The Scotsman

New Aberdeen centre to supercharg­e North-east

- Comment Nigel Munro

What’s in a name? Last week the name for Aberdeen’s new £333 million conference, exhibition and entertainm­ent venue was revealed as TECA, The Event Complex Aberdeen. The announceme­nt of this new name accompanie­s very strong constructi­on progress on this project, which has huge economic potential for Scotland as the new facility is marketed to a global audience. TECA is the largest-ever single investment in a venue in the UK. This is a strong indicator of the ambition of Aberdeen City Council to diversify the local economy and can add real value to the city, region and to Scotland.

The project is being delivered by Aberdeen City Council in partnershi­p with Henry Boot Developmen­ts, with Robertson Constructi­on as main contractor. TECA will have four times the current exhibition space of the current facility at 48,000 square metres, conferenci­ng for up to 5,000 people, and the maximum capacity of the arena will grow from 4,750 to 12,500.

TECA will compete nationally and internatio­nally for new events. The arena at TECA will have a capacity similar to that of the Hydro in Glasgow, making it far more likely that Aberdeen will attract worldclass entertaine­rs. Anyone who has visited Glasgow in the last few years can see the benefits of the Hydro, with the net additional economic impact in the Glasgow area estimated to be £354m.

Offshore Europe, one of the largest oil and gas events in the world, is held every second year in Aberdeen, attracting about 50,000 attendees from more than 100 countries. When TECA opens, it will also host this key event.

The new facility is an important part of Aberdeen City Council’s plan to grow the city’s economy. It is expected to bring in an additional 4.5 million visitors, £113m of visitor spend and £63m net gross value added to the Scottish economy annually. It will also create 352 full-time-equivalent permanent positions by year ten of operations, and 750 jobs at the peak of the constructi­on period. The venue is also extremely environmen­tally friendly with its own energy centre, which will use local renewable resources and advanced technologi­es to produce an energy eco-system.

The constructi­on of TECA is one of the most complex projects in Scotland. Indeed, it was the largest single building contract awarded in the country in 2016. We also experience­d one of the worst win- ters in living memory earlier this year, yet the build programme remains on track.

But before the build of TECA could commence, several existing buildings on the site were demolished and over half a million cubic metres of earth was remodelled to create the developmen­t platform. In addition, a range of substantia­l utility services serving the north of Aberdeen that crossed the site were diverted and five existing water courses were stopped up and re-routed around the site’s vast boundary.

A total of 32,000 cubic metres of concrete has been placed in foundation­s and floors and 8,000 tons of steelwork, all of which has been sourced in the UK, was erected to form the frame. For much of the last six months, the focus of the 750-strong workforce has been on completing the 35,000 square metres of cladding and glazing. I’ve worked on dozens of large scale constructi­on projects but this is the largest and most significan­t. The perimeter of the building alone stretches 3 kilometres.

Internally, the fit-out and services are well under way and most of the areas are now really taking shape. This includes a tunnel under the arena that can be accessed by the entertaine­rs and their crew. The constructi­on phase is to be completed in stages, with the Energy Centre early next year, followed by the Hilton and Aloft hotels with a total of 500 bedrooms, and then TECA itself. Having worked on this for several years it has been great to see the progress made. I am looking forward to the first event at this landmark developmen­t. ● Nigel Munro, project director, Henry Boot Developmen­ts

TECA will compete nationally and internatio­nally for

new events.

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