A new pavilion will be built at the exhibition grounds in Brno next year

Brno - A new pavilion P will begin construction at the Brno Exhibition Center in the middle of the year for 800 million crowns. The hall, larger than two football fields, will add over 10,000 square meters to the existing exhibition area and is expected to generate a turnover of over 1.5 billion crowns over the next 12 years. Veletrhy Brno aims to attract more exhibitors with the modern exhibition space and retain the current ones, as some venues do not meet their requirements, said Jiří Škrla, the company's general director, to journalists today.
According to Škrla, the exhibition center already has enough space, but not all of it is of the necessary quality. Pavilion P, which is to be completed in the middle of 2009, will primarily support large events such as the International Engineering Fair, construction fairs, and the Car Salon and Autotec. "We were losing millions of crowns there; our capacity did not meet the demand," the director explained. The fairs plan to change the exhibition calendar from 2010 onwards thanks to the new hall. Some events are expected to grow, while others the company wants to better combine to better meet the needs of visitors and exhibitors.
Until now, this has not been possible, as some halls no longer meet the companies' requirements. They are built in several floors, while exhibitors today are mainly interested in ground-level spaces; hardly anyone wants the balconies, Škrla explained.
The hall, primarily made of steel and glass clad in sheet metal, will be built next to the round Pavilion Z, replacing three outdated smaller pavilions. It will be larger and more expensive than the neighboring newest pavilions F and V, which together cost about 740 million crowns. The newer ones in the complex include G1 and G2, costing 400 million.
Pavilion P will cost 600 million, with another 200 million earmarked by Veletrhy for preparatory work and further modifications. Just under a quarter, 175 million, will be paid by the major shareholders Messe Düsseldorf and the city of Brno, while the company will take a loan for the remainder. The return on investment is estimated to take several years. "If the new pavilion were not built, we would lose about 1.56 billion in turnover from 2009 to 2020," Škrla noted.