Thirty unsolicited developers and investors have presented proposals and documents to the Ghana International Trade Fair Company for rehabilitation and redevelopment of the facility.

The new Master Plan for the 175-acre facility which had been approved by the Trade Fair Board, since June this year, was designed by the British-Ghanaian Architect, Sir David Adjaye.

CEO of Trade Fair, Dr. Agnes Adu told the Goldstreet Business that most of the companies are Ghanaian, while some are entirely foreign-owned, with the rest being subsidiaries of companies in other countries in the sub-region.

“We have companies from Romania, South Africa, Kenya, India, China and the U.S.A comprising a mix of entities, some of who are contactors seeking to do the actual work, others are developers who would engage the contractors and the rest being prospective financiers. We hope to attract more entities when we officially open the bid,” Dr. Adu said.

Trade Fair has set the end of the third quarter, September, to engage the 30 companies to ascertain which category of the project they have an interest in.

Official request for proposals through the Public Procurement Authority, will be announced within the last quarter to officially select various entities after the necessary due diligence.

Instructively, Trade Fair has since July 10, 2018, issued a six-month advance quit notice to all tenants in the facility with the necessary compensations, for the redevelopment exercise to start in January 2019.

Hesitating to mention the overall cost of the project, Dr. Adu said it definitely runs into billions of dollars, adding “the first phase will comprise five thematic areas; an ultra-modern convention centre of 5,000 capacity with exhibition pavilions as our core mandate, brand hotels, retail enclave, theme parks and a technology enclave.”

The second phase, she noted, will comprise a medium scale residential area with apartments targeted at the middle class.

“We are not going to award the entire contract to a single developer because we are looking at the cost involved to avoid a pitfall. We have decided to put our own project management team together so that the individual projects will have their specific bids and estimates,” she explained.

As part of creating extra publicity for the project, Trade Fair will use the upcoming 2018 Grand Sales on September 27-October 8, 2018, to further deepen its commitment of promoting trade exhibitions, fairs and conventions.