RALEIGH, N.C.—The Raleigh Convention Center is welcoming events again with its Jan. 12 reopening, weeks after a fire damaged the facility on Dec. 1, 2025.
Events scheduled at the downtown venue following the reopening include software company Prometheus Group’s sales kickoff, the CHG Roadshow, a Smartsheet user group meeting, and the City of Oaks Challenge volleyball tournament. City officials said reopening allows the convention center to retain approximately $4 million in revenue and roughly 28,000 hotel room nights.
The convention center’s kitchen remains under repair, but a temporary mobile kitchen has been installed at nearby Red Hat Amphitheater. Construction on the mobile facility began Jan. 7 and was completed Jan. 11. The temporary kitchen is approximately the same size as the permanent one and includes the same equipment to avoid disruptions to events. “We’re able to provide the same excellent service our clients expect with an innovative mobile kitchen setup in Red Hat Amphitheater,” says Kerry Painter, executive director of the Raleigh Convention and Performing Arts Complex. “This is the same mobile kitchen used for incredibly large-scale, high-end events like Formula One racing, so we’re not just making do, but continuing to operate at a really high level while our permanent kitchen undergoes repairs.”
The mobile kitchen will remain in place as long as needed, but will be removed before the amphitheater’s concert season begins.
Painter said the reopening benefits the convention center, event organizers, and downtown hotels and restaurants. “We know how crucial these events are, not only to our clients and us but also to our partners at hotels and restaurants here in downtown Raleigh as well,” she says. “Our team, other city departments, and our contractors have worked day and night for the last month to get here, and it’s incredible to see where we were on Dec. 1 and where we are today.”
Additional recovery work is ongoing.
“We’re so thrilled to have guests back in our building and thankful for all the planners who we’ve gotten to work with this past month to make sure their events can still happen,” Painter, says. “City of Oaks Volleyball was our first large-scale event following the COVID-19 pandemic, so to have them in right now after this is special; they’ve been part of several great comebacks with us.”
