Council Directs City to Begin Negotiations With Omni Hotel and Resorts

Raleigh Convention Center Expansion

Recently the Raleigh City Council and the Wake County Commissioners approved plans to expand the Raleigh Convention Center using tax money from hotel stays and restaurant meals.

More and more organizations are looking at Raleigh for their next big event. In fiscal year 2023, ninety percent of sellable dates at the Raleigh Convention Center were booked. A full convention center means full hotels, successful restaurants, busy shops, and a healthy local economy.

“With this expansion, we will attract significantly larger events and generate even more economic impact,” says Kerry Painter, Director of the Raleigh Convention Center and Performing Arts Complex. “We have missed out on numerous opportunities simply because we lack the space and the hotel rooms to compete. With this expansion, we will finally have the capacity to meet that demand.”

The new complex will:

• Add 500,000 square feet of meeting space, including some 30 additional breakout rooms;
• Include 50,000 square feet and an additional 30,000 square feet of flex halls for hosting large events or for breaking up into smaller areas; and,
• Add an additional capacity of 20,000 people (doubling the current RCC capacity).

Impact

There is little doubt the Raleigh Convention Center (RCC) is a major economic driver for our city and the surrounding area. 

Since opening in 2008, the Raleigh Convention Center has welcomed over 1.8 million people and, in conjunction with the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, has contracted more than one million hotel room nights through 2030. 

To put that in perspective, the convention center’s economic impact in Wake County now surpasses three quarters of a billion dollars. That money eventually makes its way to support projects in various Wake County towns.

Convention centers across the country play a critical role in communities. They help fill the space, typically weekdays, between high tourism events. They provide jobs and attract businesses. The expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center, along with the new hotel, will likely have a ripple effect throughout the broader Wake County area.

“Expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center, as well as the hotel, will considerably increase the opportunities to recruit and secure larger city-wide meetings, conventions, and sports groups to Wake County that are currently out of reach with our current infrastructure. We look forward to working with the City to move the project forward,” said Dennis Edwards, President and CEO of Visit Raleigh.

The expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center could be complete in the next four years.