After 12 Years of Planning, the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas Opens Its Doors

IRVING, Texas, Jan. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Following more than 12 years of planning, the critical missing piece to Irving's travel industry has arrived with the opening of the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. The center introduces a high-end meetings venue for the city's corporate community, a site for key civic events and a generator for consumer shows.

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The $133 million, copper-clad Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas is a 275,000 square-foot multi-functional building with a 50,000 square-foot, column-free exhibit hall; 20,000 square-foot ballroom; and 20,000 square feet of breakout meeting space. The center's unique stacked layout enables Irving to simultaneously host sporting events, corporate and trade meetings, and civic functions.

"The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas is tailor-made for the market that we excel in - business," said Irving Mayor Herbert A. Gears. "And it provides us with another opportunity to bring more visitors to our city."

State of the City, the first civic event at the new center, will be held tonight. Mayor Gears will address community, civic and business leaders, highlighting Irving's achievements, developments and progress.

An official ribbon cutting for the Irving Convention Center will be held tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 28 at 10 a.m. At that time, the center's first open-to–the-public event, ZestFest 2011 begins, running through Sunday, Jan. 30.

ZestFest, a 14-year-old fiery food festival, founded and sponsored by Chile Pepper magazine of Fort Worth, features cooking demos by celebrity chefs, live music, interactive contests and thousands of bold food samples. 

"We are fired-up, pun intended, to have a festival with a proven track record as the first consumer event in the Irving Convention Center," said Maura Allen Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau.  "ZestFest kicks-off what will be a month-long line-up of impressive opening events."

Tickets for ZestFest are $10 each; children 10 and under are free when accompanied with a ticket-holding adult. Admission tickets will be available for purchase at the convention center box office on days of the event. For more information, visit www.zestfest2011.com.

The Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas is located at 500 W. Las Colinas Blvd., where Highway 114 and Northwest Highway meet. For more information, contact Diana Pfaff at 972-401-7722, via e-mail at [email protected], or visit www.irvingconventioncenter.com.

SOURCE Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau