Messe Düsseldorf holds topping-out ceremony for New Southern Section

Messe Düsseldorf has reached the halfway point in one of the most ambitious construction projects in its history

The traditional topping-out speech was given by the construction managers, Thomas Schulte and Holger Meyer from Osnabrücker Köster GmbH, from the building site of the New Southern Section on Friday, 14 September 2018.

The project, which will be completed by autumn 2019, includes the new multifunctional Hall 1 with meeting rooms, the glass-enclosed new South Entrance with a translucent illuminated canopy and an adjacent underground car park. Hall 1 will be 12,027 sqm in size, offering space for up to 10,000 people. In addition, the first floor will have six glass-enclosed meeting rooms, each with 200 sqm and space for 198 people. One of these rooms will protrude into the foyer of the new South Entrance, which will provide 2,112 sqm of event space. In front of it, 20 metres high and covering 7,800 sqm, there will be a canopy over a plaza with taxi ranks, public transport connections and an entrance to the new underground car park. This forecourt will also be suitable for events. "The building complex will increase the international attractiveness of Messe Düsseldorf even further and will strengthen its function as a meeting point for a wide range of industries," says Werner M. Dornscheidt, President and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf. "This will put us in the best possible position."

The building project also includes a major facelift for the Congress Center Düsseldorf (CCD), which is directly connected with Hall 1, and its audience capacity will be boosted to 16,000 persons. The Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf and Supervisory Board Chairman of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, Thomas Geisel, emphasises the benefits for Düsseldorf: "This is not only a step forward for Messe Düsseldorf and the Congress Center, but also for the City of Düsseldorf. After all, international customers of trade fairs and conventions spend more than one billion euros a year in the city, provide security for over 16,600 jobs and book nearly one third of all overnight stays there. All this provides annual tax revenue of more than 36 million euros. The New Southern Section will help to secure and increase this success."

The new building will also give the City of Düsseldorf an additional architectural highlight. It will be the new face of the exhibition centre towards the city and also the northern endpoint of the city's silhouette from the river Rhine. 

In all, Messe Düsseldorf is investing 650 million euros in the implementation of its masterplan. The New Southern Section alone is costing 140 million euros. Moreover, Dornscheidt emphasises that they are "doing all this without subsidies". It means that Messe Düsseldorf will be ideally prepared for the future.