$250K grant offered for exhibition center

GRAND CHUTE - Tourism leaders in the Fox Valley have given money to design a proposed exhibition center in downtown Appleton.

The Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau announced Wednesday it has awarded a $250,000 grant to the city of Appleton. Money comes from the bureau’s Tourism Development Fund. The grant is contingent on the land being purchased and the Radisson paper Valley Hotel committing to operate and staff the exhibition center.

Plans call for the exhibition center to be built behind the hotel in downtown Appleton. The city has budgeted $3.4 million dollars to buy and develop the site, which is currently owned by Outagamie County.

The exhibition center board has selected the architectural firm Zeidler Partnership Inc. to work on the design. Design work itself is estimated to cost $287,000, with a total cost of design and engineering, including telecommunications, lighting, acoustics and graphics estimated at just less than $1.3 million.

Officials hope to finish the center by 2014.