That cost is part of the estimated total $1.6 billion it will take to fully renovate the new project known as Unconventional ATX. Despite local pushback, the city demolished the former Austin Convention Center last year, and this March marked the first SXSW without the festival’s longtime meeting place.
Austin Convention Center’s public information officer, Derick Hackett, confirmed to MySA that the Unconventional ATX redevelopment project is currently on time and on budget. He added that the new convention center is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2028 and is slated to begin hosting events by spring 2029.
The scope of work for the project includes architecture and engineering services for the redevelopment and expansion of the Austin Convention Center building in downtown Austin, per the TDLR. This will be a new construction of a more than 1.35 million square foot building.
The project, which will be nearly a decade in the making, is mainly being funded through the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT)—a tax paid by Austin hotel guests. It’s also being paid for by convention center revenues and Project Financing Zone revenues, which is a rebate of certain state HOT and sales taxes from hotels near the convention center for 30 years.
In 2025, critics of the Austin Convention Center’s redevelopment filed a petition with the city clerk to force a public vote to decide whether or not the city should fund the project with its HOT.
Austin United PAC argues that the City of Austin should redirect its HOT to prioritize funding for local arts, music and cultural tourism instead of spending it on a new convention center. The group filed a lawsuit against the City of Austin after garnering more than 25,000 signatures from Austinites to either stop the project or give voters a chance to have a say in the property’s future.
In February, a judge ruled in favor of the city after the group accused the city clerk of unlawfully rejecting petition signatures to place the issue on the May ballot. Once built, the city estimates that the reimagined facility will add $285 million in economic impact, bringing the total to more than $750 million. According to the Unconventional ATX website, the project will increase Austin’s rentable event space from 365,000 square feet to 620 square feet for future business.
Construction on the project also involves removing barriers, restoring streets, and creating new public spaces to connect east with west in downtown Austin, per the website.
Find it: 500 East 3rd Street, Austin, TX 78701