Extra $50m for Convention Centre renovations
The State Government will spend almost $50 million extra on the rebuild of the Adelaide Convention Centre.
The redevelopment will now cost nearly $400 million because of changes to the final design of the building and increased costs associated with building on top of Adelaide Railway Station.
“As a result of the project’s unique and highly technical design and the challenge of construction on a complex site, including building over an operating railway station, the total project budget has been increased $350.32 million to $396.82 million,” said Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan.
The extra funds will come out of Adelaide Convention Centre’s Future Asset Replacement Account ($14.5 million) and a loan through the South Australian Finance Authority ($32 million).
The only impact on the state budget will be from interest payments on the loan.
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Meanwhile, stage two of the redevelopment has begun, following the demolition of the centre’s original Plenary Building, which began earlier this month.
Mullighan said the redevelopment would “re-establish Adelaide as one of the premier conference destinations in the world” and bring $4.3 billion worth of tourism and related economic activity to the state over the next two decades.
“In the past two decades, the Convention Centre has hosted thousands of events and generated more than $1 billion in direct economic benefit to the state,” Mullighan said.
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“This redeveloped Adelaide Convention Centre will again position South Australia as a leader in the international convention market by providing one of the largest, most flexible and up-to-date meeting places in the world, and removing the capacity restraints which have meant we have in recent years lost hosting opportunities interstate and overseas.
“The increased plenary hall capacity going from 2,500 to 3,500 delegates opens us up to bid for more than 500 additional national and international events which have previously been out of our reach.”
Stage two is due to be complete in 2017. Mullighan said conventions worth more than $210 million are already booked.
“We are currently bidding for 16 events of more than 3000 delegates, which would deliver a potential economic impact of $160 million and more than 200,000 bed nights,” said Mullighan.
“This would not be possible without the redevelopment.”
He said the largest conference ever held in Adelaide has been booked. The 68th International Astronautical Conference is expected to bring 3,500 delegates to Adelaide Convention Centre.
The redevelopment was designed partly by international firm Woods Bagot, which also designed the multi-award winning South Australian Health and Medical Research (SAHMRI) building on North Terrace.
