Broward delays timing of convention center expansion and adjacent hotel project

Broward County has delayed the timing of the planned expansion of its convention center in Fort Lauderdale and the construction of an adjacent hotel.

County officials expect the project’s construction phase to start in 2020 and conclude in 2023. In 2017, the county was planning to start construction this year and finish it in 2021.

Revised plans for the expansion of the Broward County Convention Center also would increase its exhibit space by 75 percent to 350,000 square feet.

The convention center’s new ballroom would be more than twice the size of the existing ballroom and could accommodate 5,000 people for dinner.

The county also plans to spend an extra $5 million to modify the convention center so that another 150,000 square feet on a new level could be added, if needed.

Broward officials also are planning a new 800-room hotel next to the convention center that Omni Hotels would lease from the county and manage.

The convention center project also includes construction of a bypass road. Designed as an alternate to Southeast 17^th Street, the bypass road is intended to make travel between the beach and U.S. 1 easier. [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth