Passage of California Proposition 218, a tax containment measure, in November of 1996 necessitated yet another ballot measure this past Tuesday in San Francisco to sustain the two percent increase in the hotel tax.

With an overwhelming victory of 84% (absentee ballots remain to be counted), the people of San Francisco have voted to continue the city's current hotel tax, clearing the way for construction of a 300,000 square foot expansion to the Moscone Convention Center.

Well into the design stage, currently 50% of the construction documentation phase has been completed. The city will take legal title to all land required in February of 1999.

Demolition of structures currently on the site will take place in the summer of that year. General construction contract bidding will be done in the fall of 1999. Excavation and construction will
begin in February of 2000. The project is scheduled to be completed in February of 2003.
This third phase of the Moscone Convention Center, to be known as Moscone West, will be located on the northwest corner of Fourth and Howard Streets, facing the original Moscone Center (now called Moscone South), which opened in December of 1981 and Moscone North which opened in May of 1992.

Moscone West will offer 300,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space throughout three floors. The construction budget for the project is $191 million.

With the addition of Moscone West, overall available space at San Francisco's convention center will increase to 900,000 square feet.

"Since our last expansion, demand for meetings in San Francisco has increased dramatically and continues to grow," said John Marks, president of the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. "It's painful to have to turn away business because of a lack of available dates, space or a combination of both."

San Francisco has lost potential bookings from 127 groups in the last six years, with an estimated economic impact of over $1.2 billion. That figure does not include groups who didn't even ask about availability in San Francisco because they assumed that the convention center was booked.

"The innovative design of Moscone West is extremely flexible and can be used in a variety of exhibit and meeting configurations. This will allow us to pursue some very exciting new business, while at the same time satisfying the needs of a growing customer base," Marks added.

Moscone Convention Center is within a 20 minute walk of 18,000 first class hotel rooms, with a total of 30,575 hotel rooms available within the city limits.

The creation of Moscone Center was the catalyst for the rebirth of the South of Market area, now home to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts, the California Historical Society, the Jewish Museum of San Francisco and, coming in 2000, the Mexican Museum. South of Market is known for popular new restaurants and cutting edge nightclubs. It's also the home of "Multi Media Gulch," a center for entrepreneurs of the new technology.

Moscone West will be directly across Fourth Street from the Sony Metreon entertainment center (opening in Spring of 1999) and will face the newly opened Rooftop at Yerba Buena Gardens which is literally on the roof of the Moscone South facility. The Rooftop includes Zeum (an interactive arts and technology museum for young people), an ice rink, bowling center and the historic carousel from Playland at the Beach. The Convention Center is just seven blocks from the site of the Pacific Bell Ballpark, the new home of the San Francisco Giants, which will open in 2000.
 

For further information, contact the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau at (415) 974-6900. The Bureau also operates an office in the Washington, DC, area at (202) 466-4400 and has a joint office in Chicago with the Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau at (312) 201-9030. Visit San Francisco on the Internet at www.sfvisitor.org.