Notwithstanding the provisions of § 35-4-11, each municipality or a county on behalf of an improvement district created pursuant to chapter 7-25A may issue two convention facility on-sale licenses pursuant to subdivision 35-4-2(13) for convention facilities substantially constructed within the two years following issuance of the license or previously completed. If located in a municipality or improvement district with a population of twenty thousand or greater, the hotel-motel convention facility shall be used and kept open for the hosting of large groups of guests for compensation and shall have at least one hundred rooms that are suitable lodging accommodations and convention facilities with seating for at least four hundred persons. If located in a municipality or improvement district with a population of less than twenty thousand, the hotel-motel convention facility shall have at least forty rooms that are suitable lodging accommodations and convention facilities with seating for at least one hundred fifty persons.

If the population of a municipality or improvement district changes, the facility is only required to meet the criteria established by this section for the license at the time the license was originally issued.

Source: SL 1985, ch 291, § 4; SL 1988, ch 292, § 1C; SL 1993, ch 320, § 13 rejected by referendum held September 14, 1993; SL 2003, ch 194, § 1; SL 2010, ch 180, § 29; SL 2018, ch 213, § 60; SL 2018, ch 220, § 1; SL 2019, ch 163, § 1.