The Polk County Board of Supervisors will try to decide in the next 45 days whether to expand the Iowa Events Center by renovating Veterans Memorial Auditorium and moving out of the Polk County Convention Complex.

The decision was made at a meeting this morning in which RDG Planning & Design presented two options for Vets Auditorium.

The first would add a 30,000-square-foot ballroom to the east side of the arena and about 14 meeting rooms on a second level, with the possibility of expanding the second level to the west in the future. The second option would add a ballroom and renovate the lobby on the west side of the building and add 14 meeting rooms and a junior ballroom on the second level. Under both options, enough arena space would be left for an exhibit hall and some smaller sporting events, with the addition of bleacher space to seat about 1,500.

The first plan would cost about $30.2 million, with expansion in the future estimated to cost $13.4 million; the result would be about the same size as the current convention space at the Plex. The larger renovation would cost about $41.8 million.

RDG presented the proposal to renovate Veterans Auditorium to meet the Events Center’s convention space needs in December. At that time, the estimated cost for renovation was $32.7 million, cheaper than constructing an addition to the south of the Events Center complex.

The county plans to pay for the expansion by refinancing its current debt on the Events Center and extending its payments. It currently pays about $15 million per month and could refinance up to $55 million without increasing its monthly payments.

Matt Homan, general manager of the Events Center, and Greg Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, both pushed for the larger expansion, which they said would make the city’s convention facilities far more competitive with nearby cities such as Minneapolis and Kansas City.

Homan predicted that the smaller expansion would add about $1 million in annual gross revenues to the Events Center’s $8 million budget and the larger plan would add $2 million. This includes $500,000 per year in operational efficiencies the Events Center would save by consolidating its convention space. To continue to use the Plex would require about $20 million in renovations, Homan added.

“My concern is if we’re going to spend this kind of money, I want to make sure we’ve got adequate space to serve the marketplace for the foreseeable future,” said Supervisor E.J. Giovannetti.

“We can’t stop development because of the rest of the world,” said board chair Angela Connolly said, who urged the board to move forward with a decision on the project.

RDG predicted it would take seven to eight months of design work and another 30 days for bidding before the county could begin construction.