Its opening delayed by the pandemic, the Las Vegas Convention Center's $1 billion, 1.4 million-square-foot West Hall debuted this week with Informa Markets' World of Concrete event.
Also operational for the first time was the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, the underground transportation system developed by Elon Musk's Boring Co. It shuttled convention-goers throughout the 200-acre campus in all-electric Tesla vehicles in two parallel tunnels 40 feet underground.
The addition, which makes the Las Vegas Convention Center the second-largest meetings facility in the country, brings the total square feet of meetings space in Las Vegas to 14 million. During a normal year, the meetings and convention industry generates $11.4 billion in economic activity to the area, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
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"This convention reinvigorates our commitment to be bold in how we envision the future of infrastructure and recovery of our state, and this is only the beginning," Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "We are back in Las Vegas, and there is no better or safer place to come to have a convention than Las Vegas."
The West Hall has 600,000 square feet of exhibition space, including 328,000 square feet of column-free space. An open-air atrium features a 10,000-square-foot digital screen by Samsung. A 14,000-square-foot terrace can hold receptions of up to 2,000 attendees.