Inside the Newly Renovated Savannah Convention Center

The expansion and renovation of the Savannah Convention Center included a fresh new lobby experience.

After I arrive in Savannah, Georgia, in late April, I meander along the river walk that snakes around the edge of the Plant Riverside District. It’s nearly 4 p.m. on a Tuesday, and even though it’s midweek and late afternoon, the riverfront is buzzing. I’m pleasantly surprised to see how many people are out dining, clinking glasses, shopping, and strolling throughout the entertainment hub, which covers nearly five acres in downtown along the Savannah River.

Opened in 2020, the district feels new and novel for Savannah, a nearly 300-year-old city — America’s first planned city — where history is often the main character. Nearly 20 million people come every year to stroll its cemeteries that predate the Civil War, or to sit in the squares canopied by even older oaks, or stand in awe inside its elegant, historic churches — one of which, the First African Baptist Church, is the original place of worship for what is believed to be the oldest continually active, autonomously developed African American congregation in North America.

As I enter the main lobby of Plant Riverside District, also known as Generator Hall, I’m struck by the contrast. It feels modern and slick, and could easily double as a Smithsonian museum, with its towering Amphicoelias fragillimus dinosaur replica and jewel-toned geodes on display. Throughout the multi-building complex are remnants of its former life as a power plant built in 1912, a key piece of the site’s 10-year renovation plan that, to date, is the city’s largest and most transformative adaptive reuse development.

In Plant Riverside’s main lobby, five-million-year-old geodes sparkle under a towering replica of an Amphicoelias fragillimus dinosaur.

It’s a fitting place to kick off my two-night destination fam trip with other journalists and event professionals, courtesy of our host Visit Savannah, as major developments continue to reshape the visitor experience of this quintessential Southern city. Chief among them for groups: a major expansion and renovation of the Savannah Convention Center, the official unveiling of which is on our fam experience itinerary for the following evening.

Natural Assets

The Savannah Convention Center was our first stop the morning of our one full day of the fam trip. After a quick but hearty Southern-style breakfast with the center’s team — including F&B director Jamie Parks, who has worked at the center since it opened in 2000 — we set off on a tour. Just a little more than two months prior, the center wrapped an extensive expansion and modernization project totaling $276 million that, in addition to doubling its size to 660,000 total square feet, updated and modernized its existing spaces for a seamless experience.

According to Kelvin Moore, who joined the center as general manager in January 2024, this sets up the facility to welcome not only larger groups but accommodate a number of existing groups who are seeing consistent growth. One of the biggest reasons for those increased opportunities is the impressive bump in exhibit space — now totaling 200,000 square feet — a new 40,000-square-foot ballroom, and 14 additional meeting rooms for a new grand total of 27. A new boardroom located just off the ballroom, a 900-space parking garage, and three new on-site dining options also have been added.

The expansive Savannah Terrace is one of the highlights at the newly renovated Savannah Convention Center.

Beyond offering more square footage, the facility’s interior redesign makes the most of its valuable natural assets: the riverfront location and ample sunlight. Think floor-to-ceiling windows in lobby and prefunction spaces, outdoor terraces lined with wispy coastal grasses, and an earthy color palette of grays, blues, pops of vibrant greens, and buttery-rich wood tones throughout that help to bring the outside in.

After a brief tour at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa next door, we jumped aboard the Savannah Belles Ferry, which shuttles between the convention center’s dock on Hutchinson Island and the downtown dock every 10 minutes, 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily. It’s an easy, breezy commute, and planners should know that private ferries can be chartered for groups who need service after-hours. Citywide groups with 1,600 room nights or more may also qualify for subsidized or even complimentary water taxi and trolley service for their meeting.

Southern Charm

The ferry ride is yet another charming detail about the Savannah experience you won’t find anywhere else. And soon, there will be more reasons to consider a meeting here: Our afternoon boat excursion down the Savannah River — courtesy of Outside DMC, which specializes in the wider Lowcountry region as well as Savannah — revealed a boom of new hotels and mixed-use developments along the riverfront. A new, 400-room Signia by Hilton property will open by 2028 next door to the Savannah Convention Center, giving the center a new headquarters hotel, while across the river is the brand-new, 170-room AC Hotel by Marriott Savannah Historic District. But it’s not just the big hotel brands putting down roots in Savannah — boutique, local properties like The Bardo and the Municipal Grand from Midnight Auteur, a new hospitality company from the team behind the cult-favorite NYC bar, Death & Co., are enriching the city’s hotel portfolio and attracting attention. Destination-wide, more than 1,600 hotel rooms total are in the works.

Pedicabs, bikes, trolleys, ferries, and more make exploring Savannah easy and entertaining. Photo courtesy Geoff L Johnson Photography.

After we wrapped our leisurely cruise and enjoyed a long lunch at Vic’s on the River (a prime spot for groups, with multiple floors of dining spaces), it was time to pick up the pace. Visit Savannah split our group into pairs, challenging us to a photo scavenger hunt around the city. Thankfully, with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, we had pedicab drivers at the ready to help us cover more ground. After a whirlwind hunt through downtown (spoiler alert: my team lost), we ended the afternoon with yet another enjoyable group activity: candle making and cocktails at Sea Love, a bar and boutique where instructors, after mixing you a drink, guide you in making custom candles.

That evening, we boarded the ferry once again for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Savannah Convention Center, where Gov. Brian Kemp spoke about the growth he’s seen in the destination. “Every time I’m in this part of the state,” he said to the crowd, “it seems like there’s a groundbreaking or a ribbon cutting going on.

Jennifer N. Dienst is senior editor at Convene.

For more outtakes from the Visit Savannah fam trip, check out @pcmaconvene’s Instagram.