Facility has 60 new gatherings booked that would have been too big for the old building, president says
Bruce Constantineau
Sun
The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre expansion is nearing completion on the Vancouver waterfront. An open house is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre expansion that began life as a $495-million project officially opens today as an $883.2-million facility with more than triple the old centre’s meeting space.
Featuring Canada‘s largest green roof with 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses spread over more than two hectares, the new centre will offer conventioneers about 500,000 square feet of meeting space and a 55,000-square-foot ballroom with five-storey ceilings and unique North Shore mountain views.
Cost overruns aside, PavCo president Warren Buckley said the investment was needed to keep Vancouver from losing more international convention business due to a lack of meeting space.
“We began losing business 10 years after the original centre opened [in 1986] because we couldn’t attract the kinds of conventions that wanted to come to Vancouver,” he said in an interview.
Buckley said about 60 new conventions that would have been too large for the old centre have already booked into the new space, with most occurring between now and the end of 2012. He said 2011 and 2012 are shaping up to be the largest Vancouver convention years on record.
About 100 international meeting planners are in Vancouver this week to view the new facility.
Buckley said the global recession hasn’t kept meeting organizers from planning new conventions in three or four years, when the economy is expected to be in better shape.
“We have not lost any conventions that are on the books,” he said. “Some have asked for help on things like [cutting their costs] on opening receptions. They have sharpened their pencils, but haven’t walked away.”
The original convention centre on the east side of Canada Place will shut down between the end of April and September this year for a $36.2-million renovation.
Buckley said the new facility is essentially complete, although certain pieces of artwork and signage won’t be installed until the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee vacates the facility after the 2010 Games next year. The convention centre will serve as the International Broadcast Centre during the Games.
The American Bar Association will hold the first major international convention at the new facility, when 1,700 delegates use the centre from April 16 to April 18.
The largest conference booked so far is the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques meeting in 2011, when 25,000 delegates are expected to spend about $30 million in the city.
A public open house will be held at the new centre on Saturday and Sunday between 10 a.m and 4 p.m.
Funding sources for the new centre include the province of B.C. ($540.7 million), the federal government ($222.5 million), Tourism Vancouver ($90 million) and convention centre revenue ($30 million).
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