Convention Center Debt Load Approaches $1 Bil as Expansion Roars Onward

ORLANDO-When the Orange County Convention Center’s current one-million-sf, $500 million expansion is done in 2003, the two million sf of exhibition space will be the third largest in the country, next to Las Vegas (2.3 million sf) and Chicago (2.2 million sf). Right behind are Atlanta (1.3 million sf) and New Orleans (1.1 million sf).

But will it bring the extra business to make the venture a profitable or even a break-even enterprise? That’s the question critics and supporters are starting to ask for the first time since the center was built 20 years ago.

The question is especially relevant today, critics note, because the center’s debt load is approaching $1 billion. And the facility’s $34 million a year in revenue isn’t paying the mortgage and is $6.5 million shy of paying just for its operations and maintenance.