SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — City officials, staff and community members had wide smiles on at the ribbon cutting for the reopening of the South Padre Island Convention Center.
For one, it looks great, and the city saved $1.8 million on the renovation.
The project had a budget of $4.8 million, but ended up costing $2.9 million.
“Our convention center is smaller than most, but it’s impressive,” Mayor Barry Patel said. “We want them to have an experience that they will never forget and that’s what it’s all about.”
The ribbon cutting was held Wednesday to celebrate the grand reopening of the Island convention centre following its multimillion-dollar renovation.
“It was an outstanding ribbon cutting. We’ve had great progress of making the entire building stronger,” Patel said. “It had taken 20 years of beating.”
The renovations include a complete restructuring of the convention center foundation, solar lighting across the parking lot and outdoor landscape.
Indoor and outdoor digital signage and dynamic and vivid painting updates both interior and exterior walls and an installation of new carpeting to complement the new interior color schemes were fitted in the building.
Also a fiber optic network to strengthen WiFi signal and reliability was installed to provide visitors a reliable network.
“The new convention center renovations have strengthened the building and made it more secure and more aesthetically appealing,” Patel said. “The interior renovations provide a fresh look for our convention and meeting attendees to experience.”
Patel said the city staff did a tremendous job in completing the work on time and under budget.
“This is a project I have personally been passionate about for the last two years, and am happy to see it come to fruition in a cost-effective and efficient manner, and best of all, without incurring any new debt,” Patel said. “South Padre Island and our convention center and its staff are ready and able to handle any and all of your needs to guarantee successful meetings, conventions and events.”
