Convention Center to Throw Public Party

Think of it as moving into an almost completed new house. You can use the bathrooms and the living room, but forget the kitchen and the outdoor patio. Now picture more than 100,000 people dropping in for a visit.

That’s akin to what the people at the San Diego Convention Center are faced with as they prepare to formally open the new $160-million facility Friday morning, the first day of what’s billed as a weekend-long “Community Celebration” ending late Sunday afternoon.

The center may be rough around the edges, but workers will be toiling around the clock to finish and polish what they can (cleaning, hammering and carpet laying were going full-bore Tuesday) for grand-opening ceremonies starting at 11 a.m. Friday. The center will be open from noon until 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

“The opening of the San Diego Convention Center is an event that has been long awaited by many people,” said James Granby, president of the Convention Center Corp. “It’s only fitting that the citizens of this community be the first to enjoy it.”

The first event at the center actually took place Tuesday night, at a party for 700 put on by the San Diego Unified Port District, the agency paying for the center’s construction. The food was trucked in, though, as it will be when the first paying guests arrive, because the center’s huge kitchen will not be ready for another month. Also waiting for completion next month is the 107,000-square-foot floor under the center’s distinctive Teflon-coated tent roof.

Other than those areas, though, most of the center will be open for inspection by the public, and, with the exception of food sales, just about everything else, from admission to the entertainment, will be free. If center officials are correct and more than 100,000 people show up over the three days, parking could present a problem. A series of outlying parking lots serviced by free shuttle buses have been reserved.

The first 100,000 people who show up will be given a free color poster of the center, donated by Union Bank, and the Convention Center Corp. will pass out another 200,000 commemorative buttons, as well as balloons. Convention center officials estimate that as many as 160,000 people will attend the opening, but they concede that is only a guess.

The 254,000-square-foot main floor of the center will contain about 1,000 display booths, given over to nonprofit groups and government agencies. Also on display will be military equipment such as an armored personnel carrier landing craft, a helicopter and plane, fire trucks, classic cars and the city’s new 50-foot portable jail.

Entertainment, ranging from an Irish tenor to African dancers, will be held throughout the three days inside the center and in the outdoor amphitheater facing the bay. Fireworks shows are set for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

“The building is not totally done, but we’re going to put on the best program we can,” said Convention Center Corp. spokeswoman Donna Alm.

Many of the city’s civic leaders are expected at the opening ceremonies outside the front of the center on Harbor Drive, and the King Committee for Justice is expected to picket, protesting that the center was not named after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader. The King issue sparked a political debate that ended when the Board of Port Commissioners voted against the name change last summer.

The committee wants a woman, a Latino and a black appointed to the Board of Port Commissioners, which is now made up of seven white male appointees, as well as more jobs and contracts for minorities at the Port District.