ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Construction at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) will allow leaders to expand the venue for future shows, conventions and everything in-between.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Construction is underway at the Orange County Convention Center through 2029
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The $560 million project is funded through Tourist Development Tax money
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The venue will improve walkways between buildings and add additional space for a ballroom and meeting rooms
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While construction continues, OCCC leaders say they will continue to host events\u00a0<\/p>\n
The project entails 650,000 square feet of additional space connected to the North-South building. A 100,000 square foot ballroom and 44,000 square feet of meeting space will be added. Crews will also make improvements to connect the walkways between buildings.<\/p>\n
OCCC Executive Director Mark Tester says conversations began in 2015, but the project got put on hold due to the pandemic. Orange County commissioners approved $560 million in Tourist Development Tax funding for the convention center in 2023. The final budget was approved this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says that we\u2019re doing all the right things to be the top trade show convention destination in the country and that\u2019s our goal,\u201d said Tester.<\/p>\n
Tester says the work won\u2019t interfere with events at the convention center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about this project is we\u2019re basically building a building laying adjacent to another building, so we\u2019ll really be able to do a lot of the work without bothering our customers,\u201d said Tester.<\/p>\n
The OCCC drives a major economic boost to the county. More than $4.6 billion in economic impact is generated annually, according to a release shared in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently do about 185 events per year and this will give us the opportunity to do 205, 210 events per year,\u201d explained Tester. \u201cIt\u2019s giving us more opportunity to provide economic impact for the Central Florida region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The multi-million dollar project is possible with events like MEGACON Orlando drawing in thousands to the convention center. The event started Thursday and wraps up on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see over 100,000 fans come through the doors. We have expanded our footprint in the west concourse this year, so we\u2019re just welcoming more and more people to the community,\u201d said MEGACON Vice President Andrew Moyes.<\/p>\n
Vendors like CJ Yow tell Spectrum News they\u2019ve visited the convention center before and think it\u2019s great news to hear they\u2019re expanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bigger the space, the bigger the footprint for artists as well, so I think it\u2019s a win-win,\u201d said Yow.<\/p>\n
Staff at the Orange County Convention Center hope to finish construction by 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Construction at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) will allow leaders to expand the venue for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2031,558,1015,115,1335,139,141,140,14104],"class_list":["post-200731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-emma-delamo","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}