Dr Jerry Schwartz’s new conference and events centre in the Hunter Valley has broken ground and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014.
The Hunter Valley Conference and Events Centre will have the capacity for up to 1000 delegates, and will provide the largest and most comprehensive conference and exhibition facilities in the Hunter Valley.
Built overlooking garden spaces within Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, the centre has a combined 2,012 square metres of pre-function, meeting, exhibition and convention space; each with their own separate access, spaces and natural light.
The Centre will comprise three conference rooms ranging from 380sqm – 400sqm that can be used as one ballroom for up to 1000 people or a mix of rooms with flexible acoustic folding walls. All conference rooms open onto a glass roofed gallery that gives a distinct feel for its Hunter Valley location.
The Hunter Valley Conference and Events Centre is being developed by the Schwartz Family Company (SFC) at a cost of over $4 million on a site adjacent to the SFC’s Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley. The development of the state-of-the-art centre is part of a more extensive upgrading and expansion of the facilities offered at the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, designed to provide a comprehensive one-stop-shot venue for conference and event organisers targeting the Hunter Valley.
The Conference and Events Centre is being developed next to the Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley, which offers extensive accommodation options for delegates – 150 hotel rooms and 169 two and three bedroom villas – an 18-hole golf course, resort pool and gym, spa, restaurants, bars and micro-brewery and kid’s club.
Schwartz said that the new centre would provide the largest conference facilities north of the Sydney CBD and would make the Hunter Valley a more attractive option for interstate and international conference groups and event organisers.
“The Hunter Valley has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its wines, and with its easy access to Sydney, we believe that we can establish the complex as one of the most dynamic conference and incentive venues in New South Wales,” he said.
“With our extensive range of accommodation styles and leisure facilities we will be able to target a diverse client base – from weekend conferences with families to high-level business conferences, think-tanks and major incentives.
“In particular, we believe we can attract greater international conference business into the Hunter Valley, building on the renown of the wines by offering the highest quality conference and event facilities,” he said.
Dr Schwartz said that he had negotiated with Lend Lease and the NSW government to relocate some of the architectural parts of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour, which is currently being demolished, to the Hunter Valley development, thereby promoting recycling and environmental sustainability.