Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 00:52:00

Elvis played the flying-saucer arena, Bob Hope worked the ten-day opening festivities, and the whole complex stands on the razed remains of Hell's Half Acre - Fort Worth's notorious red-light district. The Fort Worth Convention Center at 1201 Houston Street opened on 30 September 1968 as the Tarrant County Convention Center, after fourteen blocks of the old vice district were cleared from the southern end of downtown. The 18-million-dollar complex was the county's answer to Dallas's convention trade, its domed arena - a genuine mid-century spaceship of a building - hosting the Ice Capades first, then decades of concerts, rodeo dates and sports. The city bought the complex from the county for 16 million dollars in 1997, renamed it, and expanded it substantially in 2003, when the old JFK Theatre gave way to new exhibit space and the Water Gardens events plaza. Today the center fields about 209,000 square feet of prime exhibit space, a 28,000-square-foot ballroom, 28 breakout rooms and the 13,000-seat multi-purpose arena, hosting conventions, trade shows, graduations and touring events at the foot of Houston Street's downtown spine, directly across from the Fort Worth Water Gardens. It is also mid-transformation. A 700-million-dollar, two-phase overhaul began in 2023: Phase 1 - straightening Commerce Street, rebuilding loading docks and kitchens - completed in late 2025, and Phase 2 will demolish the beloved flying-saucer arena to add a doubled ballroom, 97,000 square feet of new exhibit halls and 48,000 square feet of meeting rooms by around 2030, remaking the building for a convention market that has outgrown it. For visitors the location is the win: Sundance Square's restaurants and bars begin two blocks north, the Water Gardens sit across the street, and Molly the Trolley links the hotels. Garage parking surrounds the complex, and the TEXRail airport line terminates a short walk away.