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’s 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 celebrating 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.

Led by, Project Director, Robert McGuire and Davis Langdon, contractors completed a design-build contract.  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. The senior management team comprises Bob Prattey as Chief Executive, Gerald Andrews as Director of Finance with Jacquie Rogers, Tim Banfield and Phil Pickett as General Mangers of the BT Convention Centre, Echo Arena and Operations respectively. ACC Liverpool currently directly employs 114 people.  When service partner staff are taken into account, staff numbers swell to between 300 and 400 staff 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, an award from Confex for ‘Best CSR Initiative’, 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, a gold award from the Working towards Green Tourism Business Scheme and shortlistings for both sustainable procurement and environmental leadership at the Northwest Business Environment Awards.

Highlights of the first year include centrepiece events in every field; a TV audience of millions saw the MTV Europe Music Awards broadcast from the Echo Arena, BBC Sports Personality of the Year – part of the British sporting fabric – also broadcast live from the arena. Musicians and performers from Westlife and Diana Ross to Bob Dylan arrived in the city; politicians including the Liberal Democrats – who held their Spring conference at the BT Convention Centre – and the prime minister (who visited twice) and a royal visit from the Queen all heralded the sense that times were changing in the city.

Timeline

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