Hamilton Convention Centre begins renovations with looming tight deadline

Renovations at the Hamilton Convention Centre has officially started, with project plans for the space being newly revealed.

The head-to-toe renovations will include a new café, wine bar and redesigned conference rooms, but the deadline to have it complete is tight.

The $10 million – privately funded – revamping of the space will be done section by section, so that the building remains operational through it all.

“A lot more tourism, conventions, conferences, trade shows, events and a lot more people coming to the downtown core of the city,” said Justin Joseph, the project manager.

The main lobby of the Convention Centre will be transformed to include the wine bar and a new café.

“So we will have a new coffee and wine bar that will be accessible from Summers Lane that will be open to the public 365 days a year, so one new hospitality offering that is unique,” said PJ Mercanti, CEO of Carmens Group.

The venue hosts business conferences, graduations and weddings. With a lot of catered events, the new design will feature a rooftop garden.

“We want to produce all the herbs and vegetables, or a lot of the herbs and spices and some vegetables on the rooftop,” said Mercanti. “We want to have a beehive as well, so we have a lot of signature menu items that incorporate honey, so we want to produce our own honey.”

Carmens Group currently operates the Convention Centre. The centre’s general manager says besides the new look, and added features, upgraded technology will draw in more events.

“The technology has to be next level,” said Vince Bozzo, the centre’s general manager. “So I think Justin mentioned it, but we are going to have a few of the rooms that are going to be high-tech rooms – plug and play. We want our clients to be able to come in here and plug in their laptop and presentation and the room is ready to go.”

The Juno Music Awards will be coming to Hamilton in March of 2026, and some of those events will be held at the Convention Centre.

The people organizing the big renovation said this building will definitely be ready for those events.

A project update released in October, reads that the Convention Centre renovations are planned to finish by December of this year.

“We are going to be rocking in time for the Junos,” said Mercanti. “We have an ambitious schedule but the design team has been working with our operations team, so we are confident we will be able to get everything done in time.”

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