Raleigh Convention Center’s $425 million expansion plan would move Red Hat Amphitheater

Red Hat Amphitheater was always meant to be a temporary downtown fixture until the Raleigh Convention Center expanded.

But the nearly 6,000-seat music venue became a signature attraction for downtown Raleigh that city officials felt had to stay.

“It was meant to be just a placeholder,” said Kerry Painter, the executive director of the Raleigh Convention Center. “It is now a boutique (amphitheater) that is world renowned. Artists love Red Hat. They put it on their tours.”

Raleigh officials have finalized a plan that would move Red Hat over a block to the unpaved parking lot behind the Lenoir Street Parking Garage and let the convention center expand to where Red Hat sits now.

“They want to come here,” Painter said. “They want to be here. And we love that it is an urban (amphitheater). It’s just different. You get to see the skyline and be downtown.”

Downtown restaurants and businesses also love Red Hat and are busy on concert days, she said.

“Every day that there’s a concert, the restaurants are seeing business from it and economic impact,” she said. “And that really is our job. So that’s exciting to know that not only are we serving with fun, but we’re helping keep downtown vibrant. So we’re going to take that (amphitheater), we’re going to slide it over.”

Painter shared renderings of the new convention center during the Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday afternoon.

The proposed $425 million expansion would add a second building where the amphitheater currently sits with a walkway between the two buildings. It would add more than 500,000 square feet of meeting space and 30 additional breakout rooms, all of which would double the current capacity of the convention center. The plan would also close Lenoir Street between McDowell and Dawson streets

“Last year we set an all-time record for the number of hotel room nights booked in downtown Raleigh, thanks to a packed schedule of conventions, shows and other events,” Painter said in a news release. “This is a marker of success but also an indication that we can do even more. The truth is, we turned away business because we simply didn’t have room, not to mention the potential clients who weren’t even able to consider us due to our limited capacity. More space means more dollars spent at all of our surrounding and supporting businesses.”

Funding for the expansion would come from the interlocal fund, which collects hospitality taxes to be used for tourism related expenses like PNC Arena and the local tourism bureau.

The funds are limited and other organizations, like PNC Arena, are also seeking the funds for renovations and expansions. The Raleigh City Council and the Wake County Board of Commissioners will vote on how to spend that tourism money sometime before the start of the new fiscal year, on July 1, 2023.