AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austinites and visitors alike are likely aware of a major change coming to the landscape of the city’s event spaces.
More than 300,000 people visit the Austin Convention Center annually, according to its website. Those hundreds of thousands will be in alternate spaces for the next few years, as the Convention Center is undergoing a major expansion.
This is not the first first time the center has been expanded.
The City of Austin expanded the Convention Center about 10 years after it initially opened in 1992. The difference between this current expansion and the previous one is that now, the plan includes “future-proofing.”
“What we’re doing with this process that I think is going to help us in the future is, we’re already planning for the next expansion,” explained Katy Zamesnik, acting deputy director of the Austin Convention Center.
“We occupy those six city blocks downtown. We are not building on the surface level on all six of them,” she said. “There are two of our northern blocks that will be activated as event space, but then in the future, we’re going to be able to build an additional 140,000 square feet — when the time comes and when we’re ready to expand again.”
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2022 photo of the Austin Convention Center and City of Austin skyline
(Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
A 1992 photo of the almost completed Austin Convention Center in downtown.(Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
A photo believed to be from the Grand Opening in 1992. Color and black and white
(Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
Photo of the old Austin Convention Center (Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
A photo believed to be from the Grand Opening of the Austin Convention Center in 1992. Color and black and white
(Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
1992 over head shot of the Convention Center and surrounding neighborhood.
(Courtesy: Austin Convention Center) -
Rendering of the New Austin Convention Center: East view across Red River Street, 2nd Street and the Waterloo Greenway. (Photo provided by the Austin Convention Center Department and LMN/Page.) -
Rendering of the New Austin Convention Center: Outdoor event space in front of the ballroom and lobby. (Photo provided by the Austin Convention Center Department and LMN/Page.) -
Rendering of the New Austin Convention Center: Southeast view from Cesar Chavez Street. (Photo provided by the Austin Convention Center Department and LMN/Page)
Zamesnik said conversations about building a convention center started in the 80s, and the vote on the project for the first iteration of it was taken around 1988 and the building opened in 1992. Then, a decade later, voters approved the first expansion, which was completed in 2002, according to its website.
Plans for the current expansion were announced in 2015, and Zamesnik said the Austin Convention Center’s team has been in, “kind of this contemplative study era that included a community-led task force.”
That ultimately led to the City Council raising the municipal hotel occupancy tax.
2% in 2019, which Zamesnik said was what officially kicked off the current expansion era.
The decision to take the building down was made in 2022, and it closed its doors in April of 2025. Current plans are that it’ll reopen in time for the Spring Festival season of 2029.
“The plan is that we won’t go through this process again,” Zamesnik said. “We do have kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really reset and rethink and reimagine what a convention center can look like.”
“The vision that we have for this project is a building that isn’t just something for our visitors, but something that our locals want to come to as well,” she continued. “We really want this to be a point of pride with our community.”
Timeline of the Austin Convention Center
The expansion project, called Unconventional ATX, will cost $1.6 billion. The project is being funded by the center’s allocation of the hotel occupancy tax that was approved by City Council in 2019, and Austin Convention Center revenues, according to its website.
Right now, Austin Convention Center team members anticipate the new building being open in early 2029.
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