City of Charlotte unveils $127 million convention center upgrades

CHARLOTTE — The ribbon has been cut for Charlotte’s latest upgrades.

The city added 14 rooms to the Charlotte Convention Center, building on top of the current structure to expand the building. The city also added an immersive art experience and a walkway to connect the hall to the Westin and light rail station.

“We can’t stay still,” Mayor Vi Lyles said. “We have to make strategic operational decisions to emerge from the pandemic.”

The expansion comes at a time the city is trying to rebound after a slow year of business. Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority CEO Tom Murray said weekend travel has returned and leisure visits are up 20% compared to pre-COVID times. The city is just waiting for business travel to return.

“The Delta variant seems to be doing what people predicted it would do, peak really high and come back down fast,” Murray said. “We think that recovery is right around the corner.”

Conventions have slowly started to return. Murray said the upgrades that are now in place were requested by exhibitors and having them will allow the city to compete for major events.

The mayor said recovery is slow but she thinks Charlotte is almost back to normal.

“Anyone who had to go through COVID knows that things are gradual and incremental,” she said. “If we capture the weekend, eventually we will have the weekday traffic.”

The $127 million project was funded by hotel/motel and food and beverage taxes.

According to the CRVA, the expansion adds around 50,000 square feet of meeting room and pre-function space, taking the venue’s total leasable space to 600,000 square feet. The number of meeting rooms increased from 41 to 55 and now includes two highly flexible 10,000 square-foot spaces, each divisible into 19 different configurations.

The artwork on the pedestrian walkway was designed and engineered by Narduli Studio.

Since opening in 1995, the Charlotte Convention Center has welcomed more than 11 million guests.

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