Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center

This 215,000 sq. ft. convention center located in the heart of downtown Anchorage is the foundation of the growing convention industry in Alaska. The need and hope for a facility like this had been around for over two decades, and yet the project never seemed to move beyond the hope stage. An innovative collaboration of private development and governmental agencies orchestrated by Jerry Neeser, his partners, and the municipal government took the convention center from hope to reality. While development and owner-builder contracts were hammered out, NCI assessed the potential risks of proceeding on good faith. Knowing that it would save a full construction season, they decided that the project would be best served by maintaining the design-build momentum.

The building is a concrete and steel structure with a shell that combines precast concrete architectural panels with an insulated, architectural metal panel system. The building plate took up the entire usable site area, making on-site material storage impossible. Because of this, materials were staged at off-site locations around the area and deliveries were scheduled down to the minute in many cases. Exceptional management, attention to detail and cost, and a dedicated crew of tradespeople helped to complete this quality facility well ahead of schedule while returning close to $5 million in contingencies back to the owner.