237 million investment from Fondazione Fiera Milano

A 237 million investment plan over three years, 56.6 million more than the previously approved plan. In the year of its 25th anniversary, Fondazione Fiera wants to give "a strong signal of our will to look towards the future, to build it and not wait for it," explains the president of Fondazione, Giovanni Bozzetti. "Building the future of both the trade fair system and the territory, because of the interconnections that exist between them: the more we enhance the territory, the more we enhance the trade fair and the trade fair events and vice versa," he adds. A correlation also highlighted by the presence, at the presentation of the plan, of the president of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, and the president of the Milan City Council, Elena Buscemi.

In detail, 114 million euro will be earmarked for the development of the multifunctional centre that will be leased to RAI for its production activities; another 69 million will be used to complete the hotel in viale Scarampo, which is already under construction (39 million out of a total of 66 over the three-year period), and to build one inside the Rho-Pero service centre. "We need to interconnect business, hospitality and high-level services," Bozzetti points out.

The president also announces two innovations, included in the plan, that specifically concern the Milan exhibition centre, for a total of 20 million euros. The first is the creation of the Live Dome at Fiera Milano, i.e. the space at the Rho exhibition centre created by unifying pavilions 13-15 and 22-24 and destined to host ice skating and ice hockey competitions during the 2026 Winter Olympics, which required an investment of 25 million euro. At the end of the Games, with a further investment of 12 million, this space will be converted into the largest indoor venue for events (concerts, conferences, sports competitions) in the whole of Europe, capable of accommodating up to 45,000 standing persons.

"This will allow Fiera, the city of Milan, Lombardy, but also our country to enter the circuit of major international indoor events, a sector in which we were absent until now," says Bozzetti. A business opportunity not only for the trade fair group, but also for the territory: "A research by our study centre estimates that the economic impact of the Live Dome on the territory, once fully operational, will be 888 million euro per year, with an increase in the value of Fiera's real estate assets of over 120 million and with the activation of 9 thousand jobs, 84% of which in the metropolitan area".

The second novelty is the Fiera Milano Lab, an 8 million euro investment, which envisages the rationalisation of two 'biplanar' (two-storey) pavilions, to be dedicated to events that combine a convention proposal with exhibition spaces, a fast-growing market segment that, according to the study centre's estimates, when fully operational will generate an impact on the territory of up to 240 million euro per year. That, combined with the impact of the Live Dome, means over one billion euros of economic benefit each year.