Tourism Commission Convention Center (November 17, 2025) Proposed Recommendation — original pdf

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RECOMMENDATION FOR CONTINUATION OF AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER CONSTRUCTION City of Austin Tourism Commission Recommendation Number: 20251112-007 This recommendation from the Tourism Commission identifies the need to continue the construction of the Austin Convention Center which will help support Austin’s thriving tourism economy and long-standing cultural and tourism destinations in Austin. WHEREAS, City of Austin is recognized for its vibrant tourism and cultural arts scene and a diverse and creative community, with a decades-long history as the cultural and counter-cultural capital of Texas which enjoys the competing mantras of “'Keep Austin Weird” and the “Live Music Capital of the World”; WHEREAS, on June 25, 2018, Austin City Council adopted ORDINANCE NO. 20180614-067, establishing the Tourism Commission “to provide expertise and recommendations to the city council concerning hotel occupancy tax revenue collected by the city and issues related to and that promote tourism” and to “advise the city council on … matters relating to the allocation, investment, and budgets for the hotel occupancy tax revenue”; WHEREAS Texas Tax Code Chapter 351, Section 351.101 (a) states that “Revenue from the municipal hotel occupancy tax may be used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry”; WHEREAS, the redevelopment of the Austin Convention Center is a critical investment with longstanding public review designed to modernize Austin's infrastructure and secure its competitive position in the global meetings marketplace; 2 WHEREAS, the successful completion of this project is paramount to growing and supporting the 140,000 jobs sustained by our local tourism and hospitality sector, ensuring job security and economic stability for countless Austin residents; WHEREAS, the new, expanded facility will allow Austin to attract larger-scale conventions and multiple concurrent events that we are currently unable to accommodate, driving an estimated $15 billion economic impact on our community over the next 20 years; WHEREAS, this project is funded exclusively by visitor-paid Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) and Convention Center revenues, ensuring Austin residents' property taxes are not utilized; and the growth of the Convention Center business remains a critically viable path to significantly increasing the total HOT collections; WHEREAS, these collections, in turn, provide the vital and maximum legal allocation of funding for Austin’s Cultural Arts, Historic Preservation, and Live Music Funds; and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Austin Tourism Commission strongly supports and urges the City Council to affirm its commitment to the project's timely continuation, recognizing that pausing or delaying construction would immediately jeopardize this critical revenue stream and cause unnecessary and detrimental setbacks to our cultural and economic vitality. Date of Approval: _____________________________ Record of the vote: (Unanimous on a 7-0 vote, 4-3 vote with names of those voting “No” listed) Attest: _____________________________________________ Daniel Ronan, Chair, Austin Tourism Commission 2