News

By Brian Kelly

The U.S.-based operator of the new Amador Convention Center is ramping up to book conventions for 2019 when the ground-breaking facility is expected to start fulltime operations.

SMG, which will manage the facility, expects to book 100 hundred events in the first year, which will help establish the center as a key business and cultural facility in Panama City, according to coverage in El Capital Financiero. The center will also create a major driver for the property market, especially short-term rentals in Naos Harbour Island, one of the few resorts in the country where short-term rentals are allowed.

The facility will be the largest convention center in Panama, with 35,000 square meters of rentable space and room for 20,000 people. Fifteen organizations from Spain, Germany, and Russia have expressed an interest in booking space between 2019 and 2022 in the center, the paper report.

Primary work is expected to be completed on the center by the end of the year, but there will likely be a “soft opening” before a more formal “grand opening” in 2019, convention center administrator Rodolfo del Valle told El Capital Financiero. The initial events will likely be regional and national conventions, before ramping up to international events, he said.

Image Source: Telemetro