Broward to consider convention center addition

A Texas-based developer on Tuesday will propose construction of a 300,000-square-foot addition to the Broward County Convention Center plus a nearby hotel with 1,000 rooms.

Lewisville, Texas-based Matthews Southwest also will ask the Broward County Commission to approve a public subsidy of about $130 million for the hotel portion of the project. The total expected cost of the project is $500 million.

The number of developers competing for the convention-center project dropped from five to two in November, then Miami-based Related Group withdrew from the bidding process in February, leaving Matthews Southwest as the sole developer under county consideration.

According to a copy of its development proposal, Matthews Southwest would start building both a 1,000-room hotel and a 300,000-square-foot expansion of the convention center in 2018 and finish them in 2020.

In its proposal, Matthews Southwest asserts that the public subsidy required for an 800-room hotel would be $90 million, or $40 million less than for a 1,000-room hotel. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth