$150 Million Convention Center Eyed For North Dakota Oil Patch

The Prime Group is asking Williston to finance $40 million for the freestanding convention hall itself, which as designed would evoke clusters of North Dakota's shale rock from which more than 1 million barrels of oil are pulled each month.

A new convention center could prove popular with the scores of oil and natural gas companies and their suppliers with offices in Williston, considered the de facto capital of the North Dakota oil boom.

Breugelmans said he hopes to break ground in early 2015 on the convention center, with construction taking about 15 to 18 months. The project won't take off without public financing though, he said.

With roughly $1.05 billion in planned infrastructure projects through 2020, it's unclear how Williston would pay for the project or whether it would prefer to divert funds to other projects, including a proposed new airport.

Howard Klug, Williston's newly elected mayor and president of the Williston Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he supports the concept of a new convention space in the city, but he has not yet decided whether to support Breugelmans' project.

Klug has formed a committee to study the idea of a new convention center and potential funding. He expects that study to be done by year's end, but doubts residents would accept a new sales tax to fund the project.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Andrew Hay)


12

View Full Article

WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.


Most Popular Articles