The facility was constructed in two separate phases: the original center, with 425,000 square feet (39,500 m2) of exhibition and meeting space, opened in August 1979 at a cost of $51.4 million.

[1] The 752-room, city-owned Hilton Baltimore hotel opened in August 2008, connected to the convention center by an enclosed skywalk bridge.

In March 2016, the State of Maryland announced it was going to explore expanding the Baltimore Convention Center for an estimated cost of $600 million and build a new hotel attached to the expansion.

During the next two decades, due in part to the success of the Convention Center and the other attractions, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, Power Plant Live!, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History, have joined the area, creating a ten-block plus entertainment and cultural destination at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, further increasing tourist dollars flowing into the region.

In fall 2010, the Greater Baltimore Committee, a local influential business group, proposed an estimated $900 million project that would demolish the 1979 wing of the Baltimore Convention Center east of Sharp Street, plus the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel[9] on the same block, and replace the buildings with a four-story, 760,000 square feet (71,000 m2) convention center expansion, an 18,500-seat arena that will replace Baltimore's existing 1st Mariner Arena over two levels of underground parking, a new 500-room Sheraton hotel and stores and restaurants facing Pratt, Charles and Conway Streets.

However, on May 25, 2011, at the annual meeting for the Greater Baltimore Committee, the owner of the Sheraton Inner Harbor hotel, local business and construction magnate, Willard Hackerman, made an offer that he would be willing to finance more than half of the proposed $900 million price tag and would be willing to build the hotel and the arena which is estimated to cost $500 million and the remainder, $400 million for the convention center expansion would need to be financed by the State of Maryland and Baltimore City, the offer is contingent on whether the city and state can move the convention center expansion project forward.

On June 2, 2011, the Baltimore Sun reported that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Governor Martin O'Malley wanted the Maryland Stadium Authority to pay for the estimated $150,000 feasibility study that will determine the "estimate of taxes that the project would generate" and if the study found the project to be viable, O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake wanted "an analysis of potential financing options and a strategy for moving the work forward."

The project is expected to include "a market and economic study of the convention center expansion and incremental tax benefits for all three venues, and a funding strategy."

The proponent of this project and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, Donald Fry, stated in an interview with the Baltimore Business Journal that the approval of initial design funds by the Maryland General Assembly gives the green light to both the Greater Baltimore Committee and Willard Hackerman to enter into serious negotiations with private investors regarding "naming rights or concession agreements for the arena" and he feels that this is a good sign that the Maryland General Assembly will, in fact, provide even more state funding towards this project in the future.

"[17] On February 10, 2014, the Greater Baltimore Committee proposal to build an expanded convention Center and new arena hit a major roadblock: the owner of the Sheraton Inner Harbor and the person who was spearheading the efforts to raise private funds for the project, Willard Hackerman died.

The Baltimore Business Journal reported on February 11, 2014, that the death of Willard Hackerman the day prior has thrown the future of the proposal into question.

It's currently unknown if the proposal will have political support after Martin O'Malley stepped down as Governor of Maryland due to term limits and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced she would not be seeking reelection as Baltimore Mayor.

State officials are going to request in Spring 2016 from Governor Larry Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly $3 million in seed money to launch a study for expanding the convention center.

All of this is part of an ongoing discussion about expanding the Baltimore Convention Center which has been a focus of the current 2016 legislative session within the Maryland General Assembly.

Now, as of April 14, 2016, the interested parties for an expanded convention center will either have to wait until 2017's legislative session or search for alternative funding.

[23] As of August 2, 2016, the proposed project of constructing an expanded convention center attached to a new arena and hotel has been revived and a $1 million feasibility study has in fact been approved (see below).

On August 2, 2016, it's been revealed that the proposed project of constructing a combined expanded convention center attached to an arena and hotel has been revived and that a $1 million feasibility study for a combined arena, hotel and expanded convention center was requested by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake from the Maryland Stadium Authority and that the Maryland Stadium Authority has approved the study.

The study is to "assess what combination of elements is feasible—a convention center expansion, hotel and new venue to replace Royal Farms Arena—and how they might fit together."

The Study will consider both a stand-alone convention center as well as a hybrid facility inclusive of a hotel and/or arena.Funding is being provided by a mix of public, private, City and State dollars.The MSA also lists the budget to be $1 million.

[33] The proposed scenario for the expansion is to demolish the 1979 half of the convention center located at the corner of West Pratt and South Charles Streets and demolish the Sheraton Inner Harbor hotel at the 300 block of South Charles Street and use that space to build an expansion connected to a second convention center hotel and also to fully renovate the 1996 half.

[33] The Mayor of Baltimore City, Catherine Pugh, requested in July 2018 that the Maryland Stadium Authority begin Phase 2 of the feasibility study.

The final law that was enacted as Chapter 695 removed the proposed $600 million allocated for construction of the expansion and renovation, it changed the defined boundaries of the convention center site to include the Sheraton Inner Harbor hotel and the adjacent parking garage located next to the hotel and the law requires that planning and design to begin during Fiscal Year 2020 which starts July 1, 2019, and that financing for the planning and design stage to be split between the state (2/3 of the final cost) and the City of Baltimore (remaining 1/3 of the final cost).

The revised cost estimate is "more than $1.5 billion," according to the Maryland Stadium Authority, the revised cost estimate included land acquisition of the Sheraton Inner Harbor hotel and related infrastructure work of expanding the convention center and relocating infrastructure located in the southbound lane of Charles Street.

[2] In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Larry Hogan announced that the Convention Center would be turned into an alternate care site to deal with an expected surge of patients.

The task force began on July 1, 2024 and has the stated mission of "to study and publish a report with recommendations concerning the membership, purpose and function of an entity or strategy to govern the renovation, revitalization, financing, ongoing maintenance and management of the Baltimore Convention site and certain surrounding areas.

The Maryland Commerce Department Secretary, Kevin Anderson, inquired about what caused that determination that the cost of $1.6 billion made the proposal infeasible despite the study conducted by the MSA stated that either expanding or renovating the Baltimore Convention Center "would be warranted from an economic and fiscal perspective."

"[47] On an undetermined date, the final task force report containing the recommendations regarding the Baltimore Convention Center was released to the public.

[48] This Maryland Commerce Department task force has made a total of 3 recommendations that are described as being "required and integrally connected to the long-term viability of large-scale convention business in the state."

As mentioned earlier in this section, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott wants introduced in the Maryland General Assembly during its 2025 session, a bill that would fulfill the first listed recommendation within this final report.

The east and west halves of the Baltimore Convention Center are linked by an enclosed skywalk bridge over Sharp Street.