Quito seeks partner for its convention center

Ecuadornews:

The Municipality launched on December 5 a call for those interested in equipping, operating and maintaining the infrastructure that is built in the airport. On December 5, the municipal company Quito Turismo launched a public call to select a strategic partner. 

The chosen firm or consortium will be responsible for the ‘equipment, operation, administration, marketing and maintenance’ of the new convention center. The infrastructure was built last April by the company Ekron in the back of the building that occupied the terminal of the airport (north).

According to a report from the Cabildo last week, the work records an advance of 65% and the space is expected to be operational during the second half of 2018. The construction is divided into two stages. In the first, which is currently under construction, 16,235 square meters (m²) are distributed in two floors.

It seeks to have a building whose capacity exceeds 4,000 people, current average limit of the sites that function as spaces for conventions. The objective is to promote meeting tourism in the city. It is estimated that the person who arrives to attend a seminar, conference or makes a business trip, spends, on average, four or five times more than the traditional visitor.

According to data from Quito Turismo, while the leisure traveler spends, generally, $ 80 daily in the city, the business and meetings tourist invests $ 350 in each day during his stay.

Veronica Sevilla, manager of Quito Turismo, points out that, in addition, it is likely that whoever attends a meeting will return to a place with his family or friends. The structure of the new convention center of the capital is built with a donation of $ 15 million from the companies Aecon and ADC.

For complementary works such as parking and a plaza, the Mayor’s office estimates that an additional $ 2.7 million is required. Mayor Mauricio Rodas included those works in a bank of projects destined to be financed with an external loan whose contracting was expected to be authorized by the Metropolitan Council on September 27.

The search for an alliance with a private partner for the management of the meeting space is based on the report of the Directorate of Strategic Alliances of the Quito Town Council on October 12 last.

Neither the call nor the bases of the selection contest establish the investment expected by the local government by the private partner. On December 20, the commission appointed to supervise the procedure responded to an interested party that “the bidder must include (the investment planned) in its business plan.”

As part of this, the technical specifications that the Cabildo has established for the operation of the site and that are included in the annexes of the process must be taken into account.

The Municipality of Quito promotes infrastructure as the first sustainable public building, since it will have a model for saving energy and water. The local government also does not specify in the convocation documents the time that the alliance will last. (I)

Source: http://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/quito/1/quito-busca-socio-para-su-centro-de-convenciones