The Koh Pich Convention and Exhibition Centre, home to scores of Cambodian weddings each week, will be relocated to the Chroy Changvar Peninsula, clearing the way for fresh development at the valuable 6-hectare site.

Touch Samnang, a project manager at the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corperation, said the popular venue would move in late 2018 or 2019 to a “much bigger” and “more modern” building at the company’s development project across the river.

“Because on Koh Pich, it is busy and there are traffic jams, therefore we move the building and open it on Chroy Changvar,” Samnang said, adding the new venue was already under construction.

Asked what was in store for the Koh Pich site, constructed in 2009 to the tune of more than $4 million, Samnang said he was busy, and asked reporters to call back later.

The plans were also discussed by OCIC chief executive officer Pung Kheav Se in local media, where he also pinned the move on traffic issues.

Thida Ann, deputy director of real estate firm CBRE Cambodia, said OCIC was likely moving to capitalise on rising property values on Koh Pich, which she pegged at between $3,000 and $4,000 per square metre.

“I heard about [these plans] but was not sure exactly what they want to do on the site yet,” Ann said. “Because that area has increased in price recently, I think . . . they want to do something more than just a convention centre.”