The new facility, west of Canada Place, is due to open by the summer of 2008
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
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Vancouver convention centre officials finally received their wish Monday, an official construction start to the $565-million convention centre expansion, a move that comes after years of false starts, cancelled projects and protracted wrangling over funding. Tourism marketers say the routine groundbreaking ceremony west of Canada Place was truly a big deal for their industry because now they can better convince international clients that a newer, bigger convention centre will indeed open in Vancouver by the summer of 2008. “Reality is a big deal in the market because a lot of clients have seen proposals come and go,” Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre representative Rod Cameron said. “We even had a project cancelled here once so until they actually see a shovel in the ground, they don’t take the thing very seriously.” In 1999, rising costs forced the provincial government to cancel a convention centre expansion planned on the east side of Canada Place. In 2002, disagreements over costs also killed a proposed public-private partnership that would have seen Vancouver-based Bentall Capital LP build and manage a new convention centre. On Monday, virtually every politician at the groundbreaking ceremony — including Premier Gordon Campbell, federal Industry Minister David Emerson and Mayor Larry Campbell — promised this project on the west side of Canada Place will be on time and on budget. “Count on it,” Premier Campbell told reporters. “There are contingencies built into the project and it’s going to be run professionally. Just as the downtown library was built on time and on budget, this will be built on time and on budget.” (The downtown Vancouver library, which opened in 1995, cost $30 million to build and was part of a $110-million redevelopment project that features a 21-storey office tower.) Original plans called for the convention centre expansion to cost $495 million but that figure did not include the costs of renovating the existing convention centre or building a walkway to connect the new facility with the existing centre, so the price-tag increased to $565 million. The federal and provincial governments will each contribute $222.5 million, with the tourism industry providing $90 million and convention centre leasing and vendor agreements kicking in another $30 million. The expansion project will more than triple the convention centre’s 12,400 metres of existing function space by adding another 35,470 square metres of space. Campbell says it will create another $229 million a year in delegate spending and support 7,500 new jobs. He said a shortage of convention space in Vancouver forces the city to turn away 50 conventions and $150 million worth of business a year. While Campbell took the controls of a huge backhoe during a photo opportunity on the 3.25-hectare expansion site, a team of more than 20 Vancouver tourism officials began a three-day sales trip in Washington, D.C. to attract more U.S. convention business to the city. Cameron said about 36 future conventions have been booked for Vancouver between 2008 and 2012 and most of those need the extra space provided by the expansion project. Those conventions will attract just under one million delegates and create about $400 million in delegate spending, Cameron said. A QUESTION OF SPACE: Vancouver‘s existing convention centre is small compared to other facilities worldwide. Here’s how we stack up: Thousands of square feet Chicago 2,524 Las Vegas 2,228 Orlando 1,479 San Diego 820 Hong Kong 689 Toronto 600 Vancouver (Post-expansion) 489 Salt Lake 462 Montreal 331 Vancouver (Pre-expansion) 133 Calgary 113 Source: Convention project © The Vancouver Sun 2004
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