Backers for convention site sought

PORT Elizabeth is planning to develop an international convention centre at a cost of R500m, and is calling on local and international developers to submit expressions of interest. The Mandela Bay Development Agency , the development arm of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality , is overseeing the project.

It started advertising its call for development proposals at the weekend, focusing on attracting interest from developers in the Middle East and Asia, as well as South Africa.

The agency’s finance and administration manager, Ashwin Daya, says the plan is to develop a 1000-seater convention centre with international state of the art facilities .

The five proposed sites for the centre are Humerail, the 6th Army base, King’s Beach, Telkom Park Stadium and Madiba Bay Leisure Park .

Daya says interested parties who prepare proposals may suggest other viable sites.

He says the Humerail site is situated on a tract of land of about 25ha, close to the oil tank “farms” at the Port Elizabeth harbour.

The 6th Army base site, of 42ha, is in Summerstrand behind the Boardwalk Casino and Entertainment Centre.

The King’s Beach site is on metropolitan land at King’s Beach. The 11ha site consists of the old parking lot where a putt-putt course previously existed.

The Telkom Park site, of 16ha, is in Humewood, just off La Roche Drive, while the Madiba Bay Leisure Park site is south of Marine Drive and north of the Cape Recife Nature Reserve, close to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

“The size of the centre is subject to what is proposed by prospective developers,” says Daya. But he says a centre of between 15000m² and 20000m² is envisaged.

Daya says that in the Mandela Bay Development Agency’s expression of interest documents, there is a clear indication that the agency would consider doing a land exchange deal with a prospective developer.

This means that a developer could build the convention centre in exchange for prime land in Port Elizabeth, which it could use to build its own mixed-use development.

The Mandela Bay Development Agency will be holding a briefing session with interested parties on August 24.

Daya says prospective developers have a further two months after the meeting to submit their expression of interest proposals, which must be in by October 26.

He says even though there are established international convention centres in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, the agency does not see the planned Port Elizabeth centre as being in “direct competition with prime cities like Cape Town and Durban”.

“We are effectively seeing it as being, initially, a niche market centre for the South African market.”

Daya says there is strong demand for conferencing facilities in SA, from business and education to the automotive sector, which is based in the Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage metropole.

The Coega industrial development zone will also increase demand for such a facility, he says, while the centre will also have positive spin-offs for the tourism industry in Port Elizabeth.

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