Groundbreaking held for Indiana Convention Center expansion and 40-story hotel

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis is rolling out more orange barrels downtown.

There’s new construction for the Indiana Convention Center expansion and a 40-story Signia by Hilton Hotel.

On Tuesday, dozens of people celebrated the groundbreaking downtown near the Indiana Convention Center.

“Restaurants, a spa, and more room to grow. All this is connected to the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium. I’m very excited,” the Executive Director of the Capital Improvement Board, Andy Mallon, said.

Officials say the expansion includes a large ballroom and more event space so there can be two citywide conventions at once.

A skywalk will connect the new space with the existing building.

The 40-story hotel will have around 800 rooms transforming the skyline as the tallest hotel in the city.

It’ll be built near the Pan Am Tower at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Georgia Street.

Community leaders say the changes will draw more big events to the city.

“We need to keep growing our ability to welcome larger and larger events. We can’t afford to wait until some of those big names choose somewhere else to meet because we couldn’t accommodate them,” the president of the Indianapolis City-County Council, Vop Osili, said.

Mallon says it will make a positive impact on the economy without any financial burden to taxpayers.

“There’s a whole litany of investment that the city has put in to make that convention space possible and to help pay for that,” Mallon said. “We have an amazing downtown that we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars just on this project alone, but over the course of the next five years, nine billion dollars in investment to improve downtown.”

“What we can do and have become skilled at doing is building public-private partnerships that drive responsible development from which our entire community benefits,” Osili said.

The co-owner of the Slippery Noodle Inn, Sean Lothridge, says he’s looking forward to the new growth.

“Anytime the city does any expansion to the convention center, hotel, or landscape is great for our business. We love it. They’ve done a nice job with big conventions like Gen Con and NFL Combine, firefighters, all these great conventions that bring a lot of business to the Slippery Noodle,” Lothridge said.

Construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.