The Savannah Convention Center expansion's grounbreaking ceremony was attended by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Visit Savannah president Joe Marinelli and other city lleaders.
Developers have broken ground on a $271 million expansion of Georgia's Savannah Convention Center. The project will add 100,000 square feet of exhibit space; 15 meeting rooms; a 40,000-square-foot ballroom; a 58-foot-wide glass hangar door, and a 900-space parking facility. When completed in 2023, the facility will offer a total of 200,000 square feet of exhibit space and 28 meeting rooms. The current venue will remain fully operational during construction.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place March 17 and was attended by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, Visit Savannah president Joseph Marinelli and other city leaders.
"The expansion of the Savannah Convention Center will open up our city to new and larger prospective meetings, conventions and events that have been too big for us in the past," said Marinelli. "Savannah has become one of the top visitor destinations in the country and now will be able to compete for more conventions than ever before. And with Savannah already being in high demand on weekends, the larger building will help us increase occupancy and visitor spending Sunday through Wednesday."
The project is expected to create 600 construction jobs and support 26,000 tourism jobs, according to local reports.