Back to the drawing board for conference centre revamp

A NEW team of development advisers is to be appointed to oversee the extension of the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in a move that is expected to lead to further delays for the project.

Bosses at the conference centre are in the process of selecting a team of designers and commercial property experts as they prepare to get work under way.

They want to find out if the existing plans for the expansion of the conference centre and new office space need to be altered.

The teams are to be given a say on whether any aspects of the £80 million plans should be updated as a result of changing priorities since the plans were drawn up in 2005.

Property insiders say it is likely that parts of the plans will have to go back to the drawing board because the market has changed. It is expected any changes would result in a new planning application having to be submitted.

A property industry source said: "The existing scheme is quite good but it needs some further tweaking.

"Any real estate team would look at it and say it is good but it could be better.

"The market has moved on. There are more environmental requirements and occupiers are putting more people into space than they were."

Under the original plans, an eight-storey office block would be created on top of a major new underground banqueting and events space for the EICC.

But the project, drawn up by Edinburgh's design 'tsar' Sir Terry Farrell, has been plagued with troubles.

It was initially due to be completed last year, but was slowed by objections that led to the height of the office block being reduced.

In April 2007, developers Cala and AWG, who had signed a deal with the EICC and city council to develop the site, pulled the plug on their plans.

Earlier this year, the development was back on the agenda after a new funding package featuring around £18m from Scottish Enterprise was unveiled.

It is now estimated that the scheme will be completed by late 2012 or early 2013 depending on the amount of time any new planning application takes to be approved.

Graham Birse, deputy chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said: "The extension has been a long time coming. There have been understandable delays but the issue is now which option is the best fit for the EICC and for Edinburgh.

"It is sensible to ask advisers in the fields of commercial property and design to have a look at it, especially with recent macro-economic changes.

"An expanded EICC offers us a much bigger potential to fish in a bigger pond."

Nobody at the EICC was available to comment.