas facility the official broadcast hub for the global tournament.
Project officials in May estimated the construction cost for the newer, bigger downtown convention center at $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion. The rebuild is planned as a key piece of development in the area, which includes a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium and the Black Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as plans for a new entertainment district in the space left open by the old convention center footprint.
Project officials told City Council members in May that the convention center had 64 major conventions booked for 2029 onward. City officials, in a news release Friday, revised that number to 68.