City releases concept designs of proposed convention center

A set of renderings from Kansas City-based architectural firm Populous Inc. show one vision for a 250,000-square-foot downtown convention and events center, arrived at through a series of local community workshops.

The center would move forward with funds from an additional 3% license tax to be collected from overnight guests in hotel, motel and short-term rental accommodations inside the city limits, if voters approve the tax in the April 7 election.

The center is proposed for the 600 block of East St. Louis Street in a design that would make use of the existing Springfield Expo Center.

The design features intersecting upturned walls of white stone and glass curtain and maintains and emphasizes the curved front of the current expo center.

The renderings were revealed March 19 at the Discovery Center of Springfield. The reveal was originally scheduled for March 13, but it was delayed at the request of the design team.

The presentation showed seven views of the proposed center, with city officials emphasizing that they were not finished designs but rather concept drawings based on feedback from community members.

“Springfield voters are who will ultimately decide the fate of this project on April 7,” said City Manager David Cameron in a news release provided prior to the reveal event.

Some notable features are a roof area that is covered partly with grass and partly with a solar power array. There is also a glass-walled upper story that would hold a large ballroom – something officials have stressed is absent from existing Queen City accommodations.

The renderings show an active lawn area on the east side of the building, with large overhead doors that open the building to the outdoors – most of the site’s current grass lawn – and an area for food trucks just beyond.

Missing from the renderings is a sense of where an attached hotel might go. A conference hotel would be a private sector project, not part of the city’s funding request to voters and not to be publicly funded, but the 2025 report by Chicago-based Hunden Partners Inc. that is guiding the convention center effort described an attached 400-room hotel with a recognized brand as essential to the project, according to past reporting.

Asked about the hotel component during the design reveal, Tim Rosenbury, the city’s director of quality of place initiatives, said one or two sites have been identified, but the city does not have control of those properties. However, he noted, a private developer could.

“Given that this building is open to several different directions and will have multiple entrances around it to allow for simultaneous events, that also ties into that idea that we can come in at ground level, sub-ground level or even above on the second or third floor and tie in from other places,” he said.

But designing a connection is premature at this point, according to Rosenbury.

“The reality is that until this project becomes a certainty, no developer will come forward and commit until they know for sure that this is going to happen,” he said. “This, again, is why April 7 is so important.”

Lessons from November
Cameron said the city learned a lot from the November 2025 defeat of a 3% lodging tax measure to fund a proposed center. That ballot issue failed by fewer than 400 votes on only a 7% voter turnout, he noted.

“Through public listening sessions and a community survey, Springfield made it clear they wanted more information about the project, greater transparency and stronger safeguards,” Cameron said during the presentation.

He thanked people present at the reveal for their feedback and their holistic approach to moving forward as a community.

Cameron said the facility is designed to have no dark days but to be open year-round and to position the community for growth.

“We are now asking our community to reconsider, with more information than we previously provided – because it’s an important next step in our strategic growth plan,” Cameron said.

Mayor Jeff Schrag noted in his remarks that the center would be paid for largely by visitors who come to the city to use the convention center for their own events.

“I see Springfield today at a turning point,” Schrag said. “We have this incredible potential to make an investment in the future, but also to invest in something that we, the citizens of Springfield can use.”

He said the facility would be large enough to host robust events and activities, including homegrown events that happen in a rising metro like Springfield.

As he revealed slides of the design prepared by Populous with local architectural firm Sapp Design Associates Architects Inc., Rosenbury said he is excited about reimagining the Springfield Expo Center as a true civic center to serve the city now and in the future.

He said the form of the addition follows the sweep of the Expo Center’s facade, but in a way that is “more exuberant, more iconic and more memorable.”

“For me, and I hope for you all, it’s not hard to look at this image and see how this investment just in this area could catalyze the development of other sites in the immediate area for greater community and economic benefit,” Rosenbury said.

New tax proposal
On April 7, voters will consider another proposal for a 3% lodging tax, this one with a 35-year sunset, to fund the $175 million facility. The news release notes that the city is seeking private-sector interest in a complementary hotel development to be privately funded.

According to the release, the design includes the following:

• A 65,000-square-foot modernized exhibit hall, expanded from the existing footprint

• A 30,000-square-foot grand ballroom for banquets, ceremonies and general sessions

• A 14,000-square-foot junior ballroom for midsized events

• 16,000 square feet of breakout and meeting rooms

• A full-service kitchen and food service infrastructure

• Improved loading, rigging, lighting and production systems

• Multicourt indoor sports configurations

• Modern circulation with escalators, elevators and guest amenities

The facility is designed to be flexible to accommodate events like expos, trade shows, conventions, sports tournaments, graduations, weddings, meetings and concerts, the release states.

It adds that the goal is to make Springfield more competitive in attracting large events, according to city officials, while positioning the city for long-term economic growth.

The facility has 125,000 square feet of program space, Rosenbury said, and another 125,000 square feet will be needed for support spaces, like restrooms, kitchens and storage. He noted the 250,000-square-foot building would be the largest project built by the city since the 275,000-square-foot main terminal at the Springfield-Branson National Airport was constructed in 2009.