Plans for a multimillion-dollar expansion of the Cowlitz County Event Center in Longview cleared a significant hurdle last week. The PFD Board on Wednesday unanimously approved an architect's plans to add on to the Regional Conference Center with a new 4,700 sq. ft. wing to offer more meeting spaces.

These plans follow the fall completion of the new entryway off Fifth Avenue SW.

The board also gave tacit approval for the roughly $13 million in bonds needed to fund the first phase of the project, as well as a timeline for the second phase featuring big-ticket improvements still years out. In future phases, the district hopes to build a multipurpose sports complex currently estimated to cost $38 million.

Separately, but "joined at the hip" with the event center's growth, according to district board member Brian Magnuson, are efforts to foster a public-private partnership to build a new mid-price hotel near the complex to draw more regional events to the area and accommodate out-of-towners attending them.

The roughly $13 million worth of improvements for the event center will include adding on three meeting spaces including a new board room, breakout rooms, restrooms, and additional storage.

A team of architects from LSW Architects provided concept drawings for the renovation during the meeting, with final plans slated to be locked in by October.

"The biggest, most important piece of the building will be the new meeting rooms," Brent Young, a principal at the Vancouver-based architectural design firm said. Young outlined plans for flexible meeting spaces in the new wing. At least two of the three new rooms would have operable walls allowing them to open and connect to the neighboring room for larger groups and meetings.

Event Center Director Kim Bowcutt described the center as "a major part" of efforts to grow county tourism and touted the variety of events hosted the first weekend in March. That weekend the facility hosted a Jackpot beef show within the barns, a regional dog show in the expo hall, a training event for a local logging company, as well as an awards banquet for the Longview Police Department within the ballroom. "That was a huge weekend for us, a huge reflection of what this facility can do and handle all at one time," Bowcutt said.

Magnuson explained to new board members Wednesday that LSW has a design-build contract for the project. Architectural design and construction services are "joined at the hip" in the early stages of the project, and once the design is agreed upon, the district will pay a guaranteed maximum price. "So we know that we've agreed that this is what it's going to look like and that's all you got to spend," Magnuson said. The expansion will be funded by a bond sale.

District board members and staff discussed the sale Wednesday and expected to hear from Moody Analytics on the district's bond rating later this month. PFD Administrator Kurt Sacha said that he and Program Manager Bob Gregory participated in a rating analysis with the firm in late February. Although rating results were still pending as of Wednesday, Sacha said the district separately submitted a feasibility review to the state Department of Commerce that showed positive feedback. "Of course we received a positive report that said we were financially sustainable to support the debt for that phase one -- and now moving forward with the bond sale," Sacha said.

Still years out are larger plans to build a multipurpose sports and event complex at the expo and event center. The master plan outlines goals for a roughly 55,000 sq. ft. facility currently estimated to cost around $38 million that would offer indoor and outdoor sports amenities similar to the Northwest Sports Hub in Centralia. The board discussed plans to fund the project through a sales tax levy in early 2027, but Gregory said during the meeting that they still need to work with the district's design-build team on preliminary schematics and firmer construction cost estimates. Instead, Gregory said his focus has been working with consultants on a new sports market study, as the last one was done in 2015. "We're only getting one shot at this," Gregory said.

Coupled with the efforts to build a sports complex--and going back more than a decade -- is a separate effort to foster construction of a mid-price hotel near the property on land owned by the City of Longview. Magnuson also sits on the Longview Public Development Authority board set up to facilitate a public-private partnership with a hotel developer. He touted a March news report from The Chronicle which states the sports hub in Lewis County generated more than $82,000 in hotel revenue in 2025. Gregory said one of his "takeaways" from the sports market report is that the area does not currently have enough hotel rooms to support the project. "It's chicken and egg," Gregory said. "You're not going to build a hotel before you have the event center, but I think the sport facility would probably drive the economy on that.

Written by Nick Morgan for The Daily News