CINCINNATI — Cincinnati leaders announced the naming rights for the city's newly renovated convention center will go to First Financial Bank.
The building will now be named the First Financial Center, according to City Manager Sheryl Long during a Monday morning press conference.
Cincinnati's convention center bore the name of Duke Energy for years until September, when the company announced it would no longer have the naming rights for the building; Duke Energy said in exchange, the City of Cincinnati would pay the company $1.6 million.
Watch the full press conference announcing the name change below:
The center reopened in January 2026 following extensive $248 million in renovations. The convention center is also now part of a "convention district" that reaches out to a newly-created Elm Street Plaza and a nearby, recently-announced hotel.
The facade of the convention center has also undergone design changes, including an upgrade to the iconic "Cincinnati" sign facing the highways. The new sign features individual LED-illuminated letters that allow for dynamic customization of each letter, including color changes and gradients. The sign is mostly visible heading north on I-75 through the city. It was originally installed in 2006 during the convention center's last renovation.
Now with the renovations done, the center open, and an official new name, many are excited about the future and opportunities around the convention center. But people are also wondering, what’s next?
The convention center has only been reopened for about a month, but City of Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval says they already have a large fencing tournament and the national conference for the historically Black fraternity Omega Psi Phi are both being hosted at the convention center, and they want to go even bigger.
WATCH: We asked city leaders about resident concerns and future plans for the center
“The tourism board, the convention center, the sports commissioner are all working very hard to bring high-profile events, things like the NFL Draft or the World Cup to Cincinnati,” Pureval said.
But the convention center is only one part of bringing major events to the city. The other part is having hotels where visitors can stay, which is currently in the works across the street from the convention center.
The convention district's long-awaited hotel will be a Marriott, according to developer Portman Holdings.
The Marriott Hotel will be built just south of the center when it's done. It's expected to have roughly 700 rooms, more than 62,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space, a 17,445 square-foot events terrace and upscale amenities tailored toward the needs of group, business and recreational travelers.
It will also have multiple ballrooms, ground-floor retail and an outdoor terrace that will overlook 5th Street. The hotel will connect to the convention center by a skybridge, Portman Holdings said.
Nearby, the 780-space Convention Center Garage, purchased by 3CDC in 2023, is also undergoing renovation to the tune of $12 million, but it is still open and operating during that process.
Pureval said everything with the hotel is on time and on budget. Though even on time, the hotel isn’t set to open to guests until 2028, and some are concerned that without it, Cincinnati can’t host major events.
“Obviously, the hotel is a really big piece of getting those much larger events, but in the meantime, we have plenty of hotel capacity to fill the convention center as is,” Pureval said.
Others are concerned about the size of the convention center, especially compared to other nearby cities. But the mayor said size isn't the only thing that matters.
“They’re also interested in walkability, they’re interested in culture, in a food scene, and Cincinnati has all of those things," he said. "What we didn’t have was a world-class headquarters hotel and a world-class convention center. We’re on the path to getting that done, so we’ll be able to really compete and win, I believe, against the Louisvilles, the Indianapolises and the Columbuses.”
Duke Energy's contract for the naming rights was supposed to go through 2032, but the new agreement ended it much earlier — in 2026.
"Duke Energy appreciated the opportunity to partner with the city of Cincinnati on a naming rights agreement for many years," reads a statement from Duke Energy sent to us by a spokesperson. "The newly-renovated convention center provides the city with the ability to identify a new sponsor that will provide future benefit to the convention center district. Reflective of the strong working relationship and ongoing commitment to the community, Duke Energy and the city amicably addressed how the current agreement would sunset. Duke Energy wishes the City of Cincinnati the best with the exciting and beautiful renovated convention center, which will be a terrific attraction in downtown Cincinnati for many years to come."
