Las Vegas convention center renovation nears completion
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Las Vegas will soon be welcoming 1.9 million visitors a year which convention officials say wouldn't be possible without their newest multimillion-dollar renovation.
A tour of the $600 million investment into the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Central Hall showcased the new lights, LED screens, and roofing budgeted ten years ago.
'We stayed within budget,' Steve Hill, LVCVA president and CEO, said. 'But we did that by cutting out some of the work that we still need to do.'
The eye-catching feature of the expansion, the 'ribbon roof', spreads from the West Hall to the Central Hall which covers the new 30 percent increase in space, according to Hill.
'When we have the full renovation done, we will have moved from 1.9 million square feet to two and a half million square feet,' he said. 'It's about a 30% increase in space, and we want to at least have a 30% increase in the economic activity.'
Hill said the job creation which will come from the renovation is attributed to the thousands of construction positions and ancillary hospitality positions in the community.
'We employ about 300,000 people directly in the hospitality industry,' he said. 'The meetings part of the hospitality industry is about a quarter of that employment, about 70,000 jobs.'
Amid overall decreasing visitation numbers for Las Vegas, Hill balked at any doubt of continued long-term growth for convention visitors.
'The convention group-trade show industry is about a sixth of the visitation to Las Vegas,' he said. 'And it has held its own this year, it has been a foundation for the city to build from.'
Work on the Central Hall is expected to be completed by September with overall convention campus work done by December of 2025.
Hill said the numbers show the better return of investment for Las Vegas is in convention visitors—pointing to averages spent per visit.
'The average visitor to Las Vegas spends about $1,200 per trip,' he said. 'The average convention attendee spends about a third more than that, they're in the $1,600 range… I've said this often, if we didn't have the strength of the meeting industry here, Las Vegas couldn't look like what Las Vegas looks like.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TechCrunch
32 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Jony Ive's LoveFrom helped design Rivian's first electric bike
Lovefrom, the creative firm founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, played a role in the development of Rivian's first electric bike, according to multiple sources who spoke to TechCrunch. For about 18 months, a handful of LoveFrom staff worked alongside Rivian's design team and engineers within a skunkworks program led by Specialized's former chief product and technology officer Chris Yu. LoveFrom's work on the micromobility project ended in fall 2024, according to the sources. LoveFrom and Rivian declined to comment. Rivian's skunkworks program, which eventually grew to a team of about 70 people hailing from Apple, Google, Specialized, Tesla, REI Co-Op, spun out earlier this year with a new name and $105 million in funding from Eclipse Ventures. The micromobility startup, called Also, has yet to show off its first vehicle designs. In interviews with TechCrunch, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe (who is on Also's board) and Yu were cagey about what the new company's first vehicle would look like. 'There's a seat, and there's two wheels, there's a screen, and there's a few computers and a battery,' Scaringe said in March. He has also said it will be 'bike-like,' a description confirmed by sources. But both Scaringe and Yu spoke of a much bigger vision for Also, one where it could theoretically tackle almost any imaginable micromobility form factor. The new company is supposed to reveal its first designs at an event later this year. An Also spokesperson declined to comment about its bike or any connection to LoveFrom. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW When the electric 'bike' is revealed, it's possible that Ive's fingerprints will be all over it. Ive is best-known for being the design force behind the iPhone and myriad other Apple products, and most recently, his work with Sam Altman and OpenAI. But his collaboration with Rivian is not his first foray into the transportation industry. The parent company of Ferrari announced in 2021 that Ive's firm would help develop the Italian supercar manufacturer's next-generation vehicles. Ive was also involved with Apple's secretive car project. He was reportedly one of the main proponents for centering Apple's long-running car project around autonomy, whereas other people inside the company pushed for a more traditional electric car. Apple abandoned that project early last year. Sources told TechCrunch that Ive's LoveFrom has acted as a consultant for Rivian in the past, including on the company's redesigned infotainment system and retail, among other areas, according to two former employees with knowledge of the relationship. But its involvement in what would become Also was a more structured and dedicated effort, another source familiar with the relationship said. The skunkworks program began taking shape in early 2022 with a directive to explore whether Rivian's EV technology could be condensed down into something smaller and more affordable than its electric vans, trucks, and SUVs. Initially, the small team worked with Rivian designers to develop a product that could scale to different types of vehicles. A key design challenge was how to make the bike-like product modular while still maintaining the elevated aesthetics Rivian has become known for. By the time LoveFrom got involved in the project in early 2023, a lot of work had been completed, according to sources who said they helped refine the prototypes. The relationship was described as a 'pretty tight' collaboration between the skunkworks team, LoveFrom's staff, and the industrial designers based out of Rivian's headquarters in Irvine. This group looked at everything including the user interface and UX for the bike. The industrial design team at LoveFrom, which has a lot of experience with thoughtful and clever packaging, was particularly involved, according to one source, who noted the team brought an interdisciplinary and international perspective to the project.
Medscape
33 minutes ago
- Medscape
Contraceptives for Poorest Countries Stuck in Warehouses After US Aid Cuts
LONDON (Reuters) -Contraceptives that could help prevent millions of unwanted pregnancies in some of the world's poorest countries are stuck in warehouses because of U.S. aid cuts and could be destroyed, two aid industry sources and one former government official said. The stock, held in Belgium and Dubai, includes condoms, contraceptive implants, pills and intrauterine devices, together worth around $11 million, the sources told Reuters. It has been stalled since the Trump administration started cutting foreign aid as part of its 'America First' policy in February, as the U.S. government no longer wants to donate the contraceptives or pay the costs for delivery, they said. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has instead asked the contractor managing its health supply chain, Chemonics, to try to sell it, two of the sources said. An internal USAID memo, sent in April, said a quantity of contraceptives was being kept in warehouses and they should be "immediately transferred to another entity to prevent waste or additional costs". A senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters no decision had been made about the future of the contraceptives. They did not respond to questions about the reasons why the contraceptives were in storage or the impact of the U.S. aid cuts and delays. A spokesperson for Chemonics said they were unable to comment on USAID's plans, but added that the company is working with clients to deliver life-saving aid globally and would continue to support the U.S. government's global health supply chain priorities. The stock represents just under 20% of the supply of contraceptives bought annually by the U.S. for donation overseas, a former USAID official told Reuters. Selling or donating the contraceptives has been challenging, according to the former USAID official, although talks are ongoing. Another option on the table is destroying it, at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. As time goes on, shelf-lives will also become an issue, one of the sources said. The sources told Reuters that one of the key delays is a lack of response from the U.S. government about what should be done with the stock. It had been destined largely for vulnerable women in sub-Saharan Africa, including young girls who face higher health risks from early pregnancy as well as those fleeing conflict or who otherwise could not afford or access the contraceptives, the sources added. The condoms also help stop the spread of HIV, the former USAID official said. "We cannot dwell on an issue for too long; when urgency and clarity don't align, we have to move on," said Karen Hong, chief of UNFPA's supply chain. She said the agency is now working on Plan B to help fill critical supply gaps. (Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
WIRED
34 minutes ago
- WIRED
'100% Stupid': MAGA World Is Cautiously Turning on Elon Musk
Much of the right-wing media ecosystem appeared unsure how to react to the seeming public implosion of the relationship between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on Thursday and into Friday morning. Outlets and influencers that typically react savagely to criticism of Trump played the spat more or less down the middle. Even much of the criticism of Musk was relatively genteel. 'He's gotta let Trump be Trump,' former Fox News host Eric Bolling said on Steve Bannon's broadcast network, Real America's Voice. 'You can be First Bro,' he said of Musk, 'but you can't be de facto president." Behind the scenes, they tell WIRED, Republican operatives could not help but be entertained at the torrent of messages flooding their group chats. They tended to take Trump's side. One Trumpworld consultant tells WIRED that the entire episode reminded them of a line in a recent Wall Street Journal report, about how Trump had privately described Musk as '50% genius, 50% boy.' 'After today,' the consultant says, 'I think he's just 100% stupid.' (Musk did not immediately reply to a request for comment.) While Musk had been railing against the Republican budget reconciliation package formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for several days on X, things turned ugly once Trump denounced the billionaire during an Oval Office appearance on Thursday with the German chancellor Friedrich Merz. 'Elon and I had a great relationship,' Trump said. 'I don't know if we will anymore.' Musk subsequently agreed with an X user who called for the president's impeachment. Still, some presented the conflict as a positive thing, even while calling for it to end.
