Quote Originally Posted by Spartan View Post
Cleveland is constructing a Medical Mart Convention Center, which is basically a convention center geared more toward research and medical symposiums to take advantage of the Cleveland Clinic and area medical schools up there, and the site has striking similarities to our proposed CC. The footprint is actually even smaller as it only takes up a single block, and the exhibition hall is underground beneath several blocks - the total cost was over $465 million. Cleveland's facility has 230,000 sf of exhibition space, 90,000 sf of meeting space, and a 30,000 sf ballroom. That is strikingly similar to what is planned for ours. Bear in mind that the whole reason we are embarking on this project is because we only have 100,000 sf of contiguous exhibition space and want several times that in the end.

I think there are some staggering questions about how our city expects to pull off the concept at $280 million. And do it in a way that is sensitive to the central park that we are breaking up. And to the boulevard that we are literally bending to create more space. And the other disparate parts that make up downtown that we are sacrificing for the holy convention gods.
Cleveland's development is not just a convention center. It is a convention center PLUS a medical mart. The medical mart is included in Spartan's quoted $465 million construction cost. But the Medical Mart is NOT included in the square footage Spartan quoted. The Medical Mart adds an additional 235,000 square feet to the project, and I would speculate that the medical mart will be more expensive per square foot then the convention center space.

Plus, Spartan left out the 11,000 square foot junior ballroom.

So... Total square footage according to Spartan: 350,000
Actual Total square footage: 596,000

If Cleveland's 350,000 square foot convention center is strikingly similar to what is planned for ours, we appear to be right on track. At the dollars/square foot that Cleveland is spending on their convention center and medical mart, a 350,000 square foot convention center should cost us just a bit over $273 million. So much for Spartan's "staggering questions" about OKC's $280 million budget.