Worcester Business Journal

18 Worcester Business Journal | March 18, 2019 | wbjournal.com BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor T he DCU Center in Worces- ter, with an arena nearing four decades in age and a convention center two decades old, is in line for as much as nearly $37 million worth of upgrades in the coming few years. e overhaul will include interior fixes such as new seating and exterior fixes aimed at making the building's outside more visually appealing through better landscaping. Improvements will be both noticeable to guests, like a planned new arena sound system, and less so, like roof repairs and an electrical vault renovation in the convention center. e planned improvements will address wear-and-tear and keep up with nearby arenas and meeting halls, like the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, the XL Center in Hartford and the MassMutual Center in Springfield. e improvements will keep the DCU Center on top of trends in the industry, such as having redundant Wi-Fi systems – something never been considered when the arena opened in 1981, said Sandy Dunn, the center's general manager. "ere's three areas there," she said of each of those areas of focus, "and I think the city tries to do a blend on those." Worcester's Civic Center Commis- sion, which oversees the DCU Center, hired the Boston sports architecture firm Populous to assess the facility's condition in 2016 and help guide a plan for the coming years. e firm looked at how the DCU Center compared to modern arena features today. Some improvements have already been made, including upgrading an electrical vault and – much more notice- ably for visitors – installing better Wi-Fi. Keeping up with competition Further back, the arena replaced the rink's ice surface in 2009. What was con- sidered the arena's first major renovations took place in 2013, with a new concourse and modernized entry on Foster Street, and new suites for hosting parties. e 14,800-seat arena has been kept up well enough to host collegiate tour- naments, including NCAA men's hock- ey regional finals in 2012 and 2018. It last hosted the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 2005, an honor more recently gone to Boston's TD Garden in 2012 and 2018, and to the Dunkin' Donuts Center in 2010 and 2016. e XL Center will host this year for the first time since 1998, aer Connecticut's state government devoted $35 million to renovations. John Harrity, the chair of the city's Civ- ic Center Commission, hopes the most recent renovations, along with more nearby hotel rooms since when Worcester last hosted the basketball tournament, can draw March Madness back. "at was a big, big weekend for Worcester, and the spin-off was excellent," he said. Competing venues have been upgraded, too. In addition to the XL Center's improvements, the Dunkin' Donuts Center, which opened in 1973, underwent an $80-million renovation in 2008 included replacing all seats, adding 20 luxury suites and an expanded lobby. TD Garden in Boston underwent a $40-million upgrade in 2014, and a planned expansion worth $100 million was unveiled last year. e meeting business has gotten more competitive since DCU Center's con- vention center was added in 1997 with 100,000 square feet of space. e Boston Convention & Exhibi- tion Center opened in 2004 with 2.1 million square feet. e Connecticut Convention Center opened in Hartford a year later with 540,000 square feet of space, as did the 100,000-square-foot MassMutual Convention Center in Springfield. Just last year, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut opened an $80-million expansion of its convention space now Sandy Dunn, general manager, DCU Center PHOTO/TMS AERIAL SOLUTIONS F O C U S M E E T I N G S G U I D E & G O L F D I R E C T O R Y e DCU Center is prepping $37M in upgrades to stand out among increasingly competitive arenas The arena arms race

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