While much of the country struggles with COVID-19, cities like Memphis are using this time to renovate and enhance their existing product that includes the city’s Renasant Convention Center nearing the finishing line on a $200 Million expansion. This latest milestone was recently celebrated with the dramatic illumination of its exterior.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland joined Memphis’s Renasant Convention Center celebrates a $200 million renovation that adds impressive and flexible meeting space and a plethora of fine touches and features for the post-pandemic era.r, Renasant Bank president and CEO and Kevin Kane, Memphis Tourism president and CEO, to turn the lights on in a socially distanced setting, highlighting Renasant’s lighted logo that features prominently on the exterior of the facility, complementing the all new exterior façade, suspended over new outdoor balconies.
In order to include the local tourism and hospitality community, the November 17 event was livestreamed and two extra socially distanced watch parties were held at Lafayette’s Music Room in the Overton Square entertainment district, and the Moxy Memphis hotel property in the downtown core.
City officials and Memphis Tourism broke ground on the renovation in January of 2019 that is entering the final phase of the construction and renovation process and is starting to reveal some of its new features. The convention center now boasts 46 breakout rooms, a column free 118,000-square-foot main exhibit hall, a new exterior concourse and pre-function space, and a 28,000-square foot ballroom for smaller events. Other touches include improved acoustics, natural light, outdoor space, a grand Main Street lobby, high-end finishes and floor-to-ceiling windows that reveal stunning natural light and breathtaking river views.
The makeover also includes public art, digital wayfinding, and brand new loading docks. The orange and blue tones used throughout are intended to represent the Mississippi River, while patterns symbolize the river’s motion and area bridges.
“So much more than a renovation, the transformation of our city’s meetings facility will aid us in sustaining and growing the tourism and hospitality industry’s impressive annual economic impact,” said Kevin Kane, President & CEO of Memphis Tourism.
The Renasant Convention Center is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, with a gala grand opening celebration planned for early 2021.
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