Lothian Leisure Development (LLD), a UK-based entertainment, leisure and sports venue consultancy, has announced a partnership with NEC Group to deliver a new privately funded 8,000-capacity indoor arena for Scotland’s capital.
A site for the arena has been secured at Straiton, just outside Edinburgh city centre, with plans to transform the 30-acre site into a vibrant mixed-use leisure and entertainment destination.
Together with the 8,000-capacity venue, proposals for the wider development includes conference, retail and leisure space, a cinema and two hotels.
NEC Group, which already operates two indoor arenas in Birmingham, is supporting LLD to progress the scheme proposals to full feasibility stage, taking on full management of the arena including event programming, hospitality, commercial rights, catering and ticketing once planning permissions are in place.
“These exciting proposals showcase the modern, indoor arena that Edinburgh deserves, and with operating partner NEC on board the capital is assured a pipeline of the world’s greatest entertainment talent,” said Dave Fowler, business development director at LLD. “We also look forward to applying many of the other aspects of the hugely successful NEC campus to Edinburgh in due course. We see this as a revolution in entertainment provision for one of the world’s most cultural capitals – and one which will benefit all sections of the community.”
LLD is currently in discussion with several parties to secure funding for the development phase of the project. Over the coming months, LLD and the NEC Group will be working closely to progress the proposals to full scheme design stage and to carry out a series of public consultations.
“We host more than 700 events per year in the Birmingham area and have always planned to take our successful events model to new cities with the backing of our majority shareholder, Blackstone,” said Phil Mead, arenas and ticket factory chairman at NEC Group. “We are already looking forward to opening the redeveloped Bradford Live venue in 2021 and are delighted to now confirm our partnership with LLD, which will hopefully see us manage our first venue in Scotland. Edinburgh is well-known for its wonderful cultural offering but remains one of the only European capital cities without an indoor arena and so we’re excited by the thought of being able to bring some big names in entertainment to the region.”
The next key milestone for the project is expected to be a planning application by the end of 2020 and further details will be released in due course.
