The $700-million expansion to Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Convention Center is getting closer to reality, after unanimous board approval for a labor agreement that assures minority participation in the construction. The city will now be able to start seeking bids on the delayed project this month. Under the agreement, the building-trade unions will aim for a demographic makeup that includes 50 percent city residents, 25 percent African-American workers, 10 percent Hispanic-American workers, 5 percent Asian-American workers, and 10 percent female workers.
The city's unions have been criticized in the past for not including more minorities in their memberships. Under the city council's threat of allowing non-union companies to bid on the expansion contractworth about $100 millionthe unions agreed to not only commit to a workforce comprised of about 40 percent minority workers for the convention center project, but to work on long-term diversity plans with the newly established Mayor's Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity.
The labor agreement, which was approved by the city council on Feb. 4, has reportedly been signed by the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Union and will take effect once the chosen contractor signs as well.
The agreement seems to have come just in time, as delays were starting to jeopardize the center's future bookings. As reported in the
Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau President Tom Muldoon said, "We have already canceled six major conventions for 2010.We stopped selling 2010 six months ago. We have quietly walked away from 2010.We are beginning to lose our credibility."
Construction on the expansion is now set to begin in the fall and be completed by the end of 2010. With the new agreement in place and construction drawing nearer, Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Board Chairman Buck Riley told the board that he was seeing renewed interest in the center from groups that currently use New York City's Jacob K. Javits Center.
"They say, 'Get it open, and we'll be there,'" he said. "The buzz is starting to go around. It has been, 'They'll never get it done.' Now it's getting to be a big deal in the industry."
Originally published March 10, 2008