Balfour Beatty to build $1b convention center expansion in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Balfour Beatty has signed a $780 million construction agreement with Matthews Southwest to serve as design-build lead for the expansion of the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and new construction of an 800-room, four-diamond Omni Hotel. With enabling projects under way, the project will significantly increase Broward County’s meetings, convention and exhibition capacity.

The project will add more than 525,000 square feet of meeting space to the existing Broward County Convention Center. When complete, the expanded convention center will feature more than 1.2 million square feet of event space, including 350,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space, a new 65,000-square-foot waterfront ballroom, the latest in technology, new dining concepts, enhanced water taxi access and an iconic waterfront plaza with public access.