Work to begin on state-of-the-art conference centre in Aberdeen

CONSTRUCTION work will begin on a new £333 million conference centre in Aberdeen next month.

Keppie Design have been appointed as the architects for the new state-of-the-art centre . Picture: Keppie

Council bosses hope to put the Granite City on the map as one of the top meeting and concert venues in the world with the 12,500 person capacity Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.

The new centre, which is to be built near the city’s airport on the outskirts of the city, will replace the current ageing AECC venue in the city’s Bridge of Don.

It will also cut down traffic building up along major routes in the city during weeks when major conferences are being held in the building.

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A new report to the council’s finance committee states that construction work will begin on the project in July and is expected to be finished by Spring 2019.

The new AECC will be built on the site of the Rowett Institute and will be designed with a multi-purpose exhibition hall and a range of conference facilities.

There will be a 200 bedroom four star hotel connected to the AECC at the ground floor level and a first floor conference suite.

The council will lease the site and will have a chance to buy it back for one pound after 35 years in a similar deal agreed for the controversial Union Square site.

More than 4.5 million visitors are expected to travel to the site spending 113 million pounds over the next 10 years.

Plans to build a further 498 residential units on the site of the current AECC building in Bridge of Don have also been approved amid fears that it will add additional traffic to a heavily congested area.

Although there are also proposals to set up a park and ride facility on the site.

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