The £333 million development, at Bucksburn, is currently being built and is scheduled to open in late 2019. The nearly 540,000 square foot development will offer exhibition space, conference facilities and three hotels.
Aberdeen City Council is building the facility in a joint collaboration with Henry Boot Developments, with the Robertson Group employed as the main contractor.
Situated beside Aberdeen International Airport, it will provide four times the space available at its current site in Bridge of Don. The existing AECC currently has a capacity size of 8,500 for standing concerts, and 4,750 for seated concerts.
The new development will increase the maximum capacity to 12,500 and it is hoped it will not only host existing events – like Offshore Europe – but will also attract new national and international events to the Granite City.
It will also help to bring more major music artists and events to the city by broadening the appeal of the North-east.
Within the next decade, it is estimated the venue will contribute an additional 4.5 million visitors and £113m of spending to the area by 2025.
It was announced the venue would be the one of the greenest in the country, with a state-of-the-art heating system being installed. The AECC arena will benefit from hydrogen fuel cell technology, which will deliver clean, sustainable and reliable energy for the entire 150-acre site. The three cells, which are the largest in the UK, were provided by UK energy engineering specialist Doosan Babcock. They will have a total electrical output of 1.4 megawatts – on a par with the largest fuel cell installations in Europe.
For further information on this project then please visit http://www.srm.com/