The developers of the proposed new conference centre at Dyce announced they will press ahead with detailed plans for the scheme after councillors backed the master plan and business case this week.
Henry Boot Developments, which was selected as preferred developer of the £333million scheme in November 2013, said it expects to secure detailed planning permission by the end of this year. It added that construction work on the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) is expected to commence by mid-2016 and is due to complete late-2018.
The firm’s parent company is expected to make a profit of £30million on the first phase of the scheme, which includes the 750,000 sq ft conference centre, two hotels and an anaerobic digestion green energy centre that will power the development.
Alison Watson, an analyst at broker Investec, said the project was one of the “largest schemes in Henry Boot’s development pipeline”.
The firm’s share price reached a 52-week intra-day high when it reached 232.25p yesterday although they then fell back to close at 225.5p.
Steve Harris, Chief Executive of VisitAberdeen welcomed the decision to press ahead with the scheme.
He said: ” The AECC contributes over £80million to the north-east economy each year, which increases to approximately £140million during the biennial Offshore Europe exhibition.
“Aberdeen has a strong conference product, and was ranked in 11th position in The British Meetings and Events Industry Survey in 2014 for business tourism and events.
“The new exhibition centre will address the need for a bigger purpose built facility, to accommodate the requirements of the conference and entertainment event industry, and without it, Aberdeen will most certainly lose out on future events and the economic benefits that they bring to the city.
“The new location of the centre positioned near Aberdeen International Airport is a significant move, and will make travel to and from the venue even easier than the existing site for international visitors. The state-of-the-art conference centre is a hugely valuable investment to Aberdeen and we look forward to welcoming even more corporate and leisure events to the city.”