New Westminster is hoping to take a bite out of the region’s conference market with Anvil Centre.
Vali Marling, general manager of Anvil Centre, said catering is a critical component of the facility, and the city wants to ensure its catering competes with the exclusive downtown Vancouver event menus.
“We want unique menus. We don’t want the standard chicken dinners,” she said. “We want something that is really unique and something that really represents the City of New Westminster, and again is on par with exclusive meeting venues.”
A “boutique” conference facility, Marling said Anvil Centre will cater to conferences of 350 to 450 delegates and large meetings of 100 to 450 guest, as well as banquets and weddings.
Marling said Anvil Centre is well into booking for this year, and is also booking dates for 2015 and 2016.
According to Marling, current bookings include nine conferences, 10 meetings, 10 banquets/weddings, five theatre productions/events and five civic events. Staff is also working on an additional 43 possible events for the facility.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the response to the Anvil Centre from the conference and meeting industry,” she said. “We are very excited about it.”
In addition to convention facilities, Anvil Centre will include a gallery, a theatre, the New Westminster Museum and Archives, studio space and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. A restaurant and a coffee shop will also be located in the facility, currently under construction at Columbia and Eighth streets.
The City of New Westminster is projecting revenues of $2.3 million in its first full year of operation in 2015, and again in 2016.
“That is total revenue, including events, catering, rental, staffing, parking, etc. for the venue,” Marling said. “We are projecting that again for 2016. At this point, to increase revenues we need to look at having more hotel room space.”
Marling said Anvil Centre will be focusing on Metro Vancouver events that are one to three days in duration.
Coun. Jonathan Cote said it’s great to see that the city is already getting so much interest and bookings for Anvil Centre. He questioned whether there’s room for growth at the conference centre without new hotel space in the downtown.
“I think there is room for limited growth without a hotel,” Marling said. “I think a hotel in the conference industry is definitely something that you need to have in place. To establish Anvil Centre, the conference piece, I think the way we are doing it with fewer hotel rooms is really a good thing. It will establish ourselves. We are taking the time to ensure we have the proper services in place, and our catering is in place. The catering is key to the conference industry.”
