Grand Opening Held For New Main Entrance Of Pa. Convention Center
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The majestic new Broad Street entrance of the Pennsylvania Convention Center is now open.
Inside, an opening ceremony for the newly expanded, $786-million expansion to the convention center was held today.
"Welcome! To the brand new Convention Center!" shouted Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.
Buck Riley, chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority (right), says completing this project was no easy task.
"We had to get some money. The Pennsylvania legislature and its leadership, they entrusted us with 700 million dollars," he notes.
But Riley says that when they got that $700 million, the Convention Center expansion project plans were not yet complete: "And my second thank-you is to the hoteliers of the city of Philadelphia. They agreed to be taxed, which allowed us to come up with the other 86 million dollars."
Reported by Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio 1060.
