The Cape Town International Convention Centre East expansion is well under way and will open next year.

Construction is expected to be completed towards the end of this year, with commissioning to take place in February and March 2017.

On completion, the building will occupy 31 000 sqm, with 10 000 sqm of conference and exhibition space, sub-divisible into six halls, four meeting suites, five meeting pod rooms and two terrace rooms. There will be three kitchens and a sky bridge connecting CTICC West to CTICC East.

The building will have modern building management to control utility usage and harness technology to lower the cost of resources. The City of Cape Town, Western Cape Government and CTICC are investing R832 million (€51m) in the expansion of the centre.

Julie-May Ellingson, CTICC CEO, says: “We believe CTICC will also add to the increase in prospective events and conferences taking place in the City of Cape Town, which will, in turn, boost both leisure and business tourism.

“The increased capacity will allow us to host even larger events as well as run multiple large-scale events concurrently. In addition to changing the landscape of the Foreshore, the CTICC East expansion and surrounding construction projects have had a tremendous impact on sustaining jobs in the sector, as well as creating opportunities for the economic development of Cape Town,” says Ellingson.