Las Vegas convention center renovation nears completion
A tour of the $600 million investment into the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Central Hall showcased the new lights, LED screens, and roofing budgeted ten years ago.
'We stayed within budget,' Steve Hill, LVCVA president and CEO, said. 'But we did that by cutting out some of the work that we still need to do.'
The eye-catching feature of the expansion, the 'ribbon roof', spreads from the West Hall to the Central Hall which covers the new 30 percent increase in space, according to Hill.
'When we have the full renovation done, we will have moved from 1.9 million square feet to two and a half million square feet,' he said. 'It's about a 30% increase in space, and we want to at least have a 30% increase in the economic activity.'
Hill said the job creation which will come from the renovation is attributed to the thousands of construction positions and ancillary hospitality positions in the community.
'We employ about 300,000 people directly in the hospitality industry,' he said. 'The meetings part of the hospitality industry is about a quarter of that employment, about 70,000 jobs.'
Amid overall decreasing visitation numbers for Las Vegas, Hill balked at any doubt of continued long-term growth for convention visitors.
'The convention group-trade show industry is about a sixth of the visitation to Las Vegas,' he said. 'And it has held its own this year, it has been a foundation for the city to build from.'
Work on the Central Hall is expected to be completed by September with overall convention campus work done by December of 2025.
Hill said the numbers show the better return of investment for Las Vegas is in convention visitors—pointing to averages spent per visit.
'The average visitor to Las Vegas spends about $1,200 per trip,' he said. 'The average convention attendee spends about a third more than that, they're in the $1,600 range… I've said this often, if we didn't have the strength of the meeting industry here, Las Vegas couldn't look like what Las Vegas looks like.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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