Work has begun on the development of a £333m exhibition centre in Aberdeen after north-east contractor the Robertson Group won a competitive tender for the project.
The Elgin-headquartered business was appointed by property company Henry Boot Developments, which is Aberdeen City Council’s joint-venture partner on the development.
At 12,500, the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) will hold four times as many people as the existing Bridge of Don-based AECC and the site will include two hotels, one operated by Hilton Hotels and one by Aloft.
A green energy centre is also being built to meet all the energy needs of the exhibition centre and the hotels, which are being built on the site of the Rowett Research Institute’s former premises in Bucksburn.
It is anticipated that the project, which is being funded by the local authority, will create 600 jobs during the three-year construction phase, with the expectation that the new AECC will support 352 full-time equivalent jobs within 10 years.
Bill Robertson, executive chairman of the Robertson Group, said: “Robertson has had a base in Aberdeen for over 25 years so we understand the local area. We will focus, where possible, on local employment, the local supply chain and working in partnership with the communities in the local area.”
David Anderson, managing director of Henry Boot Developments, said the Robertson Group’s local knowledge was a key factor in it being awarded the contract.
“Both ourselves and the city council were very keen to, where possible, maximise the local involvement,” he said. “Robertson is very active in that part of the world and it does large schemes of this type.”
Other projects the Robertson Group is currently involved in are a new distillery and visitor centre for scotch whisky brand The Macallan and a £60m hospital in Orkney.
Henry Boot has also secured planning permission for a 400,000 sq ft business park next to the exhibition centre. Construction for that will begin once work on the AECC is complete with tenders taking place in due course.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here