Earlier today, the Dallas City Council made it official. Phase One of the long-awaited Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas master plan would be put in the hands of Jack Matthews and his Inspire Dallas team. The transformative project includes the demolition and redevelopment of the current convention center and a deck park over Interstate 30.
Along with Matthews Southwest, Inspire Dallas team members include Kaizen Development Partners, Azteca Enterprises, and nearly 30 subcontractors. Three-fourths of the subcontractors, which include CARCON Industries and STL Engineers, are locally based, and more than half are minority- or women-led enterprises.
Matthews spoke with D CEO about the project last month. “We have a phenomenal team,” he said. “It includes some very successful partners that we’ve had in the past, as well as new partners. The team that put SoFi Stadium together and the team that did the rework at LaGuardia Airport are partners. … The quality of the team is second to none. Any one of the partners would be qualified to win it themselves; it’s just an outstanding team.
“It will be incredible for Dallas,” Matthews told D CEO. “It has a chance to further join downtown with South Dallas. If done properly, the flow out of the convention center by visitors to the city will go east, north, and south into other areas of the city. It will correct a lot of sins that happened when Interstate 30 was put in.”
Plans for the expanded 2.5 million-square-foot convention center were overwhelmingly approved by Dallas voters last November. The project is being largely paid for by a 2 percent increase in the city’s portion of the hotel occupancy tax and through the creation of a project financing zone.
The facility will include 800,000 square feet of exhibition space, 260,000 square feet of meeting rooms, and 170,000 square feet of ballroom space. Construction is expected to kick off later this year.
Matthews, who originally hails from Canada, is known for pioneering projects on the downtown’s south side, including the Omni Dallas Convention Center hotel, Gilley’s, Southside on Lamar, and a partnership with the City of Dallas on a workforce housing development called the Galbraith.
Globally, his Matthews Southwest is working on a $5 billion development in British Columbia called The Oceanfront, a $1.3 billion convention center project in Florida’s Broward County, and a hospitality endeavor in Colorado Springs. It also recently served as project manager for The Museum of the Future in Dubai.
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