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This Just In

Boston Convention Center Gets Green Light for Big Consumer Shows

TSE STAFF

Boston, MA – After a ten-year booking ban, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) was given the green light to begin signing up large consumer shows at the facility. Requests For Information (RFIs) have been issued to consumer show producers that are interested in putting on events at the center starting in 2007. The BCEC opened in June 2004 with 516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space and is the largest facility of its kind in the New England market.

James Rooney, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA), said the state Legislature agreed in August to lift its ban on consumer shows at the convention center as long as the events are larger than 250,000 gross square feet. The center had previously been off limits to consumer shows by law in order to control traffic in the neighborhood and to protect the turf of two private facilities in the area. But consumer show producers had lobbied hard to keep and grow their events in Boston. The MCCA said traffic-management planning had developed to the point that large consumer shows were now tenable. With the new minimum size requirements of 250,000 gross square feet, any consumer shows booked  would be too large for the private buildings to accommodate anyway.

MCCA Executive Director James Rooney said that the lifting of the ban would allow the convention center to bring in events of a specified size and scope currently not held in Massachusetts.

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center has parking for 1,600 vehicles on-site; offsite-parking capacity is approximately 11,700 spaces.  The facility has a loading dock with 62 bays, including five with drive-on access. There are 84 meeting rooms, a 40,020 square-foot ballroom plus 300,000 square feet of function and registration space.

Reach James Rooney at (617) 954-2470.

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