Set to open on February 1, 2016, the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town will not only enhance Century City as an emerging urban development node but also reinforce the Western Cape as a global contender in terms of business travel.

This is according to joint CEOs, Glyn Taylor and Gary Koetser, who welcomed PCOs during a “hard hat launch” in June to familiarise them with what the product will look like once complete.

The conference centre will form part of a R1bn mixed-use development by Rabie Property Group, which will also include the 125-room Century City Hotel. The Century City Square, which is between the two, will offer restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

The conference centre will have a total capacity for 1 900 guests across 20 venues. These include four large halls, three of which can be combined, a ballroom, an open-plan foyer for exhibitions and launches, 12 meeting rooms, an 80-seat business lounge and an outdoor event venue of 1 200sqm.

Taylor and Koetser say they have tried to incorporate all the meeting planner feedback they have received over the years into the centre’s internal designs. A few examples include attention to the acoustic treatment of venues, ceiling heights, kitchen size, back-of-house accessibility, event planner storerooms, PCO offices, complimentary water machines, furniture storerooms, parking, furniture with device-charging points and weather pattern inference.

Koetser says that while the centre is just bricks and mortar, their focus will be on ensuring the delivery of “exceptional service, flexibility and staff who will never say no to a request”. He adds: “We have created a solid foundation on which anything can be built. Our only constraints are the internal walls, which determine capacities, however, as this is a billion rand of private equity and stake, we need to be entrepreneurial in our decision-making to ensure we remain competitive. These days, in our opinions, the only recession-proof qualities are flexibility and relationships.”

While Taylor and Koetser stressed that the local market would be the key focus for the Conference Centre in particular, the rest of the precinct did have capacity to service various target markets, particularly in terms of the increased hospitality offerings that would be coming online with the centre.

One of the key concerns raised with regard to the location of the new conference centre is traffic, especially in the morning and afternoon peak periods. Chris Blackshaw, CEO of the Century City Property Owners’ Association, says extensive measures are being taken to improve traffic flows. “Rabie Property Group has committed to additional infrastructure upgrade projects that should significantly improve the traffic capacity and flow, particularly on Sable Road, and more than mitigate the extra traffic expected from additional projects coming on stream,” he says. A total of R22,5m has been committed for the road upgrades.