Our Story
Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool is an architecturally stunning landmark, the centrepiece of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture status in 2008. Built to the highest environmental standards, it sits astride the Kings Waterfront on the banks of the river Mersey at Kings Dock, adjacent to the Albert Dock and the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
ACC Liverpool cost £164 million to build and forms part of a long-term plan to regenerate Liverpool city centre and waterfront, raising both its economic output and national and international profile. A range of partners, namely English Partnerships (now the Homes and Communities Agency or HCA), the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Liverpool City Council and the European Regional Development Fund provided funding for its development.
Context
Over the past twenty years, Liverpool has come from the depths of economic, political and fiscal crisis to celebrate its 800th birthday in 2007 and European Capital of Culture in 2008.
In 1999, Liverpool Vision became the country’s first urban regeneration company. Set up by Liverpool City Council, English Partnerships and the NWDA, Vision’s 2000 Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) created a Masterplan to guide the redevelopment of Liverpool city centre; its aims included creating a competitive economy, a world class tourist destination and improving the city’s image.
The entire programme was estimated to cost around £2 billion over 15 years. Since it began, the comprehensive regeneration of Liverpool city centre (known as the ‘Big Dig’) has achieved double this amount of regeneration and development in half the time originally envisioned.
Kings Dock is part of Liverpool’s south docks system, which became redundant in 1972. The SRF identified Kings Dock as a potential site for a world-class leisure and entertainment facility, enhancing the waterfront and reconnecting it with the city centre. A team of architects, planners, engineers and other specialists was assembled; public exhibitions and workshops helped refine the plan and a planning application was submitted in June and approved in December 2004.
In early 2005 funding approval was confirmed and contractors appointed. June 2005 saw the start of infrastructure works and the main contract began in October of that year. The total cost of the completed project – including the piazza, multi-storey car park and site infrastructure – is approximately £164m.
Liverpool Vision managed the project to design and build the arena and convention centre and coordinated input from the project partners; Liverpool City Council was the accountable body for European Objective 1 funding and contributed £17m of its own investment; English Partnerships – which owned the Kings Dock site – contributed £70m; the Northwest Regional Development Agency contributed £17m, and the Government Office Northwest managed £55 million of investment through the European Objective One Programme.
From blueprint to building site
Even in the earliest stages the significance of the Kings Dock site and its proximity to the World Heritage Site was not to be underestimated. A low level build was demanded to maintain the picturesque frame of the Liverpool waterfront, including Pier Head’s Three Graces and the city’s two cathedrals. Award-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre interpreted a sensitive maritime theme in their plans, with the finished structure designed to look like a butterfly landing on the water.
Contractors completed a design-build contract, led by Project Director Robert McGuire and construction consultants Davis Langdon. A range of industry specialists were brought in to make sure that every aspect of the design combined ACC Liverpool’s trademark features of state-of-the-art technology and cutting-edge design. Experts included sports consultants Sports Concepts, theatre experts Theatre Projects, landscape architect Gustafson Porter, lighting specialist Spiers and Major, structural engineer Buro Happold, M&E Engineer Faber Maunsell and an acoustics team from Sandy Brown Associates.
Completion to the opening ceremony
On its completion, and under the terms of the agreements between the funding partners, ownership of the ACC Liverpool facilities passed to Liverpool City Council (LCC). In accordance with the funding agreements, LCC formed ACC Liverpool Ltd, the management company set up to run the venue on the council’s behalf. ACC Liverpool currently directly employs 120 people. When service partner staff are taken into account, staff numbers swell to between 300 and 500 during events.
ACC Liverpool burst into life with the Opening Ceremony for Capital of Culture Year on 12 January 2008. In its first year alone, more than 665,000 visitors headed for more than 200 events at ACC Liverpool, generating £200 million for the local economy and £30 million of positive global media coverage.
Awards to date
ACC Liverpool enjoyed an action-packed first year with a string of awards and accolades, including the prestigious ‘Best Venue’ award for the BT Convention Centre for 2008 and 2009, Exhibition News’ ‘Most Effective Team’ award for 2009, plus Healthy Stadia accreditation, a BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) rating of ‘very good’, Green Apple awards for both the building and for service partner ISS’s cleaning and waste services, and a gold award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme.
In 2010, the venue achieved ISO 14001 accreditation – the international standard on environmental management. In the same year, ACC Liverpool won the Excellence in Business Tourism and Sustainable Tourism categories at the NWDA awards. The Echo Arena scooped Performance Venue of the year at The Mersey Partnership awards in 2010. The BT Convention Centre won the coveted ‘Best Event Team’ awards at the Eventia Awards in 2010 and were awarded gold in C&IT’s Hotlist awards for ‘Best Sustainable Venue’ 2010, and 'In-house AV Team of the Year’ at the Professional Av awards in 2011.
Since opening, ACC Liverpool has contributed £500 million to the local economy. To date, Echo Arena has welcomed 2,252,369 visitors and held 477 events. Arena highlights for 2011 included Usher, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Peter Kay, John Bishop and Paul McCartney.
BT Convention Centre has welcomed 280,784 visitors since opening and held 503 events. High-profile events in 2011 included the Labour Party Annual Conference, held in September, which attracted 11,000 delegates. Other major events on the conference calendar included the Royal College of Nurses and the National Cancer Research Institute.
The senior management team is comprised of Chief Executive Bob Prattey, Director of Finance Gerald Andrews, Commercial Director Tim Banfield, Project Director Exhibition and Event Facilities Phil Pickett, Sales Director Kerrin MacPhie, Head of Events Tom Lechthaler, Head of Marketing Michelle Kemp and Director of Operations Kerry Quinn. David McDonnell, former Global Chief Executive at Grant Thornton International, was appointed as the new chair of Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool in March 2010.
Timeline to Opening
| 2000 | SRF identifies site for a world-class leisure facility |
| April 2003 | The Everton FC stadium scheme is abandoned |
| 2003/2004 | Masterplan commissioned and consulted upon |
| June 2004 | Planning application submitted |
| December 2004 | Planning approval agreed |
| Early 2005 | Funding approved, contractors appointed |
| June 2005 | Infrastructure works begin |
| October 2005 | Main contract begins |
| January 2008 | Echo Arena opens |
| April 2008 | BT Convention Centre opens |