Phone +1 902-421-8686 | Province Nova Scotia | |
Address 1800 Argyle St, Halifax, NS B3J 3N8, Canada Similar Scotiabank Centre, Citadel Hill, Nova Scotia Sport Hall, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Grand Parade | ||
The World Trade and Convention Centre (WTCC) is a convention centre and office complex in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is adjacent to the Scotiabank Centre. The facility has 30,000 square feet of meeting space and a 20,000 square foot ballroom.
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Its connection to the Downtown Halifax Link attaches it to over 1,000 four-diamond guest rooms (within the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, the Delta Barrington, Prince George Hotel, the Delta Halifax) with an additional 1,400 hotel rooms in the greater city core, and shopping, dining and entertainment options.
The WTCC has been the premier conference facility in the region since it opened in 1984. The facility is run by Trade Centre Limited, a provincial Crown corporation, and owned by the Province of Nova Scotia.
The convention centre is home to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and is located below an office tower housing several provincial departments and Crown corporations, including Nova Scotia Business Inc.
History
The WTCC was championed by then-Premier John Buchanan who boasted to reporters in 1981 that the new facility would serve as a scaled-down version of the famous World Trade Center in New York City, eventually becoming the economic and business capital of Atlantic Canada. An opening ceremony was held on 24 February 1985, for 1,200 invited guests.
Buchanan stated at the time that the centre would generate revenue in "the near future", but the WTCC and Trade Centre Limited have routinely operated at a deficit over the years.
Future
The convention centre operator has stated that the current facility is insufficiently sized to accommodate demand for larger scale conventions, citing the lack of a dedicated exhibition room and the larger size of comparable facilities elsewhere in the country. In 2008, Trade Centre Limited and the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal issued an expression of interest for an expanded facility. As a result, TCL is working with a private developer, Rank Inc., to develop a new convention facility.
The new Halifax Convention Centre is under construction within the nearby Nova Centre and is scheduled to open in 2017.
In March 2016 the province announced the signing of a 25-year agreement with the developers of the Nova Centre. The WTCC will hence be offered up for sale to private interests for $13.5 million.