Travis County Expo Center In Line For $620 Million Upgrade

by Peter Partheymuller

City council to hear plans for 30-year-old arena in June

The Travis County Exposition Center sits on 128 acres about 20 minutes east of Downtown Austin. It was built in 1983 and is owned by the county. It is located within Austin’s largest city park, Walter E. Long Park, which comprises 1,872 acres and features a nature preserve, a lake that hosts activities like fishing and boating and a trap and skeet shooting range.

It’s most popular and biggest money-making event is the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, though it also hosts motorcycle rallies, auto shows and races and triathlons.

However, due to its age and the great demographic and economic changes the Austin area has undergone since its construction, the Expo Center is in desperate need of renovation or replacement. A draft report of a market survey presented this week to a committee of the Austin City Council calls it “obsolete and too small.” The survey recommends tearing down the facility and replacing it with a new and expanded events center. The city of Austin, Travis County and Rodeo Austin funded the survey, commissioning it in mid-2014.

The booming Austin market serves high-end clients with the convention center and hotels downtown, as well as the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) racetrack facility built for the global Formula 1 auto racing circuit. Those at the lower-cost portion of the market currently are served by the Expo Center. But, its deteriorating condition leaves the question of how long even those needs will be met and does nothing at all for the middle-market events that bypass the metropolitan area entirely, according to Brian Block, a development administrator for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department.

Block presented the market survey’s results to the council’s Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee. They present a stark picture of “limited supply and expanding demand in Austin.” The consultants hired to conduct the survey recommend replacing the Expo Center and constructing in its place a modern arena, exposition halls, a ballroom, conference and meeting rooms and a rodeo and equestrian facility.

In today’s dollars, phase 1 of the project would cost $470 million. That would entail the arena ($320 million) and the exposition halls, ballroom and meeting rooms ($150 million). The rodeo facilities, along with addition exposition space, would come in further phases of construction and at a projected cost of another $150 million.

The total costs of $620 million could potentially be financed through a bond election, Block told the council members. He already has done some preparatory work for a bond election. The consultants who performed the market survey will present their results to the full Austin City Council June 7.

This article originally published on Strategic Partnership Inc.