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Editorial: Room to grow Is an even bigger convention center in the city's future? Monday, March 15, 1999 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ink barely dried on the new plans for expanding the David L. Lawrence Convention Center before talk began about plans for still more expansion.
That will come as a shock to many Pittsburghers who thought that the current expansion plan, and the unveiling of a design by Rafael Vinoly, settled that issue. But time never stands still for the convention and tourism business, the nation's second-fastest growing industry and one of its most lucrative.
The current expansion is significant. It will take the center from 131,000 square feet of exhibition space and a No. 100 national ranking in size to 338,000 square feet of exhibit space and place it squarely among the top 25 facilities in the country.
Even so, the conventions that use that space grow every year. That's why Pittsburgh has been losing some conventions that it hosted in the early years after the opening of the current facility 18 years ago. By most accounts, Pittsburgh has anywhere from five to 10 years after the completion of the present expansion, which is expected by midyear 2002. In fact, the architectural teams that competed to design the current expansion were required to take further expansion into account.
If the city expects to hold onto the expected job growth, tourism and tax dollars it will almost certainly get when the expanded facility opens, it had better be prepared for the possibility of further expansion.
This issue is salient now because there is a seven-acre parcel of land east of the convention center, now owned by the Buncher Co., a Squirrel Hill-based development firm, that would be well suited to any future expansion at the convention center. The Urban Redevelopment Authority has a contract that expires June 20 to buy the land from the Buncher Co.
In the interest of preparing for the future and making sure that at least one viable expansion option is not foreclosed, the city ought to exercise its option and buy that land for possible development.
The land's strategic location in the Downtown market justifies ensuring that the city has some control over its future that extends beyond the powers granted to it through zoning and other laws.
There is a difference of opinion within city government about the ideal future for the land. Mulugetta Birru, director of the URA, says he doesn't want to hold the land vacant for too many years because of its high value and the strong possibility that there will be pressure to build on it as a result of renewed interest in Downtown. Other officials believe a convention center expansion or new home for the Penguins would be better uses for the land.
Fortunately, the city may not necessarily face an "either-or" choice here. Those options and possibly others can all be entertained in a compatible development of some sort.
It is appropriate that a discussion is already going about future convention center expansion and what ought to happen with a valuable, strategic piece of Downtown land, even if any change is years down the road.
The city just needs to be sure it retains control over what happens - and the best way to do that is to have its name on the line that reads "owner."
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