City of Cincinnati officials are working on a scaled-down expansion of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center that would cost about $165 million instead of the original $198 million plan unveiled in January.

        Details of the new plan are sketchy, but Deputy City Manager Tim Riordan is scheduled to outline some specifics to Hamilton County commissioners today.

        The county is an important player in the expansion effort because it has the ability to raise the countywide hotel bed tax from its current 3 percent to 6.5 percent, a move that would generate about $7 million per year toward expansion.

        Under state law, commissioners have until Sept. 30 to raise the bed tax.

        Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said Tuesday that the city has no prospects for any additional revenue, after Delta Air Lines pulled its commitment to pay for naming rights and Hamilton County diverted money to fund convention activities in the northern suburbs. The city was counting on at least $15 million from Delta.

        “If we can do it and do it right, for $160 million, we think we can put it back together,” Mr. Luken said.

        The question is whether $160 million will be enough to expand the center to a size that would allow it to hold 75 percent of all conventions held in the United States, Mr. Luken said.

        County Commissioner Todd Portune, who helped put together the original financing plan with Mr. Luken, said he's eag er to hear the new plan. There was $47 million in contingency built into the original budget, and some of that could be knocked off to help reduce cost.

        “I'm hopeful they haven't done anything to diminish the positive features of the expansion that would make it of benefit to the entire region,” Mr. Portune said.

        The expansion has been on shaky ground from the outset. The original fina ncing plan — which called for the county to raise the bed tax to 7 percent — was blasted by suburban hoteliers, who feared the higher bed tax would cause visitors to pass by their properties in favor of lower tax rates to the north.

        They continued to oppose the plan until commissioners agreed to take about $1 million of the original 3 percent countywide bed tax and give it to the newly created Northern Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

        But the expansion hit another roadblock last month when Delta decided against buying the naming rights. The Delta announcement led Mr. Luken to say an expansion would be “mothballed” in favor of a renovation.

        Mr. Riordan said there was a diminishing chance that a proposal would actually be ready by today. If not, he will likely present the new plan to commissioners Sept. 16.

        “The mayor put the project on mothballs. What we're trying to do, with the mayor's blessing, is to see if there's a way to take the project out of mothballs,” he said.

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