The Winnipeg Convention Centre unveiled its plan for expansion Thursday, a move that will provide much more convention space and add a hotel to the downtown site.

The $210-million expansion project, financed with $195 million from three governments, would see the convention centre expanded over York Street into what is now a vacant parking lot.

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Caption: The expanded Winnipeg Convention Centre is depicted in a conceptual drawing released at Thursday's press event. ((Winnipeg Convention Centre/LM Architectural Group))

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When it first opened in 1975, the centre, with 160,000 square feet of meeting space over three floors, was the first of its kind in Canada.

But today it has fallen behind facilities in many other Canadian cities — and that has resulted in lost revenue for the centre and the spinoff economy, such as hotels, retailers and taxi companies, officials with the centre say.

The lot will help increase the total space to about 307,000 square feet, including one new room with a pillarless space as large as the entire centre is now.

On top of the expanded centre would be a hotel at least 10 storeys tall, based on conceptual drawings released Thursday.

Officials said the expansion will bring more than $20 million in taxes and other benefits each year to the city through hotel sales and business for merchants.

The city will contribute close to $65 million for the project. The rest of the money will come from the federal and provincial governments — $70 million and $60 million, respectively — and the convention centre itself will contribute $16.4 million.

Meanwhile, Mayor Sam Katz says the days of the centre receiving government subsidies are numbered. The centre now receives about $2 million a year in government help to cover operating costs.

Three years after the project is complete, that aid should end, Katz said.

"The Winnipeg Convention Centre has gone on the record saying they definitely intend to be self-sufficient, and the City of Winnipeg will no longer have to be subsidizing operating costs of the convention centre," he said.

"I can tell you right now, I am looking forward to that day."

The expansion would be complete in 2013.