Silicon Valley's biggest indoor room spent its first decade losing business to San Francisco. The San Jose McEnery Convention Center at 150 West San Carlos Street opened in 1989, a 147-million-dollar, Mitchell/Giurgola-designed complex approved by Mayor Tom McEnery in 1983 and renamed in his honour in 1991. The design put three column-free halls totalling 140,000 square feet above a half-sunken 1,200-car garage, with bow trusses carried on service-spine piers and ramps running trucks directly onto the exhibit floor from eleven loading docks. Early years underperformed - Valley companies kept choosing the larger Moscone Center - so the fix came in stages: the tent-like 80,000-square-foot South Hall in 2005, then a hotel-tax-funded, 130-million-dollar renovation and expansion completed on time and on budget in October 2013. The 2013 project lifted the total to about 550,000 square feet and replaced the undersized ballroom with a 35,000-square-foot grand ballroom built on the site of the old main library, adding meeting rooms and outdoor plazas while the centre kept operating. The events mix leans to the Valley's own industries - developer conferences, gaming and anime conventions, product launches - alongside the banquet trade, with seating for 5,000 diners and 31 meeting rooms handling the breakout scale tech events demand. Team San Jose runs the centre as the hub of a downtown venue cluster - the Civic, Montgomery Theater, California Theatre and Center for the Performing Arts all within blocks - putting convention delegates a short walk from every stage in the city. The complex connects directly to the Hilton and Marriott towers and sits two blocks from the San Jose Museum of Art and the Tech Interactive, with VTA light rail stopping at the door - walkability that lets the city pitch a car-free convention, rare for a California second market.

Type: Indoor Event Space

Address: 150 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA, United States, 95113

Website: https://www.sanjose.org/convention-center

Opening Date: 01/01/1989

Serves Food

Accessible