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The project team behind the first component of the nearly $3 billion rebuild of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is seeking design and engineering services.
The request for qualifications from architectural and engineering designs firms opened May 20 and will close June 14. The first component of the convention center redevelopment involves expanding the convention space and integrating technology for enhanced event hosting. Dallas City Council in September awarded the project management services contract for the component to Inspire Dallas LLC, an entity tied to real estate development firm Matthews Southwest.
The overall expansion of the center will nearly triple its meeting room space, double the ballroom space and expand exhibition halls by 76,000 square feet.
The project manager has already held sessions with more than 160 participants and has about six declared leads, Inspire Dallas CEO Carlos Aguilar said May 30 at a Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce morning event. The firm is also starting a pre-construction phase to finalize the scope and budget of the rebuild and then do a construction management at risk process that will "come to the streets" in the next two to three weeks, he said.
"Again, there are some self-identified leads already. Those are more architecture, engineering geotechnical, structural disciplines," Aguilar said. "Then we go to pre-construction evolving into construction management at risk, that's a big contract of course. Then from that comes construction and all the subcontracts that come associated with that. That is where you'll see a lot of opportunity. The scopes will be everything from project management to traffic management to construction to almost any discipline."
In February, Council awarded two Black women-led firms contracts worth about $17 million combined for two other components of the convention center reconstruction.
Washington-headquartered architecture, engineering and construction management firm McKissack & McKissack received a roughly three-year contract worth about $8 million to manage the renovations of the Dallas Memorial Arena. Upgrades to the nearly 10,000-seat arena will include modernizing seating, acoustics and lighting and improving accessibility of the facility. The WNBA's Dallas Wings are slated to move into the arena in 2026.
Dallas-headquartered engineering and consulting firm Dikita Enterprises Inc. was awarded a four-year, $9.2 million contract to lead the reconstruction and upgrades of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. The renovations of the site will also feature facility modernizations, increasing accessibility and expanding space for cultural exhibitions and educational programs. Work could be completed in 2027.
The rebuild of the Hutchison Convention Center will have seven components total and aims to elevate Dallas as a top destination for conventions, said Reginald Williams, assistant director of convention and event services for the City of Dallas. Ahead of its scheduled 2028 completion, 41 conventions have already signed lease agreements to host events at the facility starting in in 2029 and could create an estimated $658 million in direct spending and $1 billion in economic impact.
Williams said the facility’s current amount of ballroom space causes it to lose events to competitors such as Las Vegas, Chicago, Nashville and Orlando. The redevelopment should change that, city leaders hope.
"We're not just looking to create a building. The goal is to activate and connect downtown with southern neighborhoods," Williams said. "Our master plan consultants estimates that the economic benefits are large [including] over $6 billion in direct development spending, over 50,000 jobs, 30,000 of which that are going to be recurring full-time, and billions of new taxes over a 30-year period for the city."
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