Convention center, theaters leader awarded for downtown transformation ...Middle East

You may not know the name Carol Wallace, but if you’ve ever visited downtown San Diego, you’ve benefited from her influence.

Wallace spent decades of her career managing downtown venues that first brought visitors from around the world to San Diego and continue to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors into the area to this day.

Now she’s getting recognition. For her role in activating the downtown area, Wallace received the Founders Award from the Downtown San Diego Partnership on March 25. 

“I’m just humbled by being included in a list of so many stellar downtown leaders, founders over the years, people who, when I arrived here, I just looked up to what they had done for San Diego,” Wallace said. “Now to be included in that group, I’m so honored and humbled by that.” 

Wallace first moved to San Diego in 1991 after stints in Dallas and Denver. She came on to manage the newly-built San Diego Convention Center and lead its five-year expansion project. Her convention center role included managing Golden Hall, Balboa Theatre and Civic Theatre. 

Despite not planning to stay, Wallace has lived here for 35 years.

“Going back to Texas never happened,” Wallace said. 

Instead, Wallace witnessed the transformation of downtown, spurred in part by the Convention Center, followed by hotel tower construction, Gaslamp revitalization, then Petco Park construction. 

She came to the Convention Center 18 months after it opened, so she got to try new things. She remains a trailblazer in venue management for being one of the first convention centers to run its own marketing instead of being part of a city or tourism authority. She also opened satellite offices in other cities like Chicago and DC to drum up bookings, a practice that became a trend . 

“We didn’t look around to see what others were doing at the time,” Wallace said. “Most convention centers were square boxes. Most were not carpeted, and food service was cold beer and hot dogs.” 

San Diego’s convention center, by contrast, had white tablecloth food service, carpeting and was an architectural jewel. 

That willingness to experiment extended to bringing San Diego Comic-Con into the convention center. Hoteliers opposed it, worried the event wouldn’t be a money-maker like traditional business conventions.

Obviously, they were wrong. 

“People didn’t want it because they didn’t understand. They were seen as weird. That’s a fact,” said Wallace.

It was only when hotels saw those weirdos spent money that attitudes changed. Plus, Hollywood studios and international media brought more attention to San Diego than ever before. 

“All of a sudden, then it’s a treasure that we can’t lose and don’t want to.” 

Wallace stayed at the convention center for 25 years. Board members hailed her as setting the ‘gold standard’ in venue leadership. 

“Carol Wallace doesn’t just lead institutions, she builds stages for our city to shine. She has been a force behind downtown San Diego’s biggest moments for decades, elevating our global reputation while never losing sight of the people and culture that make this community special,” said Betsy Brennan, chief executive officer of the Downtown Partnership. “It’s difficult to imagine downtown without the legacy she’s created. We are all standing on a foundation Carol helped build.”

After a failed retirement, Wallace returned just to manage San Diego Theatres, the spin-off nonprofit that now runs Balboa and Civic theaters. There, once again, she only planned to come on temporarily, in order to stabilize the nonprofit after it spent two years without a leader.

But then COVID-19 hit, and she stayed on to lead the theaters through the crisis and later to bring audiences back. Although she never expected to lead a theater organization, it has been a joy since she loved musical theater ever since childhood. After the first failed retirement, she does not plan on having a second one, although some succession planning has occurred. 

“I like being active and involved, so I just think I will always just be that,” Wallace said. 

When Wallace first arrived in San Diego, she learned about Gaslamp’s history as a red lights district and Navy playground. Throughout her career, she watched it blossom into an unrecognizable area. 

“Now, look at all the activity as you drive down the street, and it’s just amazing. The restaurants, what has happened on the port, the waterfront, what they’ve done,” Wallace said. “Just an amazing destination.”

Looking ahead, she is excited that a similar transformation may occur on the other side of downtown along the C Street corridor. Already, hundreds of thousands of visitors are in the area for theater shows every year. 

The Downtown Partnership, the city, and the Prebys Foundation — and many San Diegans — see arts as a force to vitalize the area around the clock. She believes this focus from the business community will enhance what the theaters are already doing. 

“People recognize the value of performing arts in activating a downtown area,” she said. “It’s just amazing and very, a very exciting time to be downtown.” 

The Founders Award honored her role, past and present, in forging downtown San Diego as a worldwide destination. 

Hence then, the article about convention center theaters leader awarded for downtown transformation was published today ( Monday 30/03/2026 - 09:51 PM ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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