Vote on Convention and Exhibition Centre next week

Wellington City Council will next week decide whether to proceed with a new Convention and Exhibition Centre.

It is proposed the $154.3 million centre be developed on land the Council owns on Cable Street, opposite Te Papa.

The building with 18,000 square metres of floor space will cater for conventions of up to 2200 people and the 1651sq m exhibition area will attract international exhibitions.

The City Strategy Committee will vote on the centre next Thursday 13 December.

“I’m strongly in favour of the centre and throwing my full support behind it,” says Mayor Justin Lester.

“What is proposed is a state-of-the-art convention centre complemented by an exhibition space that will attract touring exhibitions such as Harry Potter, Marvel, World of Wearable Arts, Ballet Russe and Star Wars.

“Our Council has an ambitious social programme to make Wellington a fairer place to live, but we also need a strong economic platform upon which we can base it,” says the Mayor.

“We need to encourage tourists and conference visitors to our city and will benefit from the jobs it will create.

“Wellington’s convention industry is worth $240 million a year. The Australasian and Asian convention market is growing and we are missing out on big conventions because we don’t have the appropriate space.

“This project has been more than five years in the making and what it now needs is a favourable decision from the Council.”

Council Chief Executive Kevin Lavery says the project is ready to go and, once resource consent is granted, construction could begin in August 2019. It could be completed by 2022.

“The project will also be the spark for a lot of development in the surrounding area, which now is basically dedicated to cars and carparks.

“This is a major win for the city and continues to build momentum behind the Councils vision for Wellington: working together for Wellington’s future.”

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