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Checking out the Porters' Lounge at the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday are (from left) DVML event co-ordinators Nicole Wood and Tania Summers, event manager Ruth MacKenzie-White and sales executive Kate Rollo. Photo by Craig Baxter. |
It's all aboard for the city's latest conference venue, after
confirmation space at the Dunedin Railway Station will become
available for hire.
The station's Porters' Lounge becomes the 41st room for hire
to be managed by Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML), which
will lease the venue from the Dunedin City Council for two
years.
Previously used as a restaurant, the lounge is being
refurbished before it becomes available as a private
function, meeting and conference space, from March 1.
Interest in the space was already high, and one event at the
venue was set to be confirmed for iD Dunedin Fashion Week,
DVML event manager Ruth MacKenzie-White said yesterday.
The venue was ideally suited to weddings and cocktail
functions, and could host about 120 people, she said.
DVML chief executive Darren Burden said the railway station
was a ''high-profile space'', and the lounge joined the 30
rooms at Forsyth Barr Stadium and 10 at the Dunedin Centre
available for hire.
Bree Jones, of Tourism Dunedin, said the regional tourism
organisation frequently fielded requests for space in the
building.
''When we have business looking at Dunedin as a potential
destination or confirmed business, the first question in
regards to a venue is: `Is there a venue in the railway
station?'.''
She envisaged the conference and incentive market would also
be able to use the services of the Taieri Gorge Railway.
''It gives them the opportunity for some extra business.''
She downplayed any suggestion the city had too many
conference venues, as the railway station offered a point of
difference, she said.
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