EUROPE - Salzburg Exhibition Center has finished construction on its €34m (US$42.7m) event hall, a move it claims will strengthen the city’s position as a convention and business location.
The new multifunctional hall, Hall 10, offers 20,000sqm of floor space, and was developed through investment by city, state and the Salzburg chamber of commerce. This gives the exhibition centre a total of 39,200sqm of hall space, 21,800sqm of outdoor space and 4,000sqm of courtyard.
The first construction phase of the multi-purpose hall at the Salzburg Exhibition Center was completed last autumn after only six months, offering 15,163sqm of exhibition space. The construction of the 4,600sqm conference area has now been completed giving Salzburg its first venue for congress fairs catering for up to 6,000 people.
“The trend is clearly moving away from pure exhibition fairs to congress fairs, thus fairs are combined with information events. This is precisely where we are positioned with our new hall,” said MD of Messezentrum Salzburg, Henrik Häcker.
With the new building, the position of the Salzburg Exhibition Center as a leading tradefair location in Austria is greatly enhanced and Salzburg strengthened as a trade and business location.
Despite the construction of the new exhibition Hall 10, Salzburg Exhibition Center achieved a record 628,000 visitors last year, a figure that has grown by 57.4 per cent in the past six years. In total 32 fairs took place in 2011 on the grounds of the exhibition centre with 60 events held in the Salzburg arena.
Mayor Heinz Schaden, chairman of the Salzburg Exhibition Center, said the new Hall 10 sets the right course for the future: "It was absolutely necessary to go with the times and to create the conditions for major conferences. Even if the investment for the shareholders - at least €14m for the city alone - is not easy to bear.
“With the completion of the foyer and the meeting area, the new hall is now fully operational. Very impressive, what we have achieved here in no time at all.”
The building was developed as a multi-functional hall with a roof supported by only fourpairs of columns. The conference area can be accessed via a light-filled foyer, offering vistas into the exhibition hall. Three large entrances lead from the foyer to the exhibition hall, while two staircases lead to the convention centre on the upper floor and the cloakrooms and toilet facilities in the basement. The new hall is directly connected to the Salzburg arena concert venue and Hall 1, and is also linked by indoor passages to the ring of nine other halls.
Deputy governor David Brenner added that the decision of the state to contribute €16m to the total investment budget of more than €34m was “a real landmark decision”.
“It was a matter of whether the exhibition centre would exist or not. Because we had to decide whether Salzburg was to remain a national and international exhibition and congress city, whether the Salzburg Exhibition Center would continue to plan and operate on competitive dimensions.
“It was about the question of whether Salzburg would still be able to attract large fairs and conferences in future. We have given a clear answer to this: yes, we want to invest. Yes, we want to create an attractive, contemporary infrastructure. And yes, we are thinking strategically for the long term and are also making the necessary resources available.”
The project was implemented by Alpine Bau, which acted as general contractor, in cooperation with the architects Kada/Wittfeld (Aachen/Graz), the Salzburg-based civil engineering firms Herbrich and IPC Project Consulting.
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