Austin Convention Center
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The Neal Kocurek Memorial Austin Convention Center is a multi-purpose convention center located in Austin, Texas, USA. The building is also home to the Austin Toros basketball team with a seating capacity of 3,200.
The Convention Center encloses 881,400 square feet (81,880 m²). The five exhibit halls combined have 246,097 square feet (22,863.2 m²) of column-free space. There are 54 meeting rooms and two ballrooms, including one of the largest ballrooms in Texas with 43,300 square feet (4,020 m²).[1]
The origin of the convention center goes back to 1983, when civic leaders became concerned that Austin was losing money from potential convention business because the city's current convention facility, Palmer Auditorium, was too small. The Austin city council unveiled a concept for a $35 million convention center as part of a $350 million complex of hotels and parkland on the south shore of Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake). Resistance to this plan by neighborhood groups near the proposed site and downtown business leaders caused the city to consider several other sites, finally choosing the downtown site near Waller Creek for construction.
The convention center was expanded in 2001-2002 bringing it to its current size. The grand opening of the expanded center occurred on May 18, 2002.[2]
The Austin City Council changed the name of the Austin Convention Center on July 29, 2004 to honor civic leader Dr. W. Neal Kocurek (1936-2004), who helped rally community support for construction of a convention center for Austin. Kocurek died after suffering a stroke on March 29, 2004. The formal dedication took place on December 2, 2004.[3]
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