Houston finishes the 1,000-space GRB South garage in its $2 billion convention center overhaul

The garage replaces 1,000 of the more than 1,400 spaces lost when the Avenida South Garage was demolished six months ago, KPRC 2 reported. For now it handles crowds for Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets and a concert venue; the public and guests of the Hilton Americas-Houston get access as nearby work wraps up. Its opening also put the Avenida Central Garage, 660 spaces under Discovery Green, back in public use, and a tunnel from the Hilton to the new garage is due next year.

The bigger deliverable is GRB Houston South, a 700,000-square-foot building with two exhibition halls, a multipurpose hall that opens to the new Central Plaza and what is planned as the largest ballroom in Texas, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Its opening is set for May 2028, before the Republican National Convention comes to Houston that summer. A 100,000-square-foot open-air plaza for events will connect the convention center with Toyota Center.

Phase one construction started in April 2025. By the end of September, crews had logged over 730,000 labor hours, set over 8,100 tons of steel and placed over 33,000 cubic yards of concrete, and about $389 million had been spent, Houston First said. Later phases, including a renovation of the existing convention center, run through 2038.

The money comes from Senate Bill 1057, a 2023 state law that lets Houston keep the growth in the state's share of hotel occupancy tax collected within three miles of the convention center for 30 years. That is projected to yield nearly $2 billion, and city officials say no new local tax is needed. City Council has approved $2.3 billion in bonds for the next phase, according to the Greater Houston Partnership.