MAPS 3 Convention Center more than half-way complete

The MAPS 3 Convention Center is scheduled to open in September 2020.

With less than a year until scheduled completion, construction on the $168-million MAPS 3 Convention Center is making significant strides. One of the most noticeable changes is there are no longer large cranes on the site, so all the steel has been put into place, said Kevin Koch, senior associate with Populous architecture firm. Populous worked with Oklahoma City-based GSB, Inc. on the center's design. ADG, Inc. manages all the MAPS 3 construction projects.

The Downtown Convention Center is about 65 percent complete, said David Todd, the city's program manager for the Metropolitan Area Projects. Construction of the building is scheduled to be finished mid-to-late September, 2020.

The biggest undertaking on the site this week has been pouring the 8-inch thick concrete floor for the first-level 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall. Koch said the concrete pouring starts at midnight and continues until the mid-morning.

Working on the floor at night allows more trucks to be on site and it's a good temperature for the concrete to dry efficiently. The floor is done in parts and each part takes three pours to get it the correct thickness.

"It really feels like a different space when you have the concrete down," he said. "You can really see how wide the space is."

The exhibit space is one of the key attractions in the new center as the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau continues working to recruit conventions and meetings. The four-level building includes 45,000 square feet of meeting space with operable walls in many of the rooms, allowing for up to 27 individual meeting spaces. On the fourth floor, the building has a 30,000-square-foot ballroom that is divisible into two sections, complemented by 10,000 square feet of pre-function space and a 4,000-square-foot balcony.

Having the adjacent 605-guestroom Omni Hotel, included in their offerings is allowing the CVB to go after many different clients, said Mike Carrier, CVB President.

"We've been reaching back out to groups that have expressed interest in Oklahoma City previously,  that we couldn't accommodate their needs. We've also been meeting with groups that we've never talked to because we knew their facility needs, and we couldn't meet them," he said.

Carrier said there are several contracts being discussed with groups, but the CVB is letting those organizations announce their OKC plans first to their members.

"We're hoping to make some announcements in the near future, but each group has its own process and timeline," he said.

The CVB is also hosting meeting planners so they can see the new space, its physical relationship to the Omni, and its proximity to all the excitement in downtown. Carrier said meeting planners share good experiences with other meeting planners, so showing the industry leaders the space can lead to other events.

"That's the best advertising we can get," he said.

The Omni team and SMG, which will manage the convention center, are also helping to recruit events and meetings. Koch said SMG has been getting more involved with the construction process and the company is developing the team that will work in the new convention center.

Besides the concrete floor, interior work on the upper floors will begin soon once the roof gets completed. The white roof can be seen going across the exhibit hall area. Also on the exterior, the front glass windows (called a curtain wall) are installed and the terracotta sheathing is going up along the building's north side. Framing work on the east side is still continuing. An opening on the south end is used to help get building materials to the upper floors.

When the convention center is finished, construction trucks will still be in the area. The Omni is scheduled to open in early 2021 and the eight-story mixed-use building on the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal's Authority land will open in fall 2021. Koch said there are 260 to 300 people working daily on the convention center.