Aberdeen City Council has approved outline plans for construction of a £333m exhibition centre.
The new Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre (AECC) is being developed by Henry Boot Developments in partnership with the city council. It will be twice the size of the city’s existing exhibition centre.
Henry Boot said that now that the master plan and business case had been approved, it would submit detailed plans to get full planning permission by the end of 2015.
The initial phase of the project includes a 750,000 sq ft exhibition and conference centre, two hotels and an anaerobic digestion green energy centre.
The second hotel and energy centre were added to bring in additional income streams to help offset the development costs.
Initial outline plans put to the council in October 2013 would have meant a cost to the public purse of £1.55m a year. With the additional revenue streams, this is now reduced to £100,000 per year and after 35 years the council will be entitled to purchase the AECC development, including the land, for £1.
Council leader Jenny Laing described it as:
“a significant, but very affordable, investment for the city”.
Henry Boot said that it now expects construction work to start by mid 2016 and to complete before the end of 2018.
The proposed new AECC is to be built on the site of the Rowett Institute in Dyce, while a mixed-use residential-led scheme is proposed for the Bridge of Don site.
The master plan also envisages a further 400,000 sq ft of business park accommodation and the redevelopment of the existing conference centre site at a later stage.
For more information about this project, see www.aeccevolves.co.uk