City Prepares Budget, Plans For New Convention Center

<B> City Prepares Budget, Plans For New Convention Center</B>

By Barbara Cook

While final construction cost estimates for the new Washington Convention Center are not complete, project supporters say the $650 million targeted budget will be sufficient.

The convention center authority is allowed to raise $650 million through bonds backed by the city's hotel tax and business taxes. Engineering studies for the construction project are still in process and won't be finished for another two to three months.

Although part of the $650 million would have had to have been spent on upgrading entrances to the Mount Vernon Square Metro station--adjacent to the convention center site--President Clinton has proposed earmarking another $25 million in federal money to cover the subway improvements.

At a recent hearing on the nomination of Terence Golden as the new chairman of the convention center authority, city council members again discussed the relative benefits of locating the center at the Mount Vernon site versus another location in the city, north of Amtrak's Union Station. That alternative location, which is not favored by the convention center's supporters, is owned by railroad interests who have set a $70 million price tag on the land. The authority has argued that the eventual price of building on the Union Station site would be much higher, since an environmental cleanup would have to be undertaken.

The city council has not yet set a date to vote on Golden's nomination.

Assuming the city stays with the Mount Vernon site, located at Ninth Street and Mount Vernon Place N.W., the new building will be located six blocks from the existing convention center and will be ready for occupancy in late 2001.

The present building, with 350,000 square feet of exhibit space, places Washington in 30th place among competing cities for convention center facilities. The new center, with 730,000 square feet of exhibit space, 150,000 square feet of meeting space and a 60,000 square-foot ballroom, will catapult Washington once again into the list of cities with the largest convention centers.

An initial call for bids to build the project brought in only one proposal last fall, and at a price that was reported to be $100 million higher than the budgeted amount. The authority then rebid the project after changing the contract specifications to require that the winner agree to build the center at a guaranteed maximum price and to assume responsibility for any cost overruns. During the second round, the authority received four proposals, which currently are being reviewed.

The authority already has hired Lewis Dawley III, former general manager of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority in Philadelphia, to serve as general manager for the new center.

Washington, meanwhile, has attempted to sell the old convention center but has been unsuccessful so far. One prospect under consideration is to demolish the present facility and use the land for hotel sites or office building space.