At present, the San Diego Convention Center ranks as one of the most sought after mid-sized facilities in North America, but its limited capacity hinders the civic building’s ability to host many of the biggest annual shows.  Promoters of a proposed $550 million expansion to the structure located at the foot of Fifth Avenue that would increase its size by about one-third say the project would make the Convention Center much more competitive and create thousands of jobs, grow the local economy and generate millions of dollars in revenue for city services. On Oct. 11, the Office of Mayor Jerry Sanders and the Downtown San Diego Partnership hosted a public presentation at the City Concourse in the Copper Room on the proposed Convention Center Phase III expansion. A team of design firms — Fentress Architects, John Portman & Associates and Civitas Inc. — presented conceptual models and cost proposals for the public. The projected plan, which was developed using public input during the Mayor’s Citizens Task Force on the San Diego Convention Center Project, would add 225,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit hall space, about 101,500 square feet of meeting rooms and an 80,000-square-foot ballroom with a view of the San Diego Bay and balconies that would add exterior spaces to the existing building. Designers said when completed, San Diego would have the largest contiguous exhibit hall west of the Mississippi River and the largest ballroom of any conventional facility along the West Coast. The plan also includes a waterfront promenade with walkways, a waterfront transportation center and up to 30,000 square feet of retail space. No additional options for parking were presented. “The design is absolutely brilliant,” said Joe Terzi, president and CEO of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They were able to get everything accomplished in a sleek and less impactful plan, which will give us the ability to get larger conventions, host more than one convention at a time and limit the center’s overall downtime.” Terzi added that among the most interesting features of the environmentally friendly design is a five-acre rooftop park with panoramic views of downtown, Coronado and San Diego Bay. In addition to outdoor receptions, he said the park could also be used for parties and community events like musical performances and public art displays. San Diego attorney and real estate executive Charles Black, who led the Petco Park development team and is now serving as the Convention Center expansion program manager, said based on a November 2010 study conducted by AECOM, a technical and management support services company based in Los Angeles, the proposed contiguous expansion would attract 25 new primary events annually to the SDCC. That, he said, would translate into more than 250,000 visitors, which would produce an additional 657,000 annual room nights at nearby hotels and equate to more than $121 million in additional annual room sales. Further, he said a positive fiscal impact of $700 million is expected in addition to the $1.3 billion a year in economic activity the Convention Center already generates, plus $15 million in new city revenues and nearly 7,000 permanent jobs. The plan does come with a qualification, however. All of the economic assumptions hinge upon the project being built in its entirety.   “Size matters,” Black said. “In order to achieve these economic benefits, we need to incorporate all of the programs. So, it has been our objective to maintain compliance with the Convention Centers requirements.” On Oct. 10, the San Diego City Council approved a three-tier taxing formula based on proximity to the Convention Center and percentage of room revenue that is expected to raise most of the money needed to pay for the expansion. Through a Convention Center Assessment District headed by stakeholders and hospitality industry representatives, hotels in the downtown area would be assessed 3 percent of room revenue, while Mission Bay and Mission Valley would both get 2 percent and all other city locations 1 percent. The proposal, which was developed by Sanders, civic leader Stephen Cushman, the Convention Center Corporation Board and representatives from the hospitality industry, passed by a 7-0 vote of the City Council, with Marti Emerald absent. According to Sanders, hoteliers are expected to shell out between $28 million and $30 million annually toward the debt service on 30-year bonds for the expansion. Among those attending the presentation was Sherman Harmer, president of Urban Housing Partners, developers of urban mixed-use projects. Harmer said downtown has gone from 5,000 residents 10 years ago to almost 30,000 today and they need public realm and usable spaces. He emphasized the importance of outreach to give citizens a chance to express their feelings about the quality of life in the downtown core. “Let’s not just build space, let’s build space we can use with kiosks, retail businesses, restaurants, coffee shops and all of the useful things that activate a space. Let’s make it full and enjoyable to keep you there for a while,” Harmer said. “A lot of us downtown are grandparents and our grandchildren need space where they can run, be active, have fun and have a normal living environment despite living in a high density area.” Craig Vickers, landscape architect and principal at Civitas asked the audience to view the plan as a series of concepts or ideas. “We know the forms and shapes of things are going to evolve as we get into the more formalized portions of the design process,” said Vickers. “But we think we have the ideas on the right track.”  Vickers said approvals for the project’s environmental and California Coastal Commission reviews could be completed in 2012. Construction, he said, could begin in 2013 and possibly completed by 2016.