AMERICAS - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved the creation of the Moscone Expansion District (MED), a development hoped to provide the majority of funding for the expansion of the city’s convention centre.
The board unanimously passed a resolution approving the establishment of the MED and three additional measures to help finance the expansion. Project costs are estimated to be US$500m.
“Investing in the expansion of our world-class Moscone Center is absolutely essential for San Francisco because tourism dollars generated by activities at the convention center ripple into every neighbourhood of the city through jobs, local purchases and taxes paid by visitors,” commented mayor Edwin L Lee. “The city is proud to partner with the hotel and tourism industry to make this investment which will help grow our recovering economy and create jobs.”
The expansion of Moscone Center will add between 32,000sqm to 37,000sqm to the convention centre, including 7,400sqm or more of connected exhibition space.
Hotel assessments from the MED will provide two-thirds of the funding for costs of the expansion project, with the remainder coming from a continuation of funding from the city’s general fund.
“San Francisco has already lost meetings representing $2.057bn in direct spending as a result of space limitations for meetings with dates between 2010 and 2019,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association.
“The existing three-building configuration of Moscone Center is effectively filled to capacity. Therefore, it is impossible to significantly grow the San Francisco convention market without providing additional meeting and exhibit space – especially contiguous exhibition space.”
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