NEC unveils plans for new conference centre and resort

12th Apr 2011

The NEC Group hopes to have a new conference and banqueting centre open under its management by the end of 2013, under new plans unveiled at the LG Arena this week.

The conference and banqueting centre will form part of the new casino and hotel ‘resort’. ‘Resorts World @ The NEC’ is expected to create around 1,000 jobs once completed and will include a four-star hotel, casino, spa, bars and restaurants as well as the conference centre.

NEC Group Chief Executive Paul Thandi showcased the plans, in conjunction with Genting Casinos’ Resorts World, to develop land between the LG Arena and the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

NEC Group Chief Operating Office John Hornby said that the new conference centre would hold up to 1,000 for dinners and up to 600 delegates for a flat floor conference. “It will link well with the planned hotel under one roof,” he said.

Thandi said that the new complex as whole would “landmark the group’s development”, under a project worth £120m to Solihull.

“We want to be the place people come to discover the future of 21st Century entertainment,” said Thandi. “The new entertainment complex project will drive us back into the profile where we used to be: the No.1 destination for exhibitions and conferences in Europe.”

Thandi said he hoped it would keep exhibition visitors on site instead of losing them to nearby locales once events had ended. “This is one of the most exciting developments in the NEC’s history,” he said. “We’ve opened the ICC and the NIA but now we need to make sure our offering can complete globally.

Executive Deputy Chairman of Genting Casinos, Peter Brooks, also addressed the press conference and said the go-ahead would mean over a thousand new local jobs at The NEC, and 1,700 in the construction phase.

“This is the best such development scheme in the UK by far,” said Brooks, who noted the Resorts World in Sentosa had been built in less than three years by Genting. “There is no doubt about our firepower or ability to deliver,” he stressed. He was careful not to take the permissions still needed for granted: “Casino licensing is, after all, bedevilled by bureaucracy,” he said.

“We are determined to add value to the complex and to the NEC offer,” he added, noting the complex would include 300 extra parking spaces and a multi-screen cinema in what will be Genting’s largest investment in Europe.