Jack Matthews stepped onto the stage and pointed out both the metaphorical moat behind him and the proverbial wall in front. “The moat is getting covered in many places,” he said. “The wall’s coming down.”
His words were met with applause from the crowd of city, county, state, and community leaders gathered Wednesday morning under a bright white tent situated between the current Kay Bailey Hutchison Center and Interstate 30. “I’m just proud to be part of something that’s 70, 80 years in the making to get fixed in the right way—the way it should have been right at the beginning,” Matthews added.
Dallas officials then broke ground on an expansion to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center—a key milestone for a $3.7 billion plan designed to kickstart economic growth in the region and connect downtown with the Cedars, South Dallas, and Southern Dallas.
“Where we sit today will be a walkable experience—restaurants, retail shops, hotels, and live entertainment, all to drive toward greater community connectivity, collaboration with our partners, and welcoming global visitors to Dallas with our unmatched hospitality,” said Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ interim city manager.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas Master Plan comprises seven components and includes expansions that will provide 2.5 million square feet of space (including 800,000 square feet of exhibit space), a walkable entertainment district, and a multimodal transportation center.
The first component is being led by a team dubbed “Inspire Dallas,” led in turn by Matthews Southwest, the development company behind the Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel, South Side on Lamar, Gilley’s Dallas, and the Dallas High School renovation.
The work includes convention space expansions, technology integration and establishing sustainable and energy-efficient building practices. Future plan components include updates to the Dallas Memorial Arena (awarded to McKissack & McKissack) and renovating The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (led by Dikita Enterprises).
Dallas officials see the project as an anchor for a convention center district that, as Tolbert puts it, will be an epicenter for business and an economic engine for the city.
“The economic impact of this project is going to be profound,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said at the event. “It’s going to attract a new wave of businesses to our central business district, new entrepreneurs, and of course more visitors to an already thriving Dallas economy. This convention center is going to be a beacon that signals that Dallas is a leader in innovation and opportunity.”
The project is expected to result in a roughly $6 billion increase in direct development spending and to support 50,000 jobs. The project boasts 40 major conventions already confirmed—an estimated $1 billion in economic impact from business booked starting in the beginning of 2029.
For Matthews, the president of Matthews Southwest. the project groundbreaking holds more weight than the promise of a new complex “It’s nice to have a shiny new building, but it’s not about that,” Matthews told D CEO. “It’s about what’s going to happen around it.”
It goes back to the 1950s when Interstate 30 was built. “At that point in time if you lived south of 30, you had different representation in the sense of just not as much money flowed south of 30,” Matthews said. The subsequent building of the current convention center in 1957 added another barrier, he added.
When it comes to the future, Matthews paints a picture of an open environment that is welcoming to both visitors and locals. “We want authentic Dallas to show up,” he said.
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