Miami Beach Convention Center upgrades expedited

Miami Beach commissioners want to expedite upgrades to the city’s convention center to reduce costs and limit the impact on nearby residents.

Original renovation plans called for four years of construction and improvements, but commissioners said on Wednesday they would like to see the project done within 36 months. Construction is expected to begin after Art Basel Week ends in 2015. Art Basel committed to staying put at the convention center for the next five years, but other major events may opt to relocate during the renovation.

The project is expected to cost $500 million. Commissioners believe they can significantly speed up the construction schedule by limiting how many shows can rent the venue until work is finished.

“We can’t afford a five or six-year time frame, which would be what we would be looking at, which would be accommodating everyone,” Commissioner Deede Weithorn said at a recent committee meeting, as cited by the Miami Herald. “And a lot of that would be what I’m going to call wasted costs because we’d be staging and de-staging, and moving and taking equipment in and taking equipment out.” [Miami Herald] — Eric Kalis